#jun1999

EMPEROR

Interview with Trym by Daniel Hinds

(conducted June 1999)

When it comes to black metal, Emperor are truly the standard by which all others are measured.  Through all the media hype, the music has always come first, with each album being a bold step forward and establishing a landmark in the genre.

With the nucleus of Ihsahn, Samoth and Trym unleashing the mammoth IX Equilibrium on the world recently, it was a good time to find out more about this legendary outfit.  Drummer-extraordinaire Trym took the time to answer my queries via e-mail as the band prepares to invade America this summer…

In your opinion, what distinguishes the new album from previous ones?   I think the new material is more mature than the previous album, and we did also spend more time on making the sound more powerful than we had earlier.

What is the typical song-writing process in Emperor like?  Was it different this time around? We did not do anything new when it came to composing the music. We usually come up with themes or guitar riffs and put them together when we rehearse.

Is the new material more challenging to play? No, I won't say that.

Will the Thorns vs. Emperor CD receive a wider release?   I don't know, it depends on Moonfog Records.

How did you first get into playing drums?  Were there any particular drummers that inspired you at the start? I first got into drums when I saw a Kiss video when I was around 10. But when I finally started to play myself, I was very much into Slayer and Kreator, and influenced by that kind of drumming.

How is Ihsahn's work on the new Thou Shalt Suffer record going? Very well.  He is putting the last pieces together now.

Do you have any upcoming projects outside of Emperor?  Have you written any music or lyrics yourself? Samoth and I are both making some guitar riffs that will not be in Emperor.  Nothing is quite finished yet, but this project will probably called Zyklon.

Is there anyone you want to work with but haven't had the opportunity to yet? There are always some people that make great music that you would like to play with, but I am also very satisfied playing with Samoth and Ihsahn.

I see you've contributed to a number of tribute albums.  Which is your favorite?  Any bands you'd like to see a tribute done for in the future? I think all of the covers we have done came out well, and they are all favorites in their own way. Actually, I think there are too many tributes coming out these days.

You've always had an interesting image that has evolved over time.  How important do you think the image of the band is? Very important, because the image represents who you and the band stands for.

Was the band happy with the video for "The Loss and Curse of Reverence"?  Will you do any videos for this album? I think the video is good, but it did not turn out the way we wanted it at all, so we were quite unsatisfied when we first saw it.  There will be some live video, but we don't know how much yet.

How did you affiliation with Candlelight come about?  Are you still happy with them? We are satisfied with Candlelight now, after PHD took over the whole company.

In your opinion, how do you differentiate between bands creating 'art' as opposed to just entertainment?  Who do you think have been some of the most creative artists in the black metal scene?   I don't think black metal is entertainment, and I think a lot of the Norwegian bands have been quite creative, and made their own style.

Do you think people need to separate artists from their art or are the two bound together? I think they are bound together.

Does it bother you that the more sensational aspects of the black metal scene have overshadowed the music, thanks to magazines like Spin and Kerrang!? Not any more.  People have realized that the music is the most important issue in black metal.

What is your take on the Lords of Chaos book?  Do you think a more balanced and in-depth book should be written on the subject, as this is the only resource a lot of people will have about it? I have not bothered to read it yet.

What in your opinion has been the most accurate account of the black metal scene by the press? I think most of the major press is finally focusing about the music instead of all kinds of bullshit that have nothing to do with it.

What do you make of the growing number of black metal bands that are espousing National Socialist and other right-wing political beliefs?  Do you feel that politics should be part of black metal or not? Politics and black metal have nothing to do with each other.

In modern times, human beings have become increasingly out of touch with nature.  Do you think there is a reachable balance between technological progress and harmony with nature? There is no technology that can replace nature.  If nature is gone, so will the technology, so you might say there has to be a balance.

Are you concerned with environmental issues at all?  How is Norway in terms of dealing with issues like deforestation, pollution, etc.? Here in Norway, there are no big environmental problems, so I'm not so concerned about that now.  But if the third world continues polluting and destroying nature, it will reach my country some day. The government is taking this seriously and spending lots of money to prevent this from happening.

