H13: Kurt Blackshard & Symon Strange – The Dead XIII

Written by Kurt Blackshard & Symon Strange
Wednesday, 21 October 2015 02:00

The Living Dead are coming from the Manchester Morgue once again as horror metal crew The Dead XIII lumber into Uber Rock’s 13 Days of Halloween. Their debut album, ‘Catacombs’, thrilled ‘n’ killed when it was released in August, and now the band’s Kurt Blackshard and Symon Strange aim for the head of UR’s infamous H13 interview questions…..

1.) What are your most vivid childhood memories of Halloween?

 

Finding the scariest costume we could and going trick or treating with the aim of scaring every single person we saw! Then watching horror films until we never wanted to sleep again! We just wanted everyday to be like that… Kind of is nowadays!

 

2.) Why do you think that the worlds of horror and metal/punk have always been so closely linked?

 

Metal & Punk have always been about strong emotions and fear and terror are some of the strongest. The genre of horror is also something people can be very passionate about, seemingly more so than other genres and the dark imagery can evoke strong feelings which makes it just go hand in hand with metal.

 

3.) Has there been a horror remake yet that has bettered the original movie?

 

That’s a hard one to answer! We’d probably say the remake of A Nightmare on Elm street (2010). It still has the same feel and vibe the classic film had on previous generations. The overwhelming fear of sleeping in case you see that striped jumper and hear the clink of his metal blades. Things naturally get scary when it’s dark and you’re sleep deprived!

 

4.) What’s the greatest ever horror movie kill?

 

There’s so many! When the lawyer in Thirteen Ghosts gets sliced in half by the doors, that’s pretty damn awesome! Or in Hellraiser when Frank gets torn apart by the chains!

 

5.) Who is the baddest ever horror movie villain…and why?

 

Either Mike Myers or Jason. Just because they’re not the fastest guys ever but you know they’re always there. And the masks! All the best villains are scarier because you can’t see their faces!

 

6.) Who is the greatest ever Scream Queen?

 

I think hands down it has to be Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie in Halloween. She has just become the quintessential scream queen and so many characters have been modelled on her since!

 

7.) Name your Top 5 favourite horror movies of all time…and tell us why!!

 

1.] Friday The 13th
2.] Halloween
3.] A Nightmare On Elm Street
4.] Dracula (1958)
5.] House On Haunted Hill (1959)

 

We lost so much sleep as kids due to these movies and that’s what a good horror movie should do. A lot of modern horror movies you’ve forgotten about a couple of hours later… or maybe that’s just because we’re not kids anymore, haha!

 

8.) What underrated horror movie would you recommend to our readers just in case they have never seen it?

 

Definitely Cube. It’s kinda like Saw but before Saw. It was awesome!

 

9.) What is your guilty pleasure, the trashy horror flick that you hold dear but everyone else runs away from?

 

Haha, that’s a tricky one, especially for Symon as he loves cheesy/old horror films. We’d probably go with something like Critters… Maybe Zombie Strippers, haha!

 

10.) What is the greatest ever horror movie poster?

 

Ah, this is where we differ. For Kurt it’s Friday the 13th classic movie poster that shows a silhouette of Jason with a forest, the cabin and characters inside. For Symon it’s the 1959 House On Haunted Hill poster with the skeleton hanging the woman in front of the house and Vincent Price with the candle.

 

11.) Have you ever had a ghostly supernatural experience?

 

Yeah, a few experiences of doors opening and closing, kettles turning on, etc. Unless somebody broke in the house for a midnight cuppa tea then left! Waking up in the night and swearing you can hear and see someone but blinking and it’s gone!

 

12.) What ‘star’ of the music world would you like to see slaughtered in gory horror movie style?

 

Justin Bieber said some pretty nasty stuff about our home town of Manchester. Could see him getting ripped apart by a swarm of zombie Mancunians, Dawn Of The Dead style.

 

13.) What are your plans for Halloween this year?

 

This year we are heading out on a Special Halloween Mini Headline Tour across the North of the UK and Scotland. We are going be playing our headline set with some added Halloween surprises. It’s going to be killer!

 

 

Get more info at: https://www.facebook.com/TheDeadXiii