After all those years writing in the narrow confines of ORDER FROM CHAOS, I felt exhausted. VULPECULA gave me a break and desperately needed chance to work in a different direction.
- Chuck Keller / Ares Kingdom interview, Voices from the Darkside
Formed by Chuck Keller (ORDER FROM CHAOS) in 1994, VULPECULA released their one major release, Fons Immortalis, on this day in 1997.
Lyric writing is definitely a pain - but only because I pour nearly as much into that as I do writing music. The astronomical lyrics started appearing in ORDER FROM CHAOS back in 1989 and culminated in VULPECULA. ARES KINGDOM will be resurrecting an unreleased VULPECULA track as well as 'Fons Immortalis' in the near future, but that's about as close as I see ARES KINGDOM coming to all-astronomy related songs.
- Chuck Keller / Ares Kingdom interview, Voices from the Darkside
Two demo tapes were recorded prior to Fons Immortalis and material was recorded for a debut album, Down Among Them, in 1998. The band split before the album was completed, but the recorded material was released in 2006 as In Dusk Apparition.
...the influence of astronomy on my lyrics was pretty much left to VULPECULA. A lot of the inspiration for the imagery I use in lyrics has come from my position at an international auction house where I authenticate historical militaria, artifacts and other aspects of history for the private collector market. I've seen some pretty horrendous things as well as some works of real beauty. These things and everything in between have some sort of effect on me I'm sure.
- Chuck Keller / Ares Kingdom interview, Voices from the Darkside
In 1997 Keller's new band ARES KINGDOM (formed with former ORDER FROM CHAOS bandmate Mike Miller) recorded a demo, and in 2003 the Chaosmongers Alive EP. Since then ARES KINGDOM have been releasing fairly consistently; their third album, The Unburiable Dead, was released in 2015.