What are your predictions for the Year 2000? Armageddon!!! (he he he)

I understand you have a US tour planned for this summer.  Are you looking forward to it?  What other countries will you be visiting this year? We are coming to the US this summer at the 7th of July, and I am looking forward to it.  We will do one show in Mexico and I think two in Canada.  I think it will be great.

IN FLAMES

Interview with Anders Friden by Daniel Hinds

(conducted June 1999)

Sweden has really established itself as the home of death metal in the 90s.  Taking the sound invented in the States to a whole new level, bands like Entombed, At The Gates, and Dismember set the standards for not just brutality, but also melody and technical ability.  Then along came Dark Tranquility and In Flames, mixing in elements of folk and classic metal to create an even more potent and accessible variation on the death theme.

With their fourth full-length album, Colony, just released and tour plans around the world, In Flames are set to build even further on their already sizable fanbase.  I had the pleasure to talk to vocalist Anders Friden recently about the latest developments in the In Flames camp…

In your opinion, what is the biggest difference between Colony and previous In Flames releases? First off, we have become much better as musicians and it helped in the studio to get a better sound, a better production.  There are better songs, too.  I mean, the last album was almost two years ago, but I don't actually see that big of a change.  We are following the path we have made, not too big of a step.  We've stayed true to ourselves, doing what we want and what we love.  It's a bit more heavy and also the use of some electronics, like drum loops and stuff, that hasn't been there in the past, so that has changed our sound a little bit.

Is there a theme to this album, lyrically? Mmm, yes and no.  It's not a big concept like The Jester Race and Whoracle were.  It's more of my view on where I am today, or since the writing of the album in '98 and '99 - what I hear when I talk to people, what I hear on the radio, see on TV, and playing a little bit with the future and what will happen.  But it is like small stories in each song, not a common theme all over.

Why the title Colony and how does the cover art fit into that? Well, it's not a big thing behind the title actually.  I had ideas for a couple of titles that I showed to the others, like 'What do you think about this?' and they liked this 'Colony' thing.  It's short, it's rememberable, and it's linked to the past, the present and the future.  The song "Colony" is more about, instead of sitting around complaining about things, it's better to take it in your own hands and do it better yourself.  A lot of people, including myself sometimes - I'm not better than anyone else - just complain about things.  If you're not out there doing it better yourself, then you should just shut up.  As for the cover, I gave Andreas Marshall the lyrics and told him a little bit what I wanted, more or less what mood I wanted, but I feel like he's an artist and he will do better work if he works from his own head instead of me standing over him, telling him exactly what to do.

Could you describe the typical song-writing process for In Flames? Jesper (Strömblad, guitar) and Bjorn (Gelotte, guitar) do the riffs at home, they bring it to the rehearsal studio where all of us put our own identity on the song.  Then we'll put it together, leave something open for the studio, like some melodies or solos.  It's more fun to work in the studio when not everything is planned, as you can come up with new ideas and stuff.  I write the lyrics.  I write small pieces here and there and then put them together, make them a story.

You mentioned using some electronics and whatnot, so I was curious if the recording process was any different this time? We used the same studio, Studio Fredman, but we did work a little differently.  Like, we made three songs in a row, the complete songs, instead of making all the basic tracks in a row, like all the drums, all the bass and so on.  So we had everything, all the microphones, up there all the time.  Then we could concentrate more on each and every song.  [when doing them all at once], when you're on your tenth song or whatever, after a lot of drum takes, you tend more to be like, 'Oh, whatever.'  We used a guy for the electronics thing, but we made the song as we would have made it without the electronics - made it the normal In Flames way - so we put the electronics after, instead of building the song around the electronics.

Do you enjoy working in the studio? Yeah, I like it a lot, but it is a totally different thing from playing live.  I like both.  If it is a great vibe in the studio and you are able to experiment, you have time, then it's a lot of fun - not when there is stress or you have to come up with something really, really fast.  Or you have everybody against you (laughs) or something like that.  It happens sometimes, where you're making something you're very proud of, and the others are like, 'Uhhh….,' and you have to compromise.  Most of the time, we are on the same level, otherwise it wouldn't work.

