After failing twice to do the interview, we finally made it on the third try. As the Dutch saying goes, “Driemaal is scheepsrecht”, indeed! Mike reached me at 23:10 CET when I was dozing off a bit, but fortunately I was awake immediately when the phone rang. Read all about our long conversation about trains, the greatness of Holland and a story about the Bulgarian police.
You’ve just released your fourth full-length album, how have the reactions been so far?
Well, since it’s just been released, we’ve played approximately 15 shows. About 4 or 5 in the States and 10 or 11 within Canada. It’s been going pretty well. We’ve just been doing that, and that will be it for the 15 shows that we did. That will be it for the rest of this year. And we’re looking into some tours for next year.
Are you still satisfied with the production, artwork and songs now that it’s been out for a while?
Yeah, for sure. Now that I’ve had a little bit of time to listen to it outside of the studio and stuff, getting some feedback from other people, I’m definitely pleased with it. I think everybody is really pleased with the album. I mean, every time that you come out of the studio, you always have the same kind of feeling. To say, we could have done this better, we could have tried this. But in general, we’re definitely very confident and very comfortable with how the album turned out.
What was the main motivation for changing Cryptopsy’s sound from heavy and brutal to a more ‘clear’ and detailed sound? Was this a self-made choice, or did the producer also have a (big) hand in this?
Pierre always has a big hand in that as well, but we definitely took a look at the way ‘Whisper Supremacy’ had come out, and we were very happy with the recording, but we also knew there were a few things that we could have done better. We sort of went into it and said, you know, we ought to boost a few different things, whether it be the guitar sound, the drums and stuff. The fact that we had new equipment to go in with also helped. We utilised that to its fullest extent. But it definitely had to do with us. Before we went into the studio, we had a fixed plan as to what type of sound we were looking for. I mean, just on the drum sound alone, just on the snare itself, it took us probably 3 days to get the sound and probably about 8 different snares that we used, that we tried to get the right sound that we were looking for. So it was definitely an involved process.
Why did you choose to use a didgeridoo in ‘Screams Go Unheard’?
Ah well, it’s self-explanatory in the sense that the didgeridoo is the didgeridoo. It’s just such a brilliant instrument and incredible sounds that emanate from there. And we wanted to do something a little bit different. I came up with the idea to try to utilise the didgeridoo in the song. And we pretty much knew what song we were going to use it with. And we’re really happy with it. David Hughes, who was the guy we had do the didgeridoo, we’re in contact with him. We sent him a tape of the song and told him what we were looking for, and he came down to the studio and laid it on the tracks. We sat back, listened to it and were like, oh yeah, this is precisely what we wanted.
Are you going to use it some more or other new instruments?
Definitely, we’re open to anything at this point. If it fits into what we’re doing, then there’s absolutely nothing that’s gonna hold us back.
Without losing the brutal touch.
Absolutely, it has got to remain brutal, but if we can incorporate other musical instruments into the fold, we’ll do it.
I saw that a family member of yours also did some guest vocals: Gen Guay DiSalvo?
Actually, that’s my wife. She did a bit of vocal part in ‘Screams Go Unheard’ and she also had her hand in helping me out with a couple of songs lyrically.
Does the song ‘Back to the Worms’ perhaps contain some sort of reference to Cryptopsy’s previous vocalist, Lord Worm?
Well, ‘Back to the Worms’ is actually a song that was written for the ‘Ungentle Exhumation’ demo tape. Which was before any of the CDs were recorded and released. And it’s a song that has pretty much been put into the closet, not being played at all. We were playing shows throughout the world and hearing people ask for ‘Back to the Worms’. It was especially up here in Quebec, it’s a fan favourite. And we had this kind of running joke with the fans, you know, I would say, ‘Play it? Fuck, I don’t even know it!’ We never played that song, but we were like, you know what, let’s get back to these people who have been there from the get-go. So we give them something. It’s a bit different from what it was. It’s the same song, the same structure, but it’s obviously a different feel to it. Recorded it and put it on the album. And we feel it definitely is an essential part of the album, and we’re very happy with it.
