Amber Asylum isn’t metal, but band leader Kris Force has been a longtime participant in the scene, while metal fans have gravitated toward her dark-ambient-folk group. Terrorizer named Amber Asylum’s last album, Still Point (Profound Lore), as one of their top 40 albums of 2007, and her project has consistently found a home on metal labels. I caught up with Force recently on the phone as she relaxed at home in Pacifica on a sleepy Saturday afternoon. And by the way, Amber Asylum plays their first show in a year and a half on April 19 at El Rio.
SFBG: What’s going on with this new release?
Kris Force: Grey Force Wakeford – it’s apocalyptic folk or postindustrial music, kind of like Death in June or David Tibet. I worked with Tony Wakeford [Death in June/Sol Invictus] – he’s in London – and Nick Grey is in Monaco. We did a lot of it remotely. I had been corresponding with Tony because I liked his music and reached out to him, and he asked me to do some string parts on something.
I found Nick through MySpace. I was really despairing one night and found his MySpace page. He didn’t have many friends. I played his music and totally loved it, and I wrote him an e-mail, and he was familiar with my work. I suggested we do a mail-art collaboration, and he sent me a fabulous track. Then it turned into five tracks. It turned out Nick and Tony had four. We decided to put them together and see what happens. I mixed it all and I think it seems cohesive. It’s come out on a French label called Athanor.