gas Strip and the world renown artists that take residency on the strip like Elton John and Motley Crue. People don't come here to see local bands so it really is a challenge to try to get both the local people and people from out of town to come to the shows when you have the Strip to compete against. <Ace> Pushing, we have seen a lot of bands come and go, but I think what we hold onto is the constant drive and idea that all of this will pay off. The feeling of preforming the music also plays a big role, it’s so satisfying walking off a stage you just tore up, sweaty and ears ringing. <CV SW> VRMA’s, nominated as “Best Metal Band” – not a bad thing, considering the talent here. Tell us about the experience, about the validation you guys felt.
<Rafael> That was again an eye opener for us to win the nomination as "Best Metal Band" this year, we do feel it will help the exposure for us and again proves that with the music we play can be successful <CV SW> What is the status with the new
CD…I saw some information earlier this year, but can’t find updates…
<Rafael> The new CD is coming along, last time when we did the EP "Revelations End" we had all the time to record, this time around when we started writing and recording we were offered show after show and was getting harder to get our minds to focus on recording. The shows were big opportunities too so they weren't something we could just pass up. After a while we just said no more shows and just lock ourselves away, we are now finishing up with guitars and will be finishing this month with vocals and all the other layers like orchestration, synths and effects then on to the final mixing. Once that is all done we will releasing all the information on the CD as it is sort of a double concept album with releasing the first CD around fall this year and hopefully spring/summer next year. With a massive story we want to tell we don't want to rush anything. <Ernie> We have been recording furiously…we are still laying down tracks, but due to crazy schedules, it
might take longer than expected. We will post updates soon though! <CV SW> There is some talent in Vegas, how do you guys try to separate yourselves from the other bands?
<Ernie> We let the music speak for itself. We try to write music from the influences we know. We treat every show like it’s our biggest one yet, and we try to put on a great performance ever time. <Rafael> We just go out there and try to put the best show we ever could for the audience, we try to capture the same essence as the bands we love seeing into our shows and music, everything from having orchestrated intros/outros in our sets, creating an image with what we look like as a band and having a distinctive sound that nobody does in this city. We want to bring that "larger than life" sound you get in like a film score but back that up with just epic metal on a stage. <CV SW> Let’s be honest, it’s a hard life, being in a band – what keeps you going, how do you keep the fire & motivation?
<Rafael> It really is a hard life to be in a metal band, to be a musician in general, but what keeps me going is that when people tell me a metal band like Sicocis could never win a Battle of the Bands on the Strip for $10,000, we did. When people tell me a local band like Sicocis can't play big stages like the House of Blues and it is only for the bigger bands, we did. For people telling me Sicocis is not meant for award shows like