Do you have more songs lying around which you might reuse?
We had discussed it as a possibility, but I don’t think so. There’s a bunch of songs that we don’t play. Actually, of the demo itself, that’s the only song on that. But anything else, other songs that we were talking about maybe bringing back, not to record but to play live, would be some songs from ‘Blasphemy…’. But aside from that, there’s nothing lying around which was from before or in the beginning of Cryptopsy, so we’re definitely not going to dig that either.
The cover depicts a guy sitting on a railway track, the back of the booklet a TGV, and the group picture was ‘taken’ in a train set. What does this all have in common, besides all having to do with trains? Anyone an obsessed train-lover, or is there more to this story?
Well no, it’s not that. It definitely has its meaning behind it. It means obviously something to us as a whole, as Cryptopsy, it has a specific meaning to us. But for us to kind of paint by numbers for the fans, we’ve never been comfortable with that. It’s something, if you’re looking at it, if it makes some sense to you, even if it’s something that someone comes up with that has nothing to do with what we were going for. Then at least at that point, what we’ve been able to do is to create a different idea for somebody else. It’s definitely relevant, the full artwork is relevant to what we had in mind. But somebody else might get a different opinion from that, a different vibe from it. We like the mysteriousness of that, if it is even mysterious for anyone, and sort of get people to come up with their own conclusion as to what it is.
Maybe the train is a metaphor for your music?
I think you’re on the right track, haha!
Some songs (‘We Bleed’, ‘Screams Go Unheard’, ‘…And Then It Passes’) are relatively longer than most of the songs that we’re used to hearing from Cryptopsy. Was this a natural development, or an experiment, to see if you were also able to write longer tracks? Will we hear more songs of such lengths in the future?
No, definitely not. We pretty much go into the songwriting thinking, let’s just write it, and what the time is, is the time. We don’t put anything on our plate extra besides writing the songs. We don’t say, it’s got to be 4 minutes and 20 seconds or it’s going to be between this amount of time. Occasionally it has come up, as to say, should we even continue it or should we rather just kind of cut it right here. But for us to come out and say that we wanted to try to write something longer or to make sure that we had a couple of songs on the album that were short, or anything of that sort, wasn’t done by us.
To take a trip down memory lane: what’s your opinion on ‘Blasphemy Made Flesh’ nowadays?
Haha, I think it’s a good album! When I first got that album, way back in the day, fuck, it was on constant play. I haven’t listened to it personally, I haven’t listened to it in some time, though I’ve heard the songs from the album. So it’s been quite a few years since I’ve listened to the album. But it’s still a great album, it’s a classic Cryptopsy album. And it obviously has some great songs on it. We’re still playing ‘Defenestration’, it’s a song you can’t put down. And like I said, we may pull in some of the other songs, a couple of old songs to add to the mix. We could do about anything.
And what’s your opinion on ‘None So Vile’ nowadays?
I think ‘None So Vile’ is a fantastic album, it’s just completely brutal. That is actually the album that completely turned me on to Cryptopsy. I had ‘Blasphemy…’ before, I had known the guys before that, but the first time I heard the album, I was going to a bar with Flo. I was just up hanging out because I’m from Boston. So I was on a kind of vacation with my girlfriend as well. We were on our way to a club or something and he was like, ‘I got the tape’, and he played it for me before the album was out. And I was just like, ‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me’, haha! ‘This is going to be huge, man!’ And sure enough, it definitely started the wheels rolling for some at that point.
You made your grunting debut on the next killer album, ‘Whisper Supremacy’. What’s your opinion on your Cryptopsy debut?
Yeah, I think it’s a great album, I’m very, very pleased with it. For myself, it was an achievement because it was the first time that I’ve ever laid tracks to be on a full-length CD. All the other work was demo tapes, so it was an achievement for myself. I think it’s a great album, I love it.
What tours did you do to promote ‘Whisper Supremacy’ in America and Europe? How were the audience responses?
We did 2 US tours, we played a shitload of shows up here in Canada, we played at a festival, we played Dynamo, we played a tour in Europe, we played in Japan where we did 2 shows in Tokyo. We definitely did some touring, we busted our ass for that album.