Are you involved in any music projects outside of In Flames? No, I work in all my spare time (laughs).  In Flames takes a hell of a lot of time:  we rehearse pretty often, we tour and stuff.  But I have the studio, the Studio Fredman where we recorded.  We recently moved and built two studios in one, and I am half owner and work there, so that takes most of my time.

Do you think you might get more involved in the production side of things? I'd like to, but I don't have that much time.  In Flames is my main priority and as long as that is taking the most time, I will concentrate on that.  When I'm at home, I try to work with bands because it is good fun and I like to meet people.  I have to think about the future as well.  I mean, I don't think I'll be screaming my ass off when I'm 50.  But you never know…

You're heading to Japan soon to tour - have you guys been there before? Yeah, we were there in the beginning of '98, February, and it was an amazing experience.  We played two sold-out shows, one for 600 people and one for 1400 people, and it was amazing.  All hands in the air, from the first row to the last.  We played there by ourselves and…it's hard to describe.  I'm really looking forward to going back there again.  Everybody was really friendly.

I have heard that you might be doing some dates in the U.S. as well - any more info on that? For now, I know that we are definitely going to the Milwaukee Metalfest, but then I don't know.  It was meant from the beginning that we'd do some more dates around Milwaukee while we were over there, but now I don't know if we're going straight back to Sweden to do some more festivals, and then go back to the States and do both Canada and South America as well.  For now, it is only Milwaukee, which is going to be great because this is the first time we've played there.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how it is, you know.  You hear so much about how the metal scene is in the States and I'd like to experience that.

Going back a bit, how did you come up with the name 'In Flames' in the beginning? Well…(laughs)  A former guitarist of ours, Glenn, who left after Whoracle was released, it's something which was in his head and I don't really know.  I wasn't in the band in that period, so I really have no clue.  I have some clue, but it's not worth to mention I promise you. (laughs)  But it's a good name - short, memorable.

In Flames have become kind of the standard by which all melodic death metal bands are compared lately.  How does that feel, to be in that band? If people use us as an inspiration…  It's an honor to be recognized as the band that has been in the forefront because we always have done this, even if we've developed as musicians, we always done the same thing.  We haven't bowed to any trends.  If there was a trend, it definitely was because people talk about this New Wave of Swedish Death Metal and the Gothenburg style or whatever - the trend came to us and not the other way around.  It's nice to be recognized.  It's an advantage, but also a disadvantage because people get sick of the whole concept and if you're recognized as a one-dimensional band, then it's not good.  To be named as an inspiration, though, is an honor, of course.

What is your take on how the whole death metal scene has progressed over the years? Well…everything comes and goes.  Here in Europe, we've had this big - and I think it's on its way down now - heavy metal revival, bands from the 80s, and also some new bands as well.  Like HammerFall have had great success over here.  I don't really know what happened to them when they were in the States.  I talked to them a little bit, but it was more about the (laughs) beer and the girls.  Seriously though, I don't know what happened over there, but over here, now there's a couple brutal death metal bands and I'm hearing about a revival for them.  But I feel it is healthy, that there are bands coming and going.  A lot of younger bands come up, take the old concept and make it a little bit…not more interesting, but they take it to another level and make their own thing from something old.  I listen to so much music, it wasn't so much before when I was into the whole underground thing.  The underground is good and we wouldn't be here without it, but nowadays it seems like the bands talk more shit about each other and before people helped each other.  Now, it's 'who is more evil than the other' or 'who is more brutal' - that's not my cup of tea.

The official In Flames web page is pretty good and I was wondering if you spend much time on the 'net? Well yeah, we're out there, we're connected, all five of us.  There's a guy who is running that page and doing a good job and we try to keep it updated as much as possible.  Sometimes we have chats with fans.  We have had pages in the past and I've seen other bands where the news pages are really, really old, and that's kind of boring, so we try to be as up there as possible.

