Can you tell us about the origin of the band name, the history of the band and a little bit about the various members?

The name is King Ov Wyrms is a reference to the slanderous title said in mockery towards Jesus Christ as a “king of worms, a king of nothing”.
King Ov Wyrms originally started back in 2015/16 with Michael “Oneirous” Sanchez and then Pain Patterns bassist Reymundo Romero as a more aggressive alternative to their current project. As the years passed the project dissolved to be just a solo studio project run by Oneirous solely for the release of the debut album “Lord Ov Thornes” in 2020. Now reforming with the addition of Ricky Williams on drums, King Ov Wyrms is rebirthing itself into a new direction with the upcoming album “The Womb Ov Borealis”.
Michael “Oneirous” Sanchez is a multi-instrumentalist whose background in classical music and jazz helped push his fluency in several forms of metal throughout his career. His first band Pain Patterns was a progressive death metal group that blended various forms of genres within its song structures. While still maintaining the core duties of running Pain Patterns, Oneirous toured as a session bassist for the power metal act Judicator later to be hired on as the Bassist and Lead Guitarist for the group for several years releasing two albums and signing to Prosthetic Records together before he was replaced by new members. After the departure from Judicator Oneirous rekindled King Ov Wyrms and has been spearheading it since its resurgence in 2020.
Ricky started playing music in high school not in the traditional sense like band orchestra but rather more local band acts. He joined his first real serious band in 2000 called Sanity In Death which released a self-titled album under Hammermill Records. Unfortunately, Sanity fell apart after the initial release but gave way to Ricky being able to pursue new projects one of which was Evasion a technical deathcore band. Evasion toured and released two albums with Ricky sporting the percussionist section before his departure in 2016. After his departure from Evasion, he joined Viking metal act Olden until they eventually split in 2023. Meanwhile as Olden was still active, Ricky was contacted a second time to join King Ov Wyrms for the sophomore release of The Womb Ov Borealis where he is currently.

Are you all from the same area? How did you get together as a band?

We are both from California (by birth) but respectfully we both consider ourselves to be Tucsonans. I myself being pretty much raised in Tucson my whole life feel this place is more of a home to me than anywhere else I could spend my time. I and Ricky met through the local metal scene in Tucson while I was working with Pain Patterns and he was drumming for the band Evasion whom we later became roommates with in a rehearsal studio and growing quite the brotherly comradery. Over time I was getting into audio engineering producing my own music for Pain Patterns and eventually ended up helping Evasion do pre-production for their work it gave me a chance to sit down and exclusively focus on Ricky’s drum performance which was extremely intimidating at the time but I knew he was by far one of the most talented musicians in Tucson. Later came around to getting ready to release Lord Ov Thornes in 2020 I reached out to Ricky to see if he could perform on the album and work his way into the group full time which unfortunately wasn’t possible with our conflicting schedules but fortunately we were able to work things out now for The Womb Ov Borealis. – Oneirous

Who are your favourite artists/bands and how have they influenced your own sound?

I would have to say bands like Vader, Morbid Angel, Goatwhore, Belphegor, and Immolation were big influences on our playing styles throughout our individual careers which is what pulled us together to be able to perform the music that is featured in King. – Oneirous

Did you always have the ambition to be a musician and in a band or did you originally have other plans?

I knew I always wanted to be a musician of sorts, ideally, I wanted to be a music instructor/teacher for public and college students which is where I started my degree plan. Over time I fell out of it to pursue my musical career as a performer which was looking up however I got tied into Audio Engineering and fell in love with the work, which is now where I would argue I spend most of my time as a musician. – Oneirous
I knew I always wanted to play in a band, I grew up in a family of music connoisseurs however I took it one step further and learned to play so I could perform in a band. Currently, aside from my music career, I am a former EMT and currently in school to become a respiratory therapist. – Ricky

What songs or albums are on your current playlist?

Currently, I’ve been listening to Saldorian Spell by Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, Helvegr by Tsjuder, Sacred Rites and Black Magick by Stormruler, The Suns of Perdition – Chapter 1 by Panzerfaust, and Birth, Dreams and Death by Speglas just to name a few things on repeat for myself lately – Oneirous
Currently on my playlist things are all over the place, we got stuff from super extreme death metal to outlaw country with everything in between haha I mostly listen to music on my motorcycle while out on drives so basically my playlist will just wander about. Some of my favorite bands are Goatwhore, Carnifex, The Acacia Strain, Dying Fetus, Black Dahlia, and Dimmu Borgir just to name a few. – Ricky

Do you sing in the shower?