How was the experience of playing at the Dynamo festival in 1999?
Absolutely amazing! Just for the simple fact that people were incredibly cool. Just being in Holland, I mean, Holland is in my opinion one of the best, if not the best, places that I have visited. As a whole, I found a lot of people there genuine and very friendly. And that was something you don’t really know until you’re there. That was very nice, just to be and play in front of 8,000–9,000 people, and it was totally berserk. That was an experience I’ll never forget.
You came from Infestation, are they still around? If so, what are they up to nowadays?
Correct, no, they’re not around anymore. I did see that there is a band from England that has adopted the name, but I haven’t heard the band. But it’s not the same Infestation.
Maybe a non-relevant question, but what was the reason for Lord Worm’s departure?
Well, I think there were a couple of different things. He was with his girlfriend, I know he wasn’t crazy about touring, I think he just had some other ideas that he wanted to utilise in maybe some other side projects or stuff. I think he wanted to explore that. In the situation when he was talking about leaving, I ended up coming up here to live. And at that point, his situation was pretty much defunct. And I had known the guys for years, so Flo asked me to come down and try it out. I said, hell yeah, I’m gonna do that! I came down and Lord Worm was with me 100% of the way. He was there to make sure that I was coming in on the right spots and that sort of thing. To make sure that I was comfortable with the songs, and then at that point he retired, that’s it. We’re still friends with him. I just went to see ‘The Blair Witch Project’ with him a couple of weeks ago. He’s definitely still part of what’s happening.
I still hear (a lot of) people saying they liked him more because of his deeper grunt, no offence of course. Do you guys hear this (often) too and how, as vocalist, do you look upon this?
I definitely hear it, and to each his own. I mean, we have 2 totally different styles. I’m not going to pretend to be him, I’m not going to step in his exact footsteps and do the things exactly the way he did them either. I’m going to keep the songs the way that they were, but it’s going to be done the way that I say, you know. I’m me, he’s not me, so it’s definitely completely different. It’s either you like it one way or you don’t, or you like both of them. I mean, I would obviously hope that people would be able to say, ‘You know what, he’s gone and Cryptopsy is what it is now.’
I heard a rumour that Lord Worm is working in a beer factory nowadays. Is that true?
Absolutely, completely, 100% false. He’s actually an English teacher right now. He’s a very smart dude, very intelligent, and an excellent writer, as you all know.
Whatever happened to former band members Steve Thibault and Miguel Roy?
Steve Thibault is actually the guy who works at the beer company. He works for Unibrew Beers, he actually lives in the Toronto area. The only reason we had to get rid of Miguel was simply because he had some legal bullshit problem that he couldn’t get across the border into the States. And for that reason, and that reason alone, it would have stopped us from being able to go over to Japan as well as into the States, which is a tremendous market for the band. It was a business decision to release him at that point.
Are they still active in the metal scene in any way or are they settled down with their families?
Steve has quit completely, he doesn’t play any longer, he might have even sold his guitars and equipment. But Miguel still plays. Right now he’s writing some stuff on his own. He’s been playing with other people. Actually, he was doing a little side project, it was his full-time project, but he had Flo playing drums for him. I don’t think they’re playing together anymore. But yeah, he’s definitely still playing though.
How did you get in contact with Miguel’s replacement, Alex Auburn? In which bands was he before Cryptopsy?
Well, Eric and John had known Alex for some time. He was playing in a local band up here as well. And he’s a great guitarist. We asked him if he was interested, as we had a US tour coming up in about 6 weeks. And he was very interested in coming down and playing. We listened to him play and talked to him to get to know him a bit more. He came down and learned the full sets in 6 weeks, pulled it off and he has done one hell of a job. He has added some vocals to the mix as well, so now we’re doing a 3-vocal mix.
Originally, the first album came out on Invasion Records and the second on War Records. Were you satisfied with the work and promotion they did for you?
