Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Kevin O’Laughlin (Vocals), Rory Smith Robinson (Guitars & Drums), Mike Dreher (Bass)

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Strychnia? How long has the band been around?

Back in 2008-2009, Kevin was doing vocals for the band “Slay The Weak”. Rory and Ryan were playing in band called “Serpentine Gates”. Strychnia was formed in 2008 by Ryan Donato (Ex-Drummer 2008-2011), and Rory (Current Guitarist & Drummer 2008-Present). Strychnia didn’t truly come to life until August 2009… This is when we formed our most consistent and successful line-up. The line-up consisted of - Kevin (Vocals), Rory (Guitar), Trevor (Guitar), Mike (Bass), and Ryan (Drums). We played with that line-up for about 2 years and recorded our debut album “The Anatomy of Execution” with that line-up. So all in all, we’ve gone through line-up changes since then, but we’ve been around for about 8 years.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

The band name has remained the same since the start. Our drummer Ryan came up with the idea and stuff. From what I recall I think he was learning about poisons in a chemistry class. Strychnia is a poison, also known as ‘Strychnine’. I’m not sure but it may have been used during WW2. Either way, it’s just a poison. When I (Kevin) joined the band, they already had the name in place. We have never thought of changing it.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Currently Rory has written most of the new album, “Into The Catacombs” that we’re about to record starting February 22nd, 2016. He wrote all of the guitars, bass, and drums. He also contributed to some vocal patterns and lyrics. Rory had to program the drums because we currently don’t have a Drummer… it’s just been impossible to find someone good enough in our area - And they’re hard to come by anyways. Kevin filled in the rest of the vocal patterns and lyrics. We like to mix up the vocal patterns and lyrics, it gives the album a variety of style in a sense.

Almost all of our songs are revolved around evil, violence, and fictional madness. Our debut album “The Anatomy of Execution” was mostly songs about different methods of execution or killing. We just love the blood and gore haha. Our EP, “Reanimated Monstrosity” was a bit different though. There were only two songs that had killing and violence really. I would say three, but the self-titled track, although angry, is really about rising above and overcoming obstacles in life. Kevin just decided to throw a metal twist on it and basically metaphorically relate it to a monster emerging and destroying everything. For the new album, there’s still songs about violence and evil but some are a bit different. Some of them deal with greek mythology and/or historical events. In the future we may move towards writing lyrics that people can relate to and get involved with… but for now we just really enjoy writing about evil stuff haha.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Cannibal Corpse, Thy Art Is Murder, Born of Osiris, Whitechapel, Exodus, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Slayer, Dying Fetus, Suffocation, and many more.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Personally, my friend turned on Bring Me The Horizon while we were driving and I was amazed by the vocals… I was like holy fucking shit how does he do that. That’s what made me wanna learn how to scream. I just thought it was so fucking cool and sounded awesome. It was really Mitch Lucker and Suicide Silence though that got me into the whole band thing. My friend showed me “The Cleansing” album and I was hooked. I learned how to scream by covering those songs. I was 16 years old and all I wanted to do was be able to stand on stage and scream like a fucking beast.

- (Kevin - Vocals)

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Kevin probably does the most warming up, he’ll go to his car and sing some songs (normal singing) and then he’ll come back and do some screams to warm up. We all like to jump around, do some push ups and shit. Try to get the blood flowing. Rory will do some scales, sweeps, get the hands and fingers warmed up - same with Mike.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

This one is easy for us… We got John Gallagher of Dying Fetus to throw down guest vocals on the self-titled track of our EP - Reanimated Monstrosity. Metal Sucks picked up the article, and even Dying Fetus themselves shared the song on their social media. We gained like 3,000 new fans that day alone lol. It was a really fucking surreal feeling. This was May 2013.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Right off the bat… Pantera. Those motherfuckers partied so hard it’s not even funny. I don’t know if we would even be able to survive a tour with them lmao. But they would be our first choice for sure. Second choice would probably be Thy Art Is Murder… Just because their awesome and they have Australian accents. And they call people cunts as if it’s a compliment. Love it.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Aggressive NJ Death Metal with a nice touch of Thrash. If anybody reading this hasn’t checked us out, do yourself a favor and head over to Bandcamp where you can stream both our album and EP for FREE. We’ve got a bunch of new merch, and we’re hitting the studio to record a new album in a few days!