Of Romulus sees Heather Michele and Jason Ashcraft reuniting in full force since the 2016 debut self-titled Helion Prime album along with ex-Dire Peril bassist Chelsea McMasters joining the band. With their debut single, which is also the namesake of their new project, they are happy to present to Star Trek and metal fans Of Romulus. The track was mixed by Michael Goodrich and mastered by Ted Whitten Media. Additional engineering was done by Carlos Alvarez of Dirty Viking Audio along with drums performed by Justin Tvetan (Wastewalker).
The band members comment on the new endeavor and song:
"I am so excited to be singing over Jason's always exceptional music again. It's been a long time coming, and I feel what we're working to deliver is some of our best work yet. I am so happy to finally be working so closely on a project with Chelsea. She's an incredible human and a phenomenal bassist. I'm so stoked to get to write and sing about something so very close to my heart. I hope I do my fellow Trekkies proud! LLAP," says vocalist Heather Michele.
"It's been great working with Heather again. While we did write the third Helion Prime album together this is our first time really back in the thick of it since the debut Helion Prime album. I am very excited about what we've been coming up with and think fans of old Helion Prime will be very pleased. Of course, I had to bring Chelsea along to slay on the bass!" adds guitarist Jason Ashcraft.
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"I remember listening to Heather and Jason’s material a few years back before I had never really listened to power metal. That opened a door I never thought would have led to here and I’m SO thrilled to have gotten to be a part of this new project with them. I really think sci-fi fans will enjoy this high-energy, first release!" says bassist Chelsea McMasters.
For those who are not very familiar with Star Trek, Romulans are distant cousins of Vulcans (like Mister Spock). They look very similar to Vulcans, but where Vulcans are driven by logic and controlling their emotions, Romulans are highly emotional and rather xenophobic. They believe they are a superior race and are always scheming to take over control of the galaxy.
Heather Michele tells the story behind the band:
“So the concept for ‘Of Romulus’ is I am a Romulan commander, Jason is a Romulan sub commander, and Chelsea is our human companion we have enlisted to help us tell our story. Jason and I were members of a Romulan science vessel called the ‘Namek D’Ral that had figured out a way to travel through time (fun fact: The name for the ship is an anagram of Mark Lenard, who was the first actor to play a Romulan). So, the Romulan High Command sent our ship on a mission to travel through space and time, gathering intel on how we could manipulate the timeline to the planet Romulus’ advantage. Romulan starships have the ability to cloak, so they cannot be seen by the naked eye or by most tracking systems."
Basically, most of Of Romulus' songs are about episodes of Star Trek, with the assumption that the ship was there watching and couldn’t be seen.
Michele continues:
“While the ship was in the middle of our method of time travel (The Breakaway Effect; where you travel towards a star at the speed of light, then break away from its gravity and are thrown into another time), a glitch in the space-time continuum occurred causing the ship to malfunction and ultimately be destroyed. We happened to be in the vicinity of Earth in the 1980s, so before the ship exploded, Jason transported us off the ship down to Earth.
We’ve waited 40 years to find a way off Earth, to no avail, and we have finally decided our last option is to disrupt the timeline by telling everyone on Earth all these secrets we have learned in our travels (by singing about them). Our hope is this organization called ‘The Temporal Police’ will hear about what we are doing and come get us.”