It’s hard for me to say, as I wasn’t on either one of those boats when they were sinking, haha. I wasn’t there. In all fairness, it wouldn’t be right for me to say. I know how the band feels about both labels and I don’t want to stir up anything as to say what anybody else’s feelings are, if they want to represent their own thoughts on that. That might be a better situation than myself to speak on. I would speak out of my ass, ’cause I wasn’t on that boat, as I said.
The Dutch label Displeased Records re-released these first 2 albums. Were the albums not available anymore? Are you satisfied with the way they brought those out?
Ah, that’s a touchy subject with Displeased Records. I’m not personally, nor is the band, very impressed with the way that ‘None So Vile’ had come out. I think it’s definitely not a rendition of the artwork and stuff that the band wanted to do. The artwork is obviously not taken directly from us. As a result of that, I think it looks like a botched job. But aside from that, we actually have come to no terms of agreement with ‘None So Vile’ as we have with ‘Blasphemy…’. It has come through for ‘Blasphemy…’, but for ‘None So Vile’ we haven’t seen anything from that yet.
So there was no contact, also not for some extra bonus tracks, like demo songs (from ‘Ungentle Exhumation’, your only demo) or something?
There was contact, but there was no signing of anything. Nothing was brought up about bonus tracks for the albums. It was just sort of that we knew he had the rights, he bought the rights at that time, or supposedly bought the rights. We don’t really know. And next thing we were discussing about it, we hadn’t signed anything, and next thing we knew it was released. So, there’s not much to say on that.
How did you get in contact with Century Media?
Actually, Century Media had gotten in touch with us. We sent out some packages as they were interested in our stuff. We sent them 4 songs on 8-track recording shit sound, just to give them an impression of what the new material was sounding like. And of course they had all the other stuff to back it up. I think that they had gone to the Milwaukee Metal Fest in ’97, and saw the band as it was at that point. And they came up with the draft and we worked it out to what we needed, and so far it has been working pretty well.
So you’re satisfied with their work and promotion for you so far?
Century Media has definitely pushed it well. They did behind us, anything we needed has pretty much come across the table. They know that we work very hard, we are diligent workers. Besides, we’re going to get things done. And in the same token, we know that they have the power to be able to do stuff as well. And we hope it continues. We have a good deal and a good working atmosphere with them.
How does it feel to be the most extreme band on Century Media? H
ahaha, I don’t know, are we?
Okay, Krisiun are very extreme too.
Krisiun, yeah. It’s great to be on that label and it’s also great to be playing with other bands that are also on the same label. To be on the same label as Krisiun and a personal favourite of mine, EyeHateGod, and stuff like that. They’ve got a lot of good bands on the label. Some stuff that I’m not crazy about, but we’re all part of the same family and we will support them all.
What tours are planned or are going to take place to support ‘And Then You’ll Beg’ in Europe and America?
Right now, nothing has been solidified as far as tours are concerned. We’ve been contacted about a few different opportunities and until everything is done on paper and signed and agreed upon, I can’t really speculate on anything until it’s finalised completely.
But you’re hopefully gonna do an extremely long tour in Europe?
I would hope so, there’s no question that we want to come back. We had a fantastic time the last time we were there. The fans were totally supportive. Everywhere we played, people came out to see a kick-ass show, and all across the board they had quality bands on that tour. It just killed, the tour every time just killed. We definitely want to get back over there.
What are the lyrics about, is there a certain topic which interests you a lot? Are the lyrics an important aspect or are they just there to guide the music? I think life in general interests me, as far as writing is concerned. I like to sort of take what I’m feeling or what I would feel like in a situation or what somebody else would feel like. Whatever the case would be, if it’s first-person or third-person. And then sort of let the thoughts flow. Hopefully, in that sense, people can admire that and maybe relate to it. I think that’s pretty important for lyrical use, contact. For me personally, I like to read other people’s lyrics and sort of get good vibes from them or whatever the vibes may be, and create my own vibe from them.
I think the lyrics are more important to you than for other bands who write about gore topics and horror movies.
