Interview May 8, 2020

Athenar (Midnight)

Athenar is the Guitarist, Bassist, Drummer, Vocalist and Songwriter behind the Cleveland Heavy Metal one-man band Midnight. His sound draws on traditional Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash and first wave Black Metal. Think Venom meets Motorhead with some NWOBHM melodies thrown in here and there for good measure. Truly one of the best musical act playing this sound in the 21s century, they are also one of the best live bands around, giving consistently high energy performances, running and jumping around on the stage to perfectly accompany Midnight’s fist pumping, anthemic Heavy Metal music. Pick up a copy of the new album, Rebirth By Blasphemy on Metal Blade Records.

Can you name three albums that have been really important to you in your musical development?
First off would be VAN HALEN, 1984. That was one of the first records I heard that had distorted Rock guitar in there, rather than just Pop music on radio.

Of course, KISS Alive. Hearing that energy from the crowd. As a kid, not being able to go to concerts and hearing that, it felt like you were at a concert. Being a 10 year old or whatever and thinking “they’re probably smoking marijuana and there’s chicks showing their boobs everywhere! It’s gotta be great!”

Then I would say METALLICA, Kill ‘Em All. Hearing that and realize that the game has been pumped up. The energy levels and all that kind of stuff.

Those are just off the top of my head, as far as changing at a very early age, you know, pre-pubic region days. They led me down to certain row that I’ve been led down.

Can you remember the first time you really appreciated music?
Oh shit. That’s all I’ve had since I’ve heard it so yeah, it’s always been heavily appreciated. Once I heard music in general, everything else went to the wayside. I didn’t go out and party in high school or do any of the normal shit that people do. I was just locked up, trying to learn guitar and do that kind of shit.

How did your musical tastes evolve through high school and then later?
Well, it started out just hearing music in general, like radio music that was popular in the early 80’s. Then growing into what I said before, your standard Heavy Metal, DIO and VAN HALEN and JUDAS PRIEST and then getting into METALLICA and SLAYER. That was all through middle school. Then hearing a bit of AGNOSTIC FRONT and stuff like that in middle school, you just wanted everything faster and heavier…SODOM, HELLHAMMER, BATHORY…all that stuff throughout seventh to ninth grade. Then, by the time High School run around, maybe like ’89 or ’90, it only got to Extreme Metal, MORBID ANGEL and ENTOMBED, NAPALM DEATH but that was as far as I could go. Once everybody started getting more extreme and trying to copy every other band, it was just a bunch of bands sounding like every other band and I just lost interest in it and started to go back to stuff that I didn’t know. In 10th grade or so, getting into like MC5 and STOOGES and HAWKWIND and the VELVET UNDERGROUND, a lot of 60’s and 70’s Hard Rock. Just digging and there was plenty of stuff to dig. That kept me busy for a while.

There’s always old music to discover, as much as there is new music.
Yeah, that’s what it was. From then on, I’m still digging. Most of my musical taste pretty much stops at 1990.

So you skipped the whole Death Metal thing, except the early bands?
Yeah. Of course I love POSSESSED and that kind of stuff but like, AUTOPSY, I think, is as far as what people want to classify as traditional, modern Death Metal. I think it just doesn’t get better than Autopsy really. Not that there’s anything bad about the bands that came after, and they probably sound better today but you know, like DISMEMBER and CANNIBAL CORPSE…were what I thought was kind of lower tier, kind of copycats.

You’ve mentioned Kiss Alive, do you usually go for their live records?
No! That’s the odd thing, usually not. It’s kind of strange. It’s most people’s favorite album, like, “Oh man, it’s got all the tunes on there.” But for me, that was the first one I heard. It was in my uncle’s collection so that was the reason behind that. If he had Rock And Roll Over or Dressed To Kill, maybe that’s what it would have been but the record that he had was Alive. Usually, I don’t go for a live album. There’s good live albums, of course.

