Big band update, Initium #1 digital comic, new exclusive EP, and latest artwork!
10 months ago – Mon, Jan 08, 2024 at 12:02:48 PM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

Cheers, everyone! We have some new music & comics for you this week, but first here's a video update from Nina & Josh on all things band & Queen of Hell related! 

The video covers everything, but it is quite long, so if you can't hang and have a drink with us for 30+ minutes, here's a quick rundown of what's going on! It's a lot!

•  Jesse's coming back! We'll have a bass player again. Huzzah! He'll be moving back to our area in July, and...
•  Jesse and his wife are having a baby! This will be the first and likely only Thunder-child! Could it be our future keytar player?!  HERE'S HIS BABY REGISTRY Any baby shower gifts are appreciated! There's a diaper fund at the very bottom of the list too! Metal!
•  It looks like we've got a drummer! We'll introduce you to Justin soon. For now let us just say he's super talented and supremely geeky like the rest of us, and we're already coming up with some great new song ideas with him! 
• We've posted armed guards around artist Mike Ratera's home to make sure he is drawing 24/7! Mike is going as fast as he can to wrap up the fourth and final issue of the Queen of Hell: Initium comic. The final pages of the series are quite intricate and time consuming, but Mike's work continues to be stellar! See some of his latest work below! 
•  We've just sent the digital version of Queen of Hell: Initium #1  as part of the Only One Can Rule Kickstarter digital bonus EP! Check the e-mail address associated with your Kickstarter account! 
•  We're now hoping to start shipping some physical rewards around April. Thank you for bearing with us. The comic book side of the project continues to be the main hold up. We know many of you are mainly here for the music, but our goal has always been to present the Queen of Hell music and comic together, so we thank you for indulging us and bearing with us! (The vinyl is not in yet either but that is out of our hands.)
• In addition to the two future chapters of Queen of Hell, we have started working on a bunch of new songs for our next album! 
• We were going to run a contest to name the letters column in the comic, but Josh thought of "Mail Queen of Hell" and honestly is anything going to top that? We don't think so. But you can message us if you want to try! 

That's it for this update! We hope this gives you all hope for the future of the band after Chris' retirement and all the recent roadblocks and twists of fate. Things are looking up! 

Be sure to check your e-mails for the digital copies of Queen of Hell: Initium #1 and the Only One Can Rule bonus EP! Let us know if you don't receive it or if you missed any of the previous bonus tracks. And be sure to check out the lastest artwork from the comic below!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse, and.....? 

The final bow! New track sent! Gig photos!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 12:35:13 PM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

Just a short update today but some important stuff!

The Final Bow

Our final shows with Chris are in the books! This marks the end of 13 great years with our drummer and co-founder Chris behind the kit and supplying his wonderful lyrics. Fortunately photographer Robert Escue was at Chris' big sendoff show to capture the final bow:

New Live Photos

We were blessed to have some wonderful photographers at each of our last three shows! We have uploaded a selection of our favorites here on the Photos page of our website: https://www.asoundofthunderband.com/photos

Black Blade Sent

Our cover of "Black Blade" was sent to all backers at the Queen's Guard level and above. Originally by Blue Öyster Cult, the track is based on Michael Moorcock's Elric saga and the titular character's demonic sword. If you have no idea what we're talking about, learn about it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9 

Special thanks to our D.M. "Mortuai" for sponsoring the recording of "Black Blade"!

Now Assembling Queen of Hell: Initium #1

You may remember that we were just waiting on the re-lettering of two pages in order to complete the first issue of Queen of Hell: Initium. Well guess what?! Those pages are in! Now we just need Nina to create the credits and letters pages, and assemble everything into one digital file. As soon as that's ready we'll send out digital copies of the comic and the first song to all backers who pledged for them! 

That's it for today, Legion! Thanks so much for bearing with us while we get this behemoth known as the Queen of Hell saga ready for your eyes and ears!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Chris

P.S.: Yes, Chris will still be hanging around to help out and autograph stuff from time to time! Just because he's not playing drums in the band anymore doesn't mean our blood pact isn't still in effect! 

Final Shows Announcement + Project Update
about 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 13, 2023 at 10:06:05 AM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

We have a major band update today. We'll write more after the video update from Josh:

CHRIS RETIRING - FINAL ASOT SHOWS OCT. 20TH & 21ST

Chris has decided to retire from the band. He turned 61 this year and is starting to move into the next phase of his life. We had hoped to keep him around to do a huge filmed farewell show next year, but it's just not going to work out that way.  We have no replacement lined up and have not determined if we will continue as ASoT or not. We haven't had a lineup change for 13 years and it's hard to imagine one now. Here are the final two shows:

•  Friday, October 20th @ Reclaim Arcade, Fredericksburg, VA - special extended ASoT set (no openers) plus unlimited vintage pinball and arcade game play is included with admission.
•  Saturday, October 21st @ Lovedraft's Brewing, Mechanicsburg, PA - The Reunion - A Shadow Woods Metalfest Gathering (50 minute ASoT set)

INSTRUMENTAL CDS IN STOCK

The Building the Dream instrumental CDs are just in from the factory! Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered. These will begin shipping out now. Please bare with us for a week or two while we get them out as there were a good number of pre-orders.  These were limited to 100 copies and there are about 50 copies unclaimed. More importantly there are only FIVE COPIES remaining of Vol. 1 Discovery. Grab yours here:  https://www.asoundofthunderband.com/store 

