Goth Ball is all about fright

My invite to the Something Wicked Goth Ball came via Twitter last week. In its sixth year, the gala of darkness will take a different approach to entertaining. The focus: goth rock.

I caught up with the party's headliners, Army of In Between, last week when bandmates Pitt Ripply, DarC and Halbgott came to the office in freakish costumes, facial prosthetics and colored contact lenses. Co-workers were spooked.

Here's what frontman Pitt had to say:

Q. Do you consider yourselves a goth rock band?

A. We consider ourselves a theatrical horror art band that performs an avant-garde fusion of industrial, metal and horror.

Q. Where do you get your inspiration?

A. We try to replicate the same feeling you get in horror films. ... It's about music and emotion. Our goal is to scare people.

Q. So it's like writing a science fiction song?

A. We have a belief that humanity comes from other places. We cover the fear of the extraterrestrial. It's a futuristic concept album ... a new telling of the apocalypse and the new age of life that extends afterwards.

Q. When did AOIB form?

A. AOIB was founded at Carroll, Iowa, in 1997 by Pitt Ripply, relocating to Omaha in 2003. The band is currently unsigned but works independently with ZeroPoint Music and DF Studios.

Q. How'd you come up with your stage names and what's your role in the band?

A. We like to think of them as our real names. It's how most people know us. Pitt (vocals/ synth); DarC (guitars/vocals) and Halbgott (guitars). The band's current album project is entitled “Polytheistic Revolution”.

Q. I played your demo album the other night and it scared the daylights out of me.

A. Good.

Q. How often do you perform?

A. Because of the cost that goes into this (he points to his half-blown-off-face prosthetic), we try not to schedule too many shows.

Q. What kinds of fans do you have?

A. We're not sure yet. The Goth Ball is our first performance in a while. We'd like to discover the kind of fans we have.