ust another metal band? Hardly. War of Ages has been plugging along for years now, blowing the competition out of the water while maintaining a humbleness that seems to be quickly disappearing from the scene. If you look up “hard work” in the dictionary, you’ll see a picture of War of Ages. If you want to know who the (self-proclaimed) toughest metal band is right now, that’s War of Ages. I could go on with more praises and clichés, but I think I’ll just let you all decide for yourselves. Leroy Hamp and I stood in the midst of dust and soundchecks during a recent festival to hash out what War of Ages really is all about and what we can expect from them in the future. Hint: More brutality.
What sets you guys apart from other metal acts today?
Leroy Hamp: I don’t really know. We do what we do, we play what we play. What sets us apart from other metal acts is that we are a Christian metal band, but what sets us apart from other Christian metal bands? I don’t know. We are stronger. We’re probably the toughest metal band out there (laughs).
I would definitely agree with that. Speaking of tough, tell us a bit about recording with Tim Lambesis.
LH: It’s awesome. He’s very musically talented and very easy to work with. We trust what he’s saying as you need to in a producer. He’s got good input and we don’t always agree with what he wants and he doesn’t always want what we want but we find that happy medium. We roll well with him and we’re going to go with him for the next album. We love how he works. Daniel Castleman, his engineer, we love how he works and we feel a very strong connection with him. We love him.
I sat in on one of your Bible studies before a show in Vancouver awhile back. How long have you guys been doing this and how has it helped?
LH: We’ve been doing that awhile. We try to keep each other in check on the road and the one way we do that is through Bible study because we’re not able to attend church that often. Every day we’re in a new state you know, we don’t know the churches or whatever so we just keep trying to do it ourselves. Some weeks are better than other weeks. We’ll do it four or five times one week. Other times it’s once or twice a month, but we try to do it as much as possible and keep each other accountable.
You guys are known as one of the hardest working and touring bands out there. How long have you been consistently touring the country and can you give us your favorite story from the road?
LH: Every time I get this question I can never think of a hilarious story.
“There was one time we played a show in Seattle and this person came up to me and said they didn’t care if we were a Christian band or not and they weren’t a believer but the song “Heart of a Warrior” touched his life so much that it actually changed him as a person. That took me back to when I changed
my life.”
Or maybe like a time you saw God really working?
LH: We don’t see much God at our shows (laughs) just kidding. There was one time we played a show in Seattle and this person came up to me and said they didn’t care if we were a Christian band or not and they weren’t a believer but the song “Heart of a Warrior” touched his life so much that it actually changed him as a person. That took me back to when I changed my life. When I changed my life around I wasn’t a Christian, I could care less about God. That change happens slowly. That foundation was built very slowly and it wasn’t until I realized real joy that was God. That’s when God changed my life even though He had a hand in it from the beginning. But when that kid told me that I said I know man, I started out saying that I want to change MY life, not for any spiritual whatever, just for MY life.
When people attend a War of Ages show, what do you want them to come away with?
LH: Enlightened. Something different. I don’t necessarily mean that musically. Musically is awesome, thank you very much you know but at the same time if there was something that was said or wasn’t said then I hope that you can think on that. I crack a joke sometimes that maybe I should get on stage and rip up a Bible, I say that very loosely you know. But I was saying that to a couple of kids and out of the four kids that were standing there I asked them to name ten verses that they knew by heart, start naming them. Out of the four of them they gave me eight. Maybe if they weren’t put on the spot they could’ve given me ten but I asked them “You’re upset why? Because I ripped up a book that sits on your doorstep or couch or nightstand? Why do you have it?” You might as well rip it up or burn it if you’re not going to use it. It’s those very people that get pissed off at me for doing are the same people that can’t give me ten verses. I would never do it but at the same time I think what if I did? I’d have to explain myself I guess.
Can you explain a bit about the origins of your name?
LH: That’s a battle within yourself man. Every man and woman has that battle that they fight within themselves whether it’s with their looks, sexual addiction, drug abuse, suicide. That’s that war of ages and it changes for everyone on a daily basis. War of Ages, I don’t know if you know this, but we sing a lot about being warriors and fighting battles. It’s the same way in your personal life; you learn to fight, to roll with this. That’s pretty much what we’re about. You can say it until you’re blue in the face that you’re not a leader but we’re all called to be leaders, called to be disciples. We’re all born leaders in different ways.
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