QUEEN OF HELL PROJECT UPDATE

• Chris' retirement will not affect the completion of the Queen of Hell project. 
• Queen's Guard level backers should have received the "Nature Trail to Hell" bonus track. Message us if you didn't receive it. 
• We're preparing to deliver the "Black Blade" bonus track now. Queen's Guard backers should have it by next week.
• We are waiting to receive updated lettering from the Queen of Hell: Initium #1 comic book. As soon as we have it we will send the first issue and song to all backers!
• Dusan Markovic's main cover for  the Queen of Hell: Initium #3 comic book is the last piece of artwork that we are waiting on to be able to fulfill all the unlocked rewards. We'll update you as soon as we have news on this front. 
• Interior artist Mike Ratera is still working away on Queen of Hell: Initium #4. He has just completed his rough pencils for page 6, included below. He has 20 pages left to do. He is supposed to be done by the end of December although we expect he will need more time. At this point we are leaning towards not holding the rewards delivery until he is finished. We will have to offer issue #4 later when it is ready. 

That's it for today, friends. Thanks so much for all of your support over the years! We hope to be melting your faces in some shape or form for many more years to come. Cross your fingers for us!

Cheers,

ASoT

Josh Injured, New Archive Release & Shirts, First Bonus Track Sent!
about 1 year ago – Tue, Sep 05, 2023 at 12:26:09 PM

HAIL, LEGION OF THUNDER!

We've got a big update today! For those who don't already know, Josh sustained a fairly serious back injury that put him totally out of commission for the last ~3 weeks.  This created a chain of events and lost income that we're trying to remedy with some new offerings on our store. Three brand new t-shirt styles and a new archive CD release are up on the band store today. Any purchases are greatly appreciated and will help us get through a difficult month!

Things are slowly getting back on track this week, and we've started by sending our Queen's Guard backers the first bonus track...our cover of "Nature Trail to Hell" by Weird Al! If you didn't back for a Queen's Guard package and want the track you can message us to upgrade. 

Nina shot a lovely up-nose video of Josh on the couch for today's update. We'll follow that up with the TL:DR bullet points and links as usual:

•  Josh ruptured disc in his spine, forcing us to cancel all of our shows in August and September, including Mad With Power Fest which would have been the largest audience we've ever played to in North America. We were all gutted to cancel these shows but the decision was unavoidable. 
•  We're in a financial crunch at the moment due to losing all of our performance fees and live merchandise sales for August and September. We've added some new items to the store to hopefully make up for some of the loss. We could definitely use your help once again Legion. The new shirts and Building the Dream CD are pretty great, so we think it's a win-win! 
•  A brand new archive release is available! Building the Dream, the second collection of Josh's instrumental demos from 2007-2008 is available on CD for the first time. We are only producing 100 copies of this album! There is also an Executive Producer option if you'd like to help fund the pressing and get your name on the packaging.  Run time: 45+ minutes. All songs are unreleased. CD packaging is designed to create a matching set with Volume 1 Discovery.  Clips are available here. (Note there are only seven copies remaining of the first collection, Discovery, on CD, so grab one of those too if you want one!)

•  Three new styles of t-shirt have been added to our store.These are all new styles and were going to be exclusive to Mad With Power and our other cancelled shows. 

•  "Nature Trail to Hell" has been sent to Queen's Guard level backers! These were sent to the e-mail addresses associated with backers' Kickstarter accounts.  Please check your spam folders if you don't see the e-mail. Message us if you have any trouble! 
•  Bonus tracks were for Queen's Guard backers only. If you don't see the download, please check your pledge to make sure you were supposed to get it. If you want to upgrade to a Queen's Guard package and get "Nature Trail..." just message us!
•  "Black Blade" coming later in September! We'll have this next bonus track to you in the coming weeks!
•  Queen of Hell: Initium #1 and first Initium song coming in October! Artist Mike Ratera has to revisit one lonely panel in issue #1 and update a character whose design changed after he had completed this issue. As soon as he is done we'll have the finished issue off to you all!
•  QoH letters column!  When we send you the advance copy of Queen of Hell: Initium #1 we're going to give you a chance to reply with letters for an old school comic book letters page which we'll include in the print edition of the book! 
• We'll also run a competition to see who can come up with the best name for the letters page, so start brainstorming now! 
•  Reclaim Arcade fan-show moved to October 20th! The date has been moved. Please mark your calendars for this special fan event with unlimited arcade gaming and an extended set!
•  Bowling Thunder make-up event! Since Josh may not be able to bowl for a long time, we're going to offer admission to the Reclaim Arcade event as a substitute. You'll get free admission to the show which includes unlimited gaming, and the band will set aside some time to hang with our Bowling Thunder backers before our set.
•  Queen of Hell: Initium #2 Markovic cover nearly complete! Dusan has notified us that he should have this cover complete in the next few days. We'll share it with you as soon as he's done!
•  Work resuming on Queen of Hell: Initium #4 artwork after summer hiatus.  Artist Mike Ratera owed his French publisher a completed art book for October release, so was forced to take July and August off from Queen of Hell. That's why we haven't previewed any new pages for you recently. He will be getting back to work on our project in the next few days and we should have more preview art for you soon! 
•  Vinyl records still in queue.  As usual with our releases, the vinyl manufacturing is the limiting factor as far as getting everything scheduled for release. Backups at vinyl plants continue to be insane, but our plant has never let us down so we're confident the finished product will be worth the wait!

OK, that was a lot, so we'll stop there for today!

Thanks again for your support and patience, Legion! You continue to be the most amazing fans on the planet!

Cheers,

Nina, Josh, Jesse & Chris