Yeah, fuck, I love all horror movies, man! I’m a huge horror movie buff. Maybe not as much as some people, as sometimes I read about people talking about movies I’ve never even heard of. But in general, I’m a horror fan. But for me to write about it is sort of a situation where everybody else is writing about it. It just doesn’t interest me as far as a topic to write about. I definitely take my lyrics not with a grain of salt. I try to work on something that’s cool to read, and I stand by my lyrics.
I noticed that you thanked the members of Suffocation in first place on your first 3 albums. Are you guys involved in a bizarre love affair or something?
Dude, do we have a love affair? I hope not, haha! I know that it never got to any of that kind of contact from them, haha. No, definitely, I know that during the first 2 albums those guys got close as musical companions as they were playing shows together. And obviously the guys from Suffocation are super-cool guys, all of them. And they hit it off very well. I don’t know them as well as the rest of Cryptopsy do, meaning Eric, John and Flo. But I’ve met them a few times on a few occasions. They’ve come on tour here and obviously we came up in full support, which was back in the day when they did anyway. And Suffocation had been one of the primary metal bands at that time, and they will live on for that.
Personally, I don’t know that many bands that reach the intense level of musicianship that I find in Cryptopsy. Do you all practise a lot, or rehearse a lot?
We practise 3 times a week, but these guys are pretty much practising on their own almost every night. When I call up Flo, he’s usually over at the jam practice by himself. And I know John is constantly playing the guitar, so besides the group practising, everybody is practising on their own as well.
What is the main motivation for you to play such intense, musically high-skilled music (apart from the fact that it just kills!)?
Haha, I think it’s the winter up here, haha! No, I don’t know. It’s just sort of, ‘That sounds cool, let’s play it.’ It’s actually a good atmosphere when we’re writing. We know what we’re capable of doing, we know what style we’re into doing and we just let it go. And come up with the songs that we do. They are taken from one point, you know, they’re designed at one point and then they’re always subject to change as we progress into writing other material. There’s always some doing and coming back and saying, ‘Let’s try and do this little change over here instead.’ So it’s not something that is written and set in stone and that’s the way it is. There are things that are changing pretty much on a constant basis.
To what bands do the band members listen to, is it mainly metal or also jazz, pop music or maybe Britney (‘Pierced from Within’)?
For ‘Pierced from Within’, I think everyone in the band is a fan of ‘Pierced from Within’ (my fault, should have put more emphasis on Britney, I guess). We pretty much all listen to different styles of music. I mean, John listens to his big things, like Dream Theater or Yngwie Malmsteen, from that to old Malevolent Creation and stuff. Suffocation and things like that. Flo listens to anything from the Dave Matthews Band to Deftones. Myself, I listen to anything from the freaking Beatles to Pink Floyd to the new Nasum, you know, the new Nile and stuff. I mean, we all have different styles that we’re listening to, and I think that that makes for a non-static atmosphere as far as writing is concerned. We don’t find that the stuff is becoming stagnant due to the fact that we listen to different styles of music and try to incorporate that within the heavy context that we’re writing within.
I bet you like stuff like Watchtower and Meshuggah, right?
Watchtower, pff, you know, it’s been a billion years since I’ve heard a Watchtower album. So I couldn’t even mention that. But Meshuggah, for sure, everybody in the band likes Meshuggah. They’re an incredible band, an incredibly talented band, and they write some brilliant riffs and brilliant music.
Could you give me a top 5 of your favourite albums of all time and a top 5 of your current favourite records?
Top 5 metal albums or…
Whatever you want…
Oh shit, haha. Well obviously Slayer’s ‘Reign in Blood’, I like ‘Morbid Tales’ from Celtic Frost. Oh God, pff, Portishead, I love that shit, it’s amazing. Black Sabbath’s ‘Master of Reality’, um, Dead Can Dance’s ‘Within the Realm of a Dying Sun’. That’s 5 quality albums right there. Actually, take the Portishead out and throw in ‘OK Computer’ from Radiohead.
Is that your all-time or current top 5?