Which ones would be some of your favorite live albums, besides that Kiss one?
Since you just mentioned it, Space Ritual (HAWKWIND), that’s another one that’s like, you are there. It’s not just a collection of songs played live, that’s an experience. Say, UFO Strangers In The Night. That’s a good one. And JERRY LEE LEWIS, Live At Star Club, in 1964. That’s another one that you can just hear the pills that the band is playing on. You can see that they’re just popping speed like crazy! *Haha* The album is so fast and it gets faster and faster. The booze and pills that are taken with that band. It’s great.

What have you been listening to lately?
It’s kind of strange. I’ve been catching up on a lot of records over these past two weeks of not being able to leave the house. For the past two years, we’ve been on tour and buying records, buying records, buying records and then I can finally listen to them! I have this fuckin’ stack and then it’s kind of going through it. You know, playing cards at night and listening to records while playing. So nothing quite in particular. Nothing I’m gonna blow you away with. Kind of filler stuff, like the second DIAMOND RIO record. A CHASTAIN record here and there. Nothing completely over the top, I would say.

Do you mainly stay in the same style? Listening mostly to old school Rock and Metal?
That’s my go to. But yesterday, BILLY COBHAM, Inner Conflicts, a record from ’78, that one got jam time. There’s almost kind of futuristic sounds on that one. It’s something that could have been off the Terminator soundtrack or something. Even though it’s from ’78, it’s something you wouldn’t expect from Bill Cobham. So no, it’s all over the board.

What are some of the most memorable shows you’ve ever seen?
One of them is the first time I saw the MELVINS. That was probably ’89 or ’90. It’s an odd choice, I know. It was the first time they played Cleveland and I was already a fan, I liked them a lot. I didn’t know what to expect live and then when I saw them, I was like, “wow, these guys are just fucking dorks kinda.” There’s no real look to them. They didn’t look Metal, they didn’t have the tight Metal sound. They’re just very loud. Extremely loud and just heavy. That really stuck with me, how a band can be a three piece like that, play this small, tiny club in front of eight people and just go for it. I thought they were really good. It was something different at the time and maybe what I needed rather than see the standard Metal poses and not the normal in between song “How’s everybody doing tonight?” So yeah, that one stands out, as far as stuff that I saw when I was in high school. Something that kind of changed my way of thinking. But I mean, there’s tons of other shows. I would have to sit down and think about it.

Oh, seeing LITTLE RICHARD at a little small room at the Rock and Roll Hall fame was great. At the other end, there’s the big concerts too, JUDAS PRIEST, anytime you see a band like that, they know how to do it right.

Is there any classic or universally acclaimed artists that you missed out on and then you discover way later? Or maybe someone that you didn’t like at first and grow to love over time?
An embarrassing one would be the EAGLES! *Haha* I hated the Eagles my whole life. I hated it. I thought they were the most middle-of-the-road, worst band. The epitomy of the color brown. I couldn’t stand them, up until probably five years ago, I watched the documentary for some reason and then I got to thinking “these songs are good!” I don’t know what it was by watching it that made me an Eagles fan! That’s an embarrassing one, that I hate to say that I turned into an Eagles fan. “Goddamn, am I really at that mediocre now, when I turn this stage in my life and I like the Eagles?”

Another one would be FRANK ZAPPA. That’s someone that I should have always liked but I could never get it. I don’t know. I have a couple of records and I like it but it was too much for me to digest. I am a person that really likes to get every b-side, every record, this and that, so for Frank Zappa, it was just too hard to figure out where to start and where to stop. There’s so much shit so I didn’t know what to do with that at an early age so I never really jumped into it as much as I should have.

Is there either an album or a band you consider to be a hidden gem? Something you’ve been trying to convince people to get into?
A band that I was trying to turn people on to because you’ll see it in every dollar band is STARZ. It just looks like a typical late 70’s average Rock but they have four albums and they’re all great. It’s one of those bands where you can’t believe people are worrying about these $300- $400 records and trying to dig up the most obscure thing on YouTube just to prove how cool they are, when you got this 50 cent or dollar Starz record here that’s better than anything that will ever be. The lyrics and the songwriting itself is really good, for that era. That late 70’s Hard Rock, slightly Poppy, slightly Metal-ish sound. That’s a band that I was trying to turn people on to. Every time I see those records for a dollar, I buy them and give them away as gifts.