** Interview conducted by Taylor
Questions answered by Kyle Howard

TAYLOR: I first came across Martriden with the self-titled e.p. on Candlelight records. It was completely bought on a whim, but it hooked me and I have bought every album. What first surprised me was after researching more about the band at that time was that Martriden was from Montana of all places. How is the metal scene in Montana?

MATRIDEN: There's quite a few metal fans and metal bands in Montana, however due to the lack of a large metropolitan area and the size of the state, the actual scene struggles to thrive. It's difficult for bands to book shows and expect a lot of people to show up. It's a difficult thing to try and be successful in a metal band in Montana.

TAYLOR: I believe Martriden has sound that has its roots noticeably in European black/death metal. Amidst the huge amount of metal out there in the U.S. that carries a different style than yours how do you thinks you fit in to your surroundings?

MARTRIDEN: Our influences are definitely European! I'm not really sure where we fit in with everything going on with metal in the U.S. ...we pretty much just write whatever we want. I don't think any of us have ever really pondered or worried about how we "fit" in. I suppose with a few of our songs we're waving the flag of the old, more traditional death metal and black metal...before everyone figured out how to do diminished sweeping arpeggios and decided to fill every death metal song they wrote with them. We love

solos, and huge heavy riffing...but we hope our songs hold people's interests more for the structure, musicality and overall feel we try to invoke with each song.

TAYLOR: Your current cd "Encounter The Monolith" came out in February of 2010. It was a strong move from "The Unsettling Dark" with the same intelligent songwriting. What is the process for the band in writing the music?

MARTRIDEN: For the first 2 albums, Unsettling and the Self-titled EP we pretty much used tabbing programs to write out 2 or 3 guitar lines for each song. Shane, Will and myself (Kyle) wrote our songs pretty much on our own. For Encounter and the music we're currently writing, we've become much more collaborative. We'll write a basis for the music then get together and record it together, and talk it over and try and understand what each other’s goals are for each song. It makes the songs feel much more cohesive as well as very grandiose...I think anyway. We always seem to put lyrics off till the bitter end, but that won't be the case in the future. I think we're still improving our methods, which is a good thing!

TAYLOR: My favorite attribute of Martriden that stands out for me as fan of the music is the guitars on all the albums. Between tone and riff structure I am really impressed.  What

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