Los Angeles' symphonic black metal masters SOTHIS - who BW&BK; bestowed Demo Of The Year honors upon in 2005 - has just released their debut album, De Oppresso Liber, via Candlelight Records.

Dross has played drums for over 20 years now. But for the last 12, he's sat exclusively behind an electronic kit. The explanation is as follows: "In the mid '90s, I had sold my acoustic kit for various reasons and by the time I was ready to buy another drum kit, I really didn't have any intention of

playing live or even playing with a band again. I had begun to pursue a career in audio engineering and I basically wanted to still play and write music for myself but more in that 'one man band' way that is fairly popular these days. The difference being, I had no intention of ever releasing any of it. I wanted electronic drums because of the diversity and simplicity that they offered me. I ended up meeting Scathe, our guitar player in recording school and we started jamming together just kind of playing covers from bands like Sepultura, Brutal Truth and Anthrax amongst others of our favorite bands as teenagers. Everything just kind of snowballed on me from there."

Delving deeper into the specifics of the instruments, Dross admits, "There are many pluses and minuses to both types of drums. I believe that electronic drums sound better than acoustic drums both live and in the studio. Please remember that unless you are standing right in front of an acoustic kit you are hearing a manipulated electronic replication of the drum, not the actual acoustic drum. If you have a shit load of time and money, you can begin to compete with electronic drums. But if you are playing any kind of non-commercial metal, you are going to have to find a way to get that high dollar budget on little to no budget. Even if you play acoustic drums you need to find out about MIDI and buying a module so you can trigger your acoustic kit. Some bands pay 10 to 20 grand to do what I did for free in my rehearsal space. Electronic drums also give you endless amounts of sounds so they are extremely versatile. For example, I have about 150 different bass drums and for each of those bass drums I have the modeling choice of multiple types of heads, microphones, mic positions, tuning, equalizing, compression and various effect parameters. Then you can still control how big of a room it is in and what the walls of that room are made out of. You can only be limited by your imagination. With MIDI you can use your electronic drums to access the sounds of any keyboard or softsynths as well. Electronic drums can also be tuned tight for more rebound without affecting the tone of the drum. Since they are thinner, you can also compact the kit very tight in order to move quickly around the set. Electronic drums are also way more set up for being able to rehearse at reasonable volumes and have an easy time practicing with a metronome."

However, "The downside to electronic drums is that monitoring can be a real bitch when you play live. No actual sound comes out of them and many small venues have little to no monitors. The better your PA the better your sound and that is going to be expensive. You're going to need one just to rehearse with your band. There are some great self-powered monitors out there but they'll cost you. A top of the line electronic kit is very expensive just like a top of the line acoustic kit. Electronic kits also just don't look as cool as acoustic kits do unless you go really crazy with your kit like I did and that is going cost you; double or more. If you're interested in knowing more and asking me questions, you're in luck because I'm a writer/contributor to Sick Drummer Magazine that specializes in extreme metal drumming. I was brought on board to answer questions regarding the engineering, production and technical side of triggering acoustic drums and explaining electronic drums and what you can do with them. If you're interested in knowing more about all of this, just google Sick Drummer Magazine and look for Dross under the list of contributors."

After listening to the nine songs on De Oppresso Liber, there isn't a clue leading to the fact that the drums are electronic. According to Dross, garnering such a result isn't as agonizing as one might expect. "It wasn't actually that difficult to achieve. I also engineered the drums for the self-titled demo that Sothis released in 2005. I made a lot of mistakes on that one that I remembered and avoided this time around. If you handle things right, you'll come out with some bitching drums. 'Triggers' got a really bad rap in the early days because of engineers that didn't know what the fuck they were doing and made everything sound all mechanical and lifeless. With the technology of today, you don't need triggers or MIDI to 'cheat' anymore because the new programs can accomplish the same things with acoustic drums and some microphones. One good thing that I'll tell you is that the labels are looking out for themselves and the fans. Our contract with Candlelight Records specifically states that we cannot release anything we can't reasonably reproduce live. This is a complaint that is often heard today. Bands sound fucking killer on their CDs and you go and see them live and they are at three quarters of the speed they are supposed to be at, or just straight out avoid playing the really hard or fast songs. Haven't you noticed how many kick-ass and perfect drummers there are on CDs these days?"

But, is the black metal scene accepting of an electronic drum kit on stage? "To be quite honest, I don't think most people realize that they are electronic. I have a nine-piece flat black kit with 16 cymbals in a full cage so my drums usually win prize for 'most impressive kit' when we play live. As we discussed earlier, the sound quality of the drums are great and when you see me pummel the shit out of my kit, you'll forget all about the fact that they're electronic."

When asked who his top three drummers are and why, Dross replies, "I don't personally believe people can state who the top drummers are unless you break it down into various styles and then pick the top drummer from that style or genre. It takes an incredible amount of practice to be really good and unless you are just some kind of drum God, you end up kind of specializing. Playing in a progressive metal band is completely different than playing in a black metal band, which is completely different from playing in a grindcore band. My favorite drummers in extreme metal are Pete Sandovol (Terrorizer, Morbid Angel) and Derek Roddy (Hate Eternal, Nile). You can tell that these two drummers have dedicated an incredible amount of time to their instruments and they are inspiring."

In other news, Sothis recently introduced the world to their new bassist Keres (guitarist Scathe played bass on the album). Dross recalls how Keres came to join the band. "We played a gig in Los Angeles last August and Keres was in one of the other bands that played on that bill. The members of Sothis were all really impressed with his playing ability and his stage presence. We just thought that he was a prefect fit for us. At some point in the night, Keres had a conversation with one of the Sothis members and expressed interest in auditioning for us, stating that he had came across one of our bassist wanted ads. That particular night, we had a stand-in bassist playing with us. The following Monday morning, I searched for him on good ol' MySpace and found him. I offered Keres an invitation to come audition for the band and hang out with us. He did and decided that he'd like to learn some songs. So we asked him to play a gig with us later that month. By the time we played that next gig, it was extremely apparent to everybody that Keres was perfect for us and so we joined forces."

Did Keres have to undergo an initiation? "No, not really," laughs Dross. "I'm one of the founders of the band though. It's always been my style to get potential members completely drunk several times before we make a decision on whether they would get in the band. You've no doubt heard that alcohol is like truth serum. Either that or it just makes you so dumb when you get lit that you let shit slip out. It's always been our desire to have a strong, solid lineup, so you need to know who you are really dealing with and to know that you are going to be able to not only be friends but family with the other band members. It's all fun and games until you live with eight or nine people in an RV that sleeps five for one month straight! You fucking better be with friends and family, people who you respect and respect you or your lineup won't be solid for long. Jim Durkin, the founderof Dark Angel drilled this concept into my head when I was 15 years old. He was a friend of a friend at the time and inspired me on this issue probably unknowingly."

Although De Oppresso Liber only recently landed on store shelves, Sothis is already looking ahead to writing and recording their sophomore release with Keres. "We've actually already started the writing process. We are planning on doing a west coast mini tour in December and then we'll really buckle down and get into writing new material while waiting to confirm a full North American tour (including parts of Canada) for mid-2009. Once we get home from that, we'll immediately go into finalizing the last of the songs and get into the studio so we can get the sophomore record out by spring or summer of 2010."