WOODS OF YPRES founder / frontman David Gold and former Woods Of Ypres bassist Aaron Palmer recently spoke with Metal Underground about their new side-project, THE NORTHERN ONTARIO BLACK METAL PRESERVATION SOCIETY. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: So first off I need to ask about the name; The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society. It’s quite an interesting one. How did you guys come up with that name and what is the meaning behind it?

David Gold: "From our perspective, Northern Ontario is a very black metal environment where the towns are small and the nature is wild and inspiring. Yet, despite the fact that they have tall trees, lakes, waterfalls, a sky full of starts, long and cold winters, solitude, beer, the Internet, Northern Ontario produces so little metal at all, and black metal is especially rare. We believe to be the only ones tapping into our local natural resources in order to make music, and hence The NOBMPS: The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society was the most fitting name we could give our project. We are a society of only two, making black metal in and exclusively about Northern Ontario."

Aaron Palmer: "We agreed on the name because we felt it captured our location which provides our inspiration and musical style while being palatable to a wider audience."

Q: Since the band is fairly new to the metal world how would you describe The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society’s sound, message and also what you stand for as a group?

David Gold: "The NOBMPS is a two-man, dual-vision, multi-instrumentalist switching black metal band inspired by and exclusively about Northern Ontario. The formula is as follows: We both write one song each on which we perform the vocals, guitar, and bass and then we drum on each other's song (so for example I drummed on Aaron's song and he drummed on mine), then, we release them exclusively and independently on 7" vinyl, with MP3 downloads."

Aaron Palmer: "We approached NOBMS with an open canvass for song-writing, though we knew it would have to be underpinned with a black metal nuance. It would be difficult to attribute one 'sound' to NOBMPS as both songs released to date were influenced by different styles. 'Rediscovering The Divine' was inspired by OLD MAN'S CHILD, DEVIN TOWNSEND and (perhaps unconsciously) early Woods of Ypres, and is best categorized as Melodic Black Metal.

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Gold has posted two tracks for streaming online. Both songs were performed by Gold and Palmer (Against The Seasons). The first track was penned by Gold, the second by Palmer; they play drums on each other's work.

'Northern October' (Gold)

'Rediscovering The Divine' (Palmer)