What are your long-term goals for In Flames? Well, to tour as much as possible.  My biggest wish is that every person in the world should own an In Flames CD, but (laughs) I believe that is never going to happen.  To reach out to as many people as possible, be a good influence to other bands.  We do this our own way and if people become happy or angry or whatever, as long as we can touch people.  We love to do this, all five of us.  That's basically it.

LACUNA COIL

Interview with Cristina Scabbia by Daniel Hinds

(conducted June 1999)

One of the most impressive bands to emerge from Italy in recent times has to be Lacuna Coil.  Mixing elements of gothic and metal in an unusual way, they fall into that same vague, hard-to-define sub-genre that bands like Sentenced and Moonspell now call home.  What separates Lacuna Coil from the others, though, is the addition of the graceful, soaring vocals of Cristina Scabbia.  The elements all fall into place on the band's debut full-length, In A Reverie, which was just recently issued in the States after being available overseas for a while.

Though she began our conversation by apologizing for her bad English, I found Cristina to be very articulate, as well as quite charming and optimistic - rare traits in a metal singer, to be sure, but nothing about Lacuna Coil is commonplace.

I understand you recently did a tour with Skyclad.  How did that go? Very good.  With Skyclad and then another month with Grip Inc. and Samael.  With Grip Inc., it was sort of a festival for a week.  The reaction of the audience was great and all the bands are really nice guys (laughs).  Also, with Skyclad, it was really good because they are really happy people.  They like to enjoy themselves - we drank a lot, we had a really good time with them.  Also, the audience of Skyclad is really open-minded.  We are two different bands, but the audience was really open-minded and they liked us.  Fortunately!  (laughs)

How about future shows? Right now, we're going to play some festivals in Germany and we have to play in Naples, in Italy, with Aerosmith (?!-dh) on the 12th of July and some festivals around.  But we also have to write some new songs, new material for the new album because we want to record it in January of next year.  I only know that maybe we might play some festivals around the US next year, but I don't know when yet.

Speaking of writing a new album, what is the Lacuna Coil writing process like? Mmm, it depends.  Right now, we want to change the way we write new songs, but usually, the main composer is the bass player, along with the guitar player, and they write the main structure and the guitar parts.  Then we try, with a drum machine, to find the good drum parts, they try it in the practice room, then we find the vocal lines and the lyrics.  But we want to change and to try to start the songs from the vocal line, for example.

How do you feel the new album differs from the EP? The first thing is the line-up changed.  You can hear it from the music, because you can hear that it is more positive and more mature.  The compositions are changed, because we take a lot of care with the structure of the songs.  I think the main thing is it is more mature.  We wrote songs, instead of just music, some riffs put together.  Maybe the one is more natural, because it reflects what we were in that period, but right now In A Reverie can explain the condition of the band - very positive, very 'in a reverie,' in a dream.

How did you first get involved with Lacuna Coil? In '96, because you know the band used to only play for a hobby, between friends in the practice room.  They only asked me to do some choruses for the demo tape that we recorded in '96, and I said 'yes.'  After that, they asked me to be another singer.  We said, 'Okay, let's try to have two singers, but not only a chorus and a main singer.  Let's try to sing together with a male and a female.'  That's about it.  They were friends of mine.

Do you write the lyrics? Yeah, we wrote the lyrics, me and Andrea (Ferro, male vocalist), together, along with Valerie from Century Media.  She's Italian-American, so she can help us better.

Where do you get your inspiration from for the lyrics? We used to talk about personal things, things that happen every day.  We don't want to talk about pessimistic things, because we're not into that.  But we really like to talk about our personal feelings or personal or experiences we've had:  love, hate, when you're sad - we want to try to talk about sensations maybe.  We try to suck inspiration from the music.  If the music is sad, I of course cannot write happy lyrics.  But we like to talk to about real things.