Of course I do haha it’s got great acoustics and you would be surprised how many times you will come up with great lyrics there on the spot hahaha – Oneirous

Do you have any plans for the band for this year and into next year?

I think we are gonna let the next album run its course a bit to see what we can try to improve the next time around similar to what we did between Lord Ov Thornes to The Womb Ov Borealis. Fortunately, this time around we already know that its just gonna be myself and Ricky working this project out from here so it won’t take nearly as long to make a turn around for album three. – Oneirous

Do you currently have any new songs/albums ready to be released?

Yes, our first single off of the upcoming album The Womb Ov Borealis just released with a music video exclusively on Slam Worldwide. The song is called In Aeons We Spoke and is the opening track to the new album. It sets the whole feeling and ambience for the album pretty well which is why we decided that it would be the logical first impression of the album. – Oneirous

If you could play at any venue in the world where would you choose?

I never really heard about the venue until I saw Opeth recorded a live concert there, I believe it’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre which is a venue built into a mountainside if I’m correct. The stage itself is surrounded by rock and it just seems like such a magical place to unleash some insane black metal. – Oneirous

Do you have a favourite album? If so, what is it?

It’s really hard to pick just one favorite album for myself, there are so many perfect albums but one I always say is a hidden gem of albums that doesn’t have a single bad song (or rather less enjoyable) is Failure by Farsot. It’s more in the vein of avante-garde or experimental black metal but I can’t stress how phenomenal that album is as a whole, literal perfection from top to bottom. – Oneirous
A favorite album of mine that takes me back to understanding drums and helped me immensely was the album Miasma by Black Dahlia Murder. One of the things that stood out to me on that album was that they stated the drummer performed sloppy but it had this human element that really made the album feel relatable as a person who was trying to figure out where I was going. – Ricky

Do you have any guilty pleasure songs/albums?

I wouldn’t say I have any guilty pleasure music tastes, most metalheads really do enjoy a wide variety of music even when they don’t look like it. I listen to a lot of Depeche Mode, Classical music, Bebop Jazz, 80s pop, I’m a huge prog rock fan, and the list goes on. – Oneirous
I listen to really anything from the 80s. One of the first bands I really got into was Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith. I grew up in a big city with top 40s on the radio all the time so I got into nu-metal and whatever kind of rock was popular on the radio in the 90s. – Ricky

If you were putting together the greatest show on earth, who would be playing?

If it’s the greatest show for myself I’d be picking a lot of my favorite artists so I’d be biased and put Sulphur Aeon, Ihsahn, Opeth, Wolves in The Throneroom, 1349, and Dark Fortress. My list could go on forever if you let me haha – Oneirous
For me, I would put us on there haha because who doesn’t want to play with their heroes?! Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus because I love their live shows, Dimmu Borgir and Cattle Decapitation because they just bring out a great performance all the time as well.

Can you remember the first album you bought with your own money? What was it and do you still have it?

It wasn’t the very first album I bought but I vividly remember it being the first real entry into Death Metal and it changed me. I saved up a bunch of lunch money from school and I bought a random cd in the used bargain bins at Zia Records. I grabbed the CD just because of how cool the artwork was and when I first listened to it I was changed. The album was Gateways To Annihilation by Morbid Angel. I still have that album to this day and its just such an amazing album and part of my childhood. – Oneirous
For me it was Aerosmith’s Pump album and Get A Grip. – Ricky

As your fans will be reading this, is there any message you would like to send out to them?

I would personally like to thank everyone who has patiently waited for this next album to come out, it’s been very quiet on our end but from here on out we are gonna be pushing very hard with our career. Also a big thank you to the great response towards our release of In Aeons We Spoke, it’s been huge compared to anything I’ve personally done and I’m eternally grateful. – Oneirous

Finally, let us know all your social media sites so your fans, old and new, can find and follow/like you!

You can find us on Facebook, Youtube, and Bandcamp under King Ov Wyrms Official. As for Instagram, I don’t run an exclusive page for King but my personal account sharing all of our news is Oneirous_OSS – Oneirous

We, at The Metal Asylum, would like to thank you for your time. Is there is anything further that you would like to add?

Thank you guys for having us! And mark your calendars, the new Album “The Womb Ov Borealis” will be out October 6th 2023, Cheers! – Oneirous

This interview is the property of The Metal Asylum