Hi there. You're from Greece, right? How's the weather over there?

Really! Already in autumn here. You are very lucky!

Indeed this is a headbanging album (Laughs). The title... well, it was Schmier's [bass & vocals] idea really. When we did the demo, we checked his lyrics and this one was really cool. Quite representative of our music, I think (Laughs). But it wasn't something that we gave a lot of thought on.

Since your reformation in 2000 you keep releasing good albums. How difficult is it for you to overcome yourself every time.

I don't think too much about it. I write music and try to write as good as possible. For us it was always a fun deal to do music. Trying to work so hard and set high goals every time will definitely steal the fun out of it. Then there's no reason to keep doing music. We never made huge money out of this so... I listen to a lot of music and I try to be as open minded as possible. My taste always changes...

I don't like shitty productions in any kind of music. Yes, Thrash Metal can be a bit more raw but you can't consider yourself to be a serious musician if you don't demand the best for your music, you know. I also don't like the whole digital recording style. All drums sound the same to me this way (Laughs). Yeah, I am happy with something in between. I hate fucking computers. I like handmade music. Peter actually helped us in recording the drums.

Oh, you know, we didn't record like in a row or something. There were big gaps. Maybe two weeks or something but not in a row and one more week for mixing. I can't really keep track of time in such matters. Don't shoot me (Laughs).

(Laughs) Not by a long shot. It is not. It is a conspiracy. Three people is good as a band. No more than three people. I see bands with six people and I wonder how they manage to make up their minds. We are three and we argue all the time (Laughs). Yeah, I guess it is more easy this way.

It was Schmier's idea. He came up with it. We didn't think that it would be possible to do such a thing but more musicians than we could possibly imagine helped us. It was a great thing you know. Really cool stuff. And it did happen right in the last days of the recordings...

Oh yeah. We did one for the song mentioned above. It was of course impossible to get all those people in the same room on the same day, you can imagine how busy they are. We did a cool video with animation and stuff.

Of course man, you know I like this part of the job (Laughs). We will come to Greece. We start with Japan, South America, Europe etc.

Very difficult, I have to say. There are many classic songs and we must also play new songs. I guess the best thing would be to play for 3-4 hours but I guess that's impossible. We try to keep everyone happy. Maybe this time we will play some songs never heard in the past or that we have played them very long ago.

Tell us the one thing that you hate and the one thing that you love while being on the road...

I hate the fact that it is very hard to sleep. I always love to go on stage. Yeah, that's the up and down of life on the road!

Oh, tough one. Just little things! I want to play in places I have never managed to play in the past. But we are working on this. My biggest dream is to keep doing what I am doing right now for as long as possible.

No, no chance in hell (Laughs). Yeah, there are very good bands out there but things have changed. After all, bands like us have invented this kind of music. So, as inventors we will always be more popular even from the greatest students. But I do like some new bands. I guess this is a good thing for us (Laughs). There will never be bands that'll overcome Exodus or Testament or other legendary acts.

I would ask the labels to stop releasing everything there is to be released. There are so many bullshit releases out there that simply steal the air out of good releases. I hate to see good releases going nowhere just because they are not coming from huge labels, and at the same time to see crappy albums going so well just because they have the support of a huge label.

Thanks for the interview. I hope to see you soon in Athens. I hope all our fans really like our new album.