How did the actual recording of In A Reverie go and do you actually like working in the studio? Yeah, a lot.  Maybe it is the worst experience for a musician (the studio), because you have to be prepared even if you are ill or something.  You have to be ready to do your best.  You're in the studio early in the morning and stay in the studio all day.  And maybe it is boring because you have to wait for all the parts to be finished before you record, but I think it is very good.  We recorded in the same studio, The Woodhouse, with the same producer, Waldemar Sorychta.  Waldemar right now is a very big friend of ours.  If, in the first album, we received a lot of advice from him in terms of the music, (this time) we wrote everything by ourselves and we received his help only in the studio, with the recording.

Was it difficult to get attention outside of Italy? Not so much.  In Italy, there is not a very big scene in metal because people used to listen to more commercial stuff like your dance music from England, or MTV or something like that.  It's not so difficult when you become well known outside of Italy and then come back into Italy.  It is difficult for an Italian band, for example, to have a good record label in Italy or to play…. The people, it is really strange.  I don't know why, but they have more respect for the bands outside of Italy.  Maybe they think the bands outside Italy are better - I don't know why.  But right now, we are quite famous and we are really happy because now the trend in Italy is the power metal, the epic metal, and we are totally different.  We are the only band that you can find in the magazines that's a little important that play another kind of music, so we're proud of that.

Does it bother you when people comment more on how you look rather than the music? Ah, it's normal.  Have you ever thought about the intelligence of Pamela Anderson?  (laughs)  No, I think it's normal because, in metal, it's not easy to find females in the bands.  You cannot find a lot of female personalities in the bands, so it is normal because a lot of fans of heavy metal are guys.  But I don't care, because they talk also a lot about the music.  It's not a problem.  Maybe it can only help us to be more in the magazines.  (laughs)

Where did you guys get the name for the band? We chose it from…I don't know where exactly, maybe the Internet.  The old name of the band was Ethereal and we recorded the demo tape with that name, but there was another band in Greece with the same name.  We chose two words.  'Lacuna' is a Latin word that means 'when you have a lack of something,' like a lack of memory, for example.  And 'coil' is a spiral and it's like an ethereal name, like 'empty spiral' so nobody can have the same name.  I hope!  (laughs)

What did you do before joining the band? I used to work in a shop, a clothes shop, and in an office also.  Right now, I cannot still live just by the music, so I work in a pub as a barmaid.  I work there when I'm in Milan.  I really like to do it.  Maybe one day, if I will not continue with the music, I can open a pub or something.  I really like to talk with people, so I think it is the best work.

When did you first get seriously interested in being a singer and who were some of your early inspirations? Hmm..  I started in about 1991.  I've always been interested in music, but I started to sing in '91, though for a completely different kind of music.  I used to give my voice without my name for some products of dance, for some radio, but I didn't like it because I didn't like to be alone to sing.  I really like being in a band, because it is like having a second family to be with.  My inspiration…I don't know.  My favorite singers are like Aretha Franklin, soul singers, but they are completely different from me, so they can only be idols, not inspiration.

What kind of music do you like to listen to? Everything.  Maybe my favorite band is Depeche Mode, because I think they are really modern, even with the old songs, I really like them.  But I like everything, from Extreme to Black Metal to everything really.  I only hate Italian music because it's really boring.

You should do a cover… Oh yeah, but only in the practice room… (laughs)  We are thinking about doing a cover, but we are not able to find one that we really like.  We want to do one but not of a band from the metal scene.  We want to do something really strange, I don't know what.

What do you like doing outside of music? It depends.  I really like to draw.  I really like to work in the pub, to see everyday your friends and at the same time you can make money.  I like to travel, to go shopping, to go out and meet people.  I love video games!  I'm a big fan of PlayStation and Resident Evil.  (laughs)

What are some of your favorite places you've traveled to, outside of Italy? For holidays, I haven't been so far from Italy:  Spain, France, nothing more.  But for the music, we've been everywhere in Europe:  Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Poland and Czech Republic.  I'd like to go to America at the end of this month, so only my parents are going.  (laughs)  I'm really, really sorry.

I heard you might do a video from this album…? Mm, I'm not sure because it's not easy to get your video played.  For example, in Italy, we only have MTV and another channel called DMC2, but they only play commercial stuff.  I mean, the most heavy thing they play is Cranberries.  It's not easy for a metal band to do a video.  If you're not Metallica, you'll never see your video.  You have to have a very good video, too.  It's useless to do a video with a low budget.  Right now, we want to concentrate ourselves more on life and music.