Oh, that’s 5 top albums, but I’m missing Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd. I’m missing so many of my favourite albums in that top 5. That’s just some of my favourite albums right there. I’m an average music listener. I mean, Cathedral’s ‘Forest of Equilibrium’, ‘Clandestine’ by Entombed, ‘Retribution’ by Malevolent Creation. There are so many good albums out there that I just could go on and on and on and pull the shit out of everyone.
There were rumours that Cryptopsy would do a tour with a band called Shrunken Head, a band around Cannibal Corpse/Malevolent Creation, Centurian/Severe Torture and Monstrosity members.
I haven’t heard anything about that, actually. As far as I can see, that’s definitely a rumour.
We have this information because we know the band members of Centurian and Severe Torture who told us about that project.
Oh yeah? I haven’t even heard about the side project for that either. It’s the first time I’ve heard of them.
I also heard that this band probably isn’t going to start after all.
Yeah, well, I don’t know. You’re telling me for the first time about it, so…
If you were granted the power to organise an entire Cryptopsy tour by yourself, all financed by the label, where would you definitely go to, and with which bands would you like to tour most? Primarily the more ‘known’ countries, or also exotic-like countries? Take along a big show?
As far as bands are concerned, we obviously want to play with Slayer and stuff like that. But I mean, we’re playing with the guys of Nile, we can go anywhere with the guys of Nile. We can also go anywhere with the guys of Cephalic Carnage to play. They’re some of the bands we do get along with, as far as friendship-wise and musicality, it would be very cool to play with them. And then of course you have the bigger bands like Slayer and stuff like that. I would love to play with Iron Maiden, for Christ’s sake. I grew up listening to Iron Maiden, you know. Places where I’ve never been? Australia, I’d love to play in Australia. That would be amazing. I think we’re hopefully gonna see about doing something like that this time around as well. There are still a bunch of places across the world where we haven’t been, and I’d love to play in front of people there as well.
And with which other bands of other musical styles would you like to tour?
Other musical styles? I would love to tour with Dead Can Dance, that would be quite a contrast. Let’s go, let’s set it up!
What’s your opinion on the internet?
I would say it’s the way of the future. To me, the internet is completely vast and I don’t think it’s ever gonna get to a point where it’s going to be any smaller. I think it’s going to be going and going and going into a continuum.
You also have a website, will you try to update it as often as you can?
Yeah, we have a website and we have had over 20 thousand page views on there, and that’s fucking impressive. Francois, who did the artwork for the album, has also done it for the website. He’s just a genius, he’s come up with some great ideas for it and we’re really happy with it.
Some people claim that the internet isn’t underground, do you agree with them?
That it isn’t underground? People who talk like that are foolish. You know, what are you gonna do? Just stay underground or do you want to reach as many people as possible? I don’t think that anybody, or very few people, actually want to stay in one spot and that’s it. If you’re truly into what you’re doing, you want to be playing and have that music available for as many people as possible.
How’s the underground scene in Canada? I don’t know that many bands from Canada. Are there some bands you can recommend us to check out?
Oh, there’s a shitload of bands up here. Especially in Montreal. The rest of Canada, I don’t know a shitload of bands from outside of Quebec, say Toronto or something. But you’ve got of course Gorguts, Oblivion, Noraxis, Necronic Mutation. There’s a lot of talent out here in Quebec. And I’m sure in the rest of Canada as well. And I think people are starting to take focus on that. They’re starting to realise that there are a lot of tremendously talented bands out here.
By the way, do Inner Thought still exist?
Ah, I’ve heard the name Inner Thought before. I don’t think I’ve heard the music. But I have heard the name quite a few times, actually.
In my opinion, many of the old Death Metal bands like Immolation, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower etc. have their own sound which you recognise even after a couple of seconds. Many new bands haven’t yet developed their own sound. However, some of them have, like for instance Dying Fetus, Nile and you guys. What’s your opinion on the Death Metal scene nowadays?
