Forever Never is a metal band with a difference from Essex , UK . Formed in 2004 from the ashes of established Essex metal bands, Forever Never set out to blend many different musical influences in order to create a sound of their own. Most notable is their experimentation around time signatures and the use of polymetrics. Forever Never write insanely heavy and complex music yet still maintain a very melodic edge. A sound that bridges the gap between ‘underground’ and ‘mainstream’ scenes; a sound that is both beautiful, and brutal.  With a new single, Empty Promises due to be released online this month John Consterdine caught up with the band to find out more:

So guys how’s it going?

Renny Carroll (Vocals): Really good, mega, first day of the tour really excited to be going places, doing more shows than we've done in a long time, we need to unleash the metal goodness on the live stage. 

Anywhere you’re looking forward to?

Renny: Tonight’s gonna be a good one.

George Lenox (Guitar): Wolverhampton, everywhere really.

Renny: Wolverhampton and London will be good, also looking forward to playing some places we haven't played before like Rio's in Leeds and Corporation in Sheffield, first time for both of those should be good to see what there like, but yeah every show is a goal. 

Do you think the tour with Breed 77 got you out there a bit more?

George: I think the tour before that (Stone Sour) had of an impact and you could see that on the Breed tour, especially here and Birmingham in particular, we sold shit loads of merch and loads of people were there for us as well as Breed.

Mike Row (Drums): There were people there in FN shirts waiting outside when we turned up.

George: Yeah when we turned up at Birmingham there were four people sitting outside.

Mike: At the front of the queue.

George: Waiting to get in at two in the afternoon one of them was wearing a Forever Never t-shirt.

Renny: At the front of the queue, eager beavers waiting to get in, nice!

George: Eager FN beavers.

Renny: But yeah the Breed tour was good.

Kev Yates (bass): The Breed tour was really good

Renny: They were good shows, good turn out and Breed 77 turned out to be really nice guys as well. 

It was a diverse bill, with you guys, Breed 77 and Lunarmile (featuring the daughter of Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi and the son on Judas Priest's Ian Hill)

Renny: Yeah it was.

George: I think it was good though.

Mike: Not as diverse as the Stone Sour tour.

Renny: Yeah with us and Flyleaf.

George: But all three bands seemed to fit and accompany each other, Lunarmile went down really well, we went down really well, and Breed 77 were headlining so they went down well too.

Renny: We thought Tony Iommi was gonna come to one of the gigs but he didn't which was a shame. I didn't think they would but you know...

Jack Mackrill (Guitar): They were out in the states doing Heaven and Hell.

Renny: Yeah that’s why they couldn't be there. 

How are the new demos coming along with the amazing working titles?

Renny: Wicked, really good. We just spent Monday to Friday in the studio doing three new songs, one of which, “Empty Promises”, is gonna be a single release in September. The plan is it’s gonna be an online type deal through an online distribution place. 

Then will the new album follow that?

Renny: We'll see how the single goes first, then the other two tracks will be on cover mounts of some magazines then we'll see how that goes.

George: We wanna have the album out as soon as possible, maybe in the few weeks leading up to Christmas like we did last time.

Renny: Yeah it'll be two years after recording the first one. It'll be nice to get a whole new album recorded before the end of the year.

George: We've definitely got enough material.

Renny: Yeah we'll just see how it goes between now and then i suppose.  

Is there anymore on this infamous cover version that has been talked about on the FN forums?

Renny: We've got a Whitesnake cover in the bag at the moment but we're really just throwing round ideas. Its not just a bog standard cover, I can't stand bands who do covers that sound exactly the same there’s no point, Its definitely in our own style, we’re keeping the song a secret, its not the one you think it might be.

Mike: Its not the two Whitesnake standards.

Renny: We'll see what happens; it may surface at some point.

Is it a really obscure Whitesnake track?

George: It’s not obscure; I think you've made it a lot easier for him.

[All Laugh]

George: Well we’ve eliminated...

Mike: Don't name the songs!

Renny: Anyway... Any Whitesnake buff might know the song but they still won't care anyway.

Mike: [Laughs] If they don't like Whitesnake they'll be like oh no fucking hell, who gives a shit 

Well it’s been said on the forums but there’s not been a real answer, what's your favourite flavour Monster Munch?

Renny: Oh.

Mike: Pickled Onion in it!

Jack: Pickled Onion mate!

Renny: Ah I hate it! I hate it!

Jack: He keeps people away for like a mile!

Mike: You eat pickled onion Monster Munch in the van and creep up to Renny.

George: Or you could just eat the flaming hot ones there the best flavour

Renny: No! No! I would never put one in my mouth but i don't mind the smell but if it got right up my nostrils it would make me throw up.

Mike: You know what you've done?

Renny: No?

Mike: Now all our fanbase will bring pickled onion Monster Munch to the shows and stand there when you come to the front of the stage with pickled onion monster munch open.

Renny: No that’s what you've just done by mentioning it. My favourite flavour has to be the beef ones, because no one else really likes them but you can only get them in a six pack with the other ones.

Mike: That’s because Walker's know that there everyone's favourite flavour.

Jack: As you can see you've asked a really sensitive question, its really struck a nerve.

[All laugh]

Renny: With music it’s whatever, but with Monster Munch its “Fucking hell i prefer this one!” 

So yeah, you've recently redesigned your website and forum

Renny: Thanks Ben.

George: Ben Watson, the man.

Renny: www.aceishigh.co.uk its a really good site, Ben did a blinding job, basically we can edit the site ourselves which is really handy so we don't have to keep going back to the web smart guy and ask can you do this can you do that.

George: I think it’s good as well because there are so many bands that only have a Myspace and think that everyone's on Myspace

Renny: Yeah a lot of people aren't on there, for people who don't use Myspace having your own official site is good and it’s really important. And we have our own little forum community going on there which is nice, yourself included

George: Even though we had to start from scratch with it.

Renny: We got rid of the old forums.

George: We completely started again and is already way more buzzing than the old forums.

Renny: Proboards was a disgusting board, the old board was horrible but yeah it’s good, we got some nice people on there, lovely lovely people. 

Any other tour plans this year then?

George: Headlining tour!

Renny: Hopefully we'll back up the “Empty Promises” single with our own headline tour.

George: Its gonna be good to see if the support slots have made much of a difference and if it’s better than last time.

Renny: Do actually come and see us as we will do a full set with some new material in there and [adopting an accent similar to a Del Boy like market trader] all ya favourites! After September we're not sure what we're gonna do yet. 

Will it be a full UK tour in "intimate" venues?

Renny: We're looking at between 15 and 20 shows and there going to be intimate definitely.

Mike: I was gonna say, is intimate the new word for shit hole? "It’s very intimate in here! Very!!

[All Laugh]

George: Well we'll play your back garden if you like.

Mike: If you've got beers in your fridge we'll do it.

Renny: That’s a good point if anyone does want us to come and play there front room we will do, as long as there’s a lot of beer. 

It could happen, the "Forever Never the back garden tour".

Renny: hmm the back garden tour.

Mike: It has been discussed, we have thought of it. It would be amazing we could have the house party tour; we'll come play your house party and then get trashed with you after. 

Well thanks a lot for your time guys.

Renny: No worries.

Mike: Cheers.

Jack: No, thank you!