S.O.D.

Interview with Dan Lilker by Daniel Hinds

(conducted June 1999)

In the mid-80s, when extreme music of all sorts was coming together in bizarre new combinations, one band was right there applying their own wrecking ball to the walls between hardcore punk and metal:  S.O.D., the Stormtroopers of Death.  A side project consisting of Anthrax's Charlie Benante (drums) and Scott Ian (guitar), Nuclear Assault's Dan Lilker (bass) and Billy Milano (shouts), S.O.D. unleashed their tongue-in-cheek brand of crossover on the unsuspecting world in the guise of the album Speak English or Die!  The effect was immediate and the impact was considerably deeper than anyone would have guessed, least of all the band themselves.

Due to various other commitments, a follow-up record was not forthcoming, though the four did manage to get together in '92 to record a live disc for their well-starved fans.  Eventually, things fell into place and this summer sees the release of the band's second album - a full 14 years after the debut.  Dan Lilker fills in the details between sips of coffee one recent morning…

Where did you record the new album and who produced it? Well, we recorded at a studio called Big Blue Meanee in Jersey City, New Jersey.  It's a place that is run by some really good friends of Billy's.  The actual recording was done there and produced by the band and Tim Gilles and he's like the main honcho there.  Then it was mixed by the band and Vince Wojno.

Are you pretty happy with the results? Oh yeah, totally.  I've done a lot of records and this is definitely one, like Sounds of the Animal Kingdom by Brutal Truth, where I go, 'God, I couldn't think of much more I'd want to do to that record.'  Sometimes it's like, 'Fuck, we should have done this or that or that,' or more personal things like, 'I should have done this note' or whatever.  But we rehearsed more for this record than the first S.O.D. record, so it's a little more thought-out.

What possessed you guys to do another album? Well, we've intended to for a long time.  When I'd be out on the road with Brutal Truth, I'd always hear, 'Is there ever going to be any more S.O.D.?' and I know the other guys heard that all the time, too.  There was going to be an S.O.D. tribute a year or so back and that fell through because a lot of bigger bands couldn't get permission from their labels, one of the nastier aspects of the music business.  I think at that point we were like, 'Screw it, let's just do a record.'  We had to stop back in '85 because a couple of the other guys in Anthrax were getting quite pissed off about it, but not all the same people are in the band now.  Some of the people in the band now grew up on that stuff, so it's a little easier to do it now.

How does Bigger Than the Devil compare to Speak English or Die? When we were writing this record, at least for me personally, we had to walk a thin line.  We had to maintain the integrity of the old stuff, but make it sound modern, not make it sound dated.  It has a lot of the aspects of the first album, but lyrically and at some points musically, it has a lot of modern stuff, too.  But not to the point where it sounds like something else.  We injected a little black or death metal here that we might not have had on the first one, or a couple of blast-beats, but it is still S.O.D. you know?

What is the S.O.D. song-writing process like? A few of the songs, like "We All Bleed Red," "Kill the Assholes" and "Free Dirty Needles" are Billy's songs, ones he'd written and brought to the band.  The rest of them was a process of Scott, Charlie and I sitting down in the rehearsal space, looking at each other and going, 'Okay…'  The first song we had written together was "Make Room, Make Room," where Scott's like, 'I got a riff,' and I'm like, 'Okay, I've got some notes that fit really good after that,' and Charlie's like, 'Well, why don't you do it like this,' and the next thing you know, we've got like 20 songs.  I guess maybe they relied on me a tiny bit to write some more extreme, more modern, more death-oriented stuff, because they know I'm the person who's been listening to and playing that all this time, but it's obvious that everyone was in on it.  Like with Charlie, he puts his own stamp on everything, just the way he plays, it's amazing.