I think the Death Metal scene in general is still very strong. There’s a lot of bands out there and coming out. There’s obviously some incredibly good bands, such as Dying Fetus. The new Morbid Angel is amazing, there’s still quality albums being put out. And I think if there’s still quality coming out, then it’s not going to be a situation where it maybe dipped a bit, like the mid-90s or so. In the early 90s, it started to dip a bit because a lot of the bands were sounding either the same or just weren’t doing their own thing. I think it was just kind of get the record out as quickly as possible. I think now we’ve got some new bands on the rise, including us. We’re trying to hit a certain product, obviously, and we will continue on that quest.
What’s the feeling like of being one of the new pioneers of Death Metal? Do you consider this as a compliment but also as a burden?
Ah, no, we don’t even look at it as much of anything like that. If people feel that we’re bringing some fresh air to Death Metal or extreme music, great, then that’s excellent. But as far as what we’re concerned with, it’s not something like, ‘Oh fuck, we’ve got to come up with the best quality this or that, we have to do this or that.’ We definitely do not look at it as a burden. We’re having fun doing what we’re doing. If people love what we’re doing, then fantastic. If people are not into what we’re doing, hey, that’s cool too. We’re not playing music hoping that everyone on this planet is going to be into it. I mean, if that was the case, then we’re in the wrong business, haha. So, we’re just sitting there and playing, and hopefully people will enjoy it.
What’s your opinion on Black Metal? Are there bands you like and some you don’t like or do you hate them all, musically, production-wise and band-image?
Ah, well, I’m not a big fan of Black Metal in general. I’ve heard of bands being labelled as Black Metal that I didn’t think were that Black Metal, like Necrophobic for one. I think they’re a great band. I’ve even heard people say Seance was Black Metal, haha, and it’s not! Aside from that, image-wise I wouldn’t do it myself, but you know, to each his own. Musically, it’s not something that I’m terribly into, I don’t listen to it. But like I said, it’s all one and the same. I mean, you’ve got Black Metal, Heavy Metal, extreme music, Death Metal, Hardcore. To really start to snub that they’re still metal, still guitar-driven, drum-blasting and whatever, I don’t feel comfortable doing that. Because each person is doing his own thing, and that’s all good.
I know you’ve just released a new album, but have you any new songs written already? If not, maybe any ideas (about new elements) or anything which is waiting for us in the future?
No, nothing new as of yet. It’s been pretty much playing and keeping the stuff fresh. And it’s been pretty much every weekend or every other weekend that we’ve had shows, so we’ve been practising the songs in the set and stuff like that. And we’re going to have to sit down and start to come up with some ideas for new songs.
Are there any cool drinking experiences or other bizarre stories you would like to share with us?
Hahaha, I don’t think they’re that bizarre, I guess. I mean, we go, we play and that’s pretty much it. I mean, we pack up and leave the city. A crazy incident we had was when we were being pulled over in Bulgaria. We were pulled over by the police and we had 2 tour buses, and they went through all our shit and they planted a bag of weed up on the top of the bus, which was one of the things. They were trying to incriminate people. They were surrounding us with shotguns, they were like 5 or 6 guys, they looked like hunters. But they went through all our shit and kept us there. And actually, we ended up missing a show. We were supposed to play in Austria. I forgot which metal festival, but Dio was headlining. And actually, we weren’t even playing, but it was Six Feet Under, Vader, maybe even In Flames. But we ended up missing it and had to go back to Munich and spent the night in Munich. As a result, they let us go as they had nothing on us. They let the dogs go through all our shit, haha, and came up with nothing except for the bag they had planted on us.
Okay, that was all I could come up with, here’s some space for mentioning anything I forgot, love statements or whatever you want to say.
No, I think that’s pretty much it. I’d just want to tell everyone to keep it real and keep supporting the scene. They are the reason that we’re doing this.
I hope to catch you on your next tour then.
Yeah, for sure, start spreading the word. We can always use the support, also for the agencies to know that the people want to see us. We’re also going to put that on the website as well, to let people know, hey, start letting the agencies know. Because nothing at this time is planned yet, and maybe when they start to realise that people are looking for it and want us to come down there. With that kind of support, that should be good.
Thanks a lot for doing this interview!
Yeah, sure, this is for the internet? Cool, just send me an e-mail when it’s online, I would definitely like to take a look at it. Take care!