How did you respond to critics who were offended by some of the lyrics on the first album and do you think you'll have that problem this time out, too? Well, when we wrote the lyrics for the first album, we were a little younger than we are now and I can see how people would take them the wrong way if they weren't seeing our sense of humor.  We tried to explain patiently to people that, you know, there might be a song on there called "Speak English or Die" but there's also a song on there called "Milk," which is completely silly, and people have to understand that both those songs have pretty much the same meaning.  With this album, the lyrics are still nihilistic and offensive, but they're a little more mature and articulate.  We don't go after nationalities because we realized that that is kinda tasteless.  There's still tasteless stuff, but maybe it's more social stuff, like picking on crack-heads, I don't know.  As far as criticism goes, well…whatever.  You gotta weather shit like that.  We're not gonna tone down our stuff to the point where it's not S.O.D., you know - it has to be rude and obnoxious.  If people don't realize by now that there is a sense of humor underlying all that stuff, then they probably don't want to.  It's probably extreme P.C. people who are dead-set against us from the start and don't want to hear anything different.  If we go, 'Well, it's not serious,' then they'll go, 'Oh yeah, sure…'  If people are like that, I'm just like, whatever, and throw my hands in the air.- think whatever you want.

How did you come up with the title Bigger Than the Devil? I think Scott came up with that.  That has to do with the fact that metal is always identified with Satan and The Number of the Beast ties in with the album cover.  By calling our album Bigger Than the Devil, it's just typical S.O.D. obnoxiousness.  It's like, all these bands like Slayer and these black metal bands - we're bigger than that!  Your god is just a little, puny piece of shit compared to Sergeant D. and the power of S.O.D.  It's just an arrogant, S.O.D.-type statement.  Meaningless as usual, but cool looking.

How did you get in touch with Nuclear Blast? They got in touch with us.  I've known about the label for years, been friends with the people in the States and in Europe for years.  So, when it all came around, everyone looked at me and said, 'Are these guys good?' and I went, 'Yep!'  We had been taking to a couple other labels and I don't how much of that's gone now - I'm not gonna be like Scott and insult the other labels (laughs).  They got in touch with us, we'd been talking with a couple other labels and going 'Ahhhh…..' - I don't know how you want to write 'Ahhh….' but… - Nuclear Blast called us up and said, 'We're totally into it and here's what we've got.'  We were like, 'Wow, it's a really good offer," and that was it.  I'm psyched about it, if that was your next question.  So far, they are doing a totally awesome job because they're psyched, too.  It's people who grew up with that shit.  It's like if you were a kid, your favorite wrestler, if you got to manage him later, you'd be like, 'Oh, wow!'

I saw that you are going to be touring Japan soon… Yeah, we're going to Japan at the beginning of June for a week.

When was the last time you were there? Well, S.O.D. has never played there.  We did a few shows in the States and that one show in Europe in '97, but before all those shows in '97, we'd only played New York and New Jersey.  We've got more coming up in Europe, too, so it's gonna be pretty interesting.

I understand that Billy has been working as a manager. Yeah, for Agnostic Front and a few other bands that I should know of the names of, but I don't.  A few other bands in the New York/New Jersey area.  He's good at that, Billy's a go-getter and doesn't take any shit, so he makes a good manager.

What are your plans now that Brutal Truth has split? I'm in another band called Hemlock that plays black metal.  We don't have all the trappings, like paint and spikes, because that is very old and tired.  That's not the most active band in the world because you've got me doing this [S.O.D.] stuff and our drummer is in another band and then, just being a black metal band anyway, we've only done like 8 shows in the last three years.  We have an album and an EP out, both on Head Not Found, and our next stuff when it comes out eventually will be on Full Moon Productions.  Since I got a computer in December, I've been messing around a lot with graphics.  I'm basically a creative person anyway, so I mess around in Photoshop and I come up with stuff and people look at it and go, 'Wow!'  So, I might get into free-lance graphics stuff eventually, because I've definitely got a taste for it.  Basically, I just sit there, take a couple hits, and do some crazy stuff, but it does look pretty cool.

What do you make of the current black metal scene? I still think there are too many bands running around with keyboards and violins and stuff like that.  For me, black metal was Venom and Hellhammer, shit like that.  However, if a band does it really good, like Emperor, I can get into it.  I'm glad to see that black metal kids, Norwegian kids, don't have the same stupid attitude they did five years ago, when they had to be snobby and say that everything other than black metal sucked, especially death metal.  I don't know how much you want to get into it, but the reason all those kids were saying that is because they saw something on the back of a live Mayhem record, a quote from Euronymous, where he said how much he hated death metal.  But, that is because he was speaking from the point of someone being disillusioned, because he used to love it and it got all trendy and political.  These kids didn't understand that and said, 'All death metal that ever existed sucks,' because that's what they read out of it because they weren't old enough.  I'm glad to see that people are growing up a little bit.  I prefer the more brutal bands like Gorgoroth, shit like that.  I don't know if you've heard my band, but that's kind of the vein we're in.  We like Darkthrone a lot.

I've heard the name, but I haven't heard Hemlock yet. Well, it's definitely no frills.  It's straight-up, punishing type shit.  I mean, I'm friends with guys like Dimmu Borgir and everything, but personally, it gets just a little too, I don't know…  If I want to listen to something nice and ambient, I'll listen to something directly like that.  If I listen to black metal, it should be pretty much in-your-face, but that's just my unholy opinion.

How long do you think you'll be working with S.O.D.?  Is it kind of open-ended right now? Yeah, it's definitely open-ended.  We could conceivably do another record in a couple years, we wouldn't wait 14 years - we'd be too fucking old by then.  Right now, there's a huge, tremendous buzz on the record, a lot of good shit coming up, and if we do a whole bunch of stuff and at the time other people's schedules are open - I mean, I'm not sure what Anthrax's schedule is gonna be.  My personal schedule is more open that it used to be.  The whole time I was in S.O.D., I was in Nuclear Assault and then in Brutal Truth and that even overlapped a couple of years, so I'm always in more than 2 bands at the same time.  To answer your original question, yeah, it's open-ended, but I'd be into more if there was a reason for it.

You've been in the business for a number of years now and I was wondering if your opinion of it has changed any over the years. There's a lot of down stuff, but then again…  When we signed to Relapse, that gave me a lot of faith because we'd had a lot of problems with Earache before that.  There are some labels, like Relapse and Nuclear Blast, that shine through as people that are totally committed.  There are other labels out there, I'm not going to mention them, that were big in the early 90s for a lot of metal bands and their names start with 'E' and 'R' - you can figure that out later - that make it really hard to do stuff, because eventually you just become a product and they don't care about you and it's very frustrating.  As far as how it has changed since I first got into it, I don't think it has - it's all just a cycle.  Something gets popular, everyone else tries to do it, all the labels sign all these bands that are trying to do something to get in on it.  Then, it's like a ship that takes on too much water and it just sinks.  It happened with thrash metal, it happened with death metal, it happened with black metal.  As far as all this Korn stuff, I really don't like any of that shit at all so I shouldn't really comment on it too much, but it definitely seems to be happening with that.  As much as I don't like Korn, I'll give them credit for being one of the first bands to do that, but I don't like what they're doing so, whatever.

All the copycat bands are just that much worse. For me, I wouldn't want to play in a band that sounds just like someone else.  I mean, how many interviews have you read where one of the first lines is, 'Oh, well we're influenced by a combination of Korn, Pantera and Machine Head,' and you're just like, 'Oh, crap, not again…'  It's like, what are you contributing?  Absolutely nothing.

Outside of the graphic art work, what else do you do in your spare time? Umm…  I live at home with my parents because it is too expensive to live around here in New York.  Besides that, I've got my digital studio here in my room.  I've got these boxes that Roland makes, these hard-disk recorders.  One is a 16-track and one is an 8-track, but I've been real neglectful since I got my computer because I've been messing around online, learning Photoshop and all this other stuff.  If I wanted to, I could make album-quality stuff in my room, which I used to - weird ambient stuff.  Other than that, just a normal laugh:  go out with my friends, have a few drinks, a few laughs.  Pretty much normal shit, you know, I don't go out and kill people or anything.