Hello Lior and hello to the great metal brothers and sisters in Greece. I am doing good and happy to finally have a new album about to come out. It took too long and I really am not happy about that, to be honest, but it is true that we could have made a mediocre album every year, but instead, we worked very hard to make a great album and it took a long time

"Stand Your Ground", the new album, is really a double album, and on the vinyl version, it is also a double album. The album is 79 minutes long and that is after leaving out some material, so that, of course, is one of the main reasons it took so long; also it is a concept album and almost all of the songs deal with the demise of the western world and the clash of civilizations that is occurring now.

"Stand Your Ground" is referring to the struggle that the western world will have to fight to maintain its heritage and national culture in the face of rapidly changing demographics and uncontrolled immigration.

That is a good question; it is hard to persist in playing traditional metal, when in America, it is almost nonexistent. But the fact that this is happening is also exciting and reminds me of the early eighties when metal was very underground and tapes were being traded and everyone knew each other and were supportive of each other's bands. What keeps me driving is the burning desire to make great music and not let it die

"Stand Your Ground" is better recorded and that is thanks to our sound engineer Kevin Burnes and our producer Bart Gabriel, who demanded only great performances from all. I can say this without exaggeration; if there is a wrong note in a song, and even if that wrong note is buried under 10 layers of tracks, Bart will hear it and not be happy until it is fixed!! I think this is a better album. The title song, "Stand Your Ground", is epic and has amazing playing and larger than life riffs. The song is almost 11 minutes long, but it goes by very quickly because it is not boring at all. I also love the song "To The Ends of The Earth", another great epic that could be played on the radio if radio played heavy metal, and Todd Michael Hall's vocals are breathtaking on this song; he sings with passion and intensity that few singers are capable of. I also love how he sings the ballad "Worlds Apart", which I am very proud of. I came up with the song when I went to see my friend Lissa Knight sing and she was doing an incredible version of the song "Still Loving You" by the SCORPIONS. Afterwards, I went home and I wrote "World's Apart". I knew that I wanted to have a great ballad on the new album and listening to her sing that song motivated me. The songs I mentioned are almost all mid-tempo but the majority of the album is very up-tempo and heavy like the song "The Enemy" and "Hero". When I was young and living in my parents' house, often I would buy an album if there was one good song but on the album. I truly believe that every song is great!!!

I think that there will always be a place for good metal and even the term 80's metal encompasses many styles and some were very different like POISON to VIRGIN STEELE, or RIOT to MOTLEY CRUE. For me, when I think of the 80's, I think of DIO, but in America, most people when they think of the eighties, they are thinking about hair metal and TWISTED SISTER, POISON, RATT, CINDERELLA. They are not thinking about RIOT, BURNING STARR, SAVATAGE, etc. and that is a shame. Yes, I think that good melodic metal will always be here

I think it would be better if more bands took longer and made better albums instead of flooding the market with product that sounds like it was made fast but not carefully. In America, there is a famous company that makes wine and its motto is "We will sell no wine until it is time". I think that is a good philosophy for music too.

I think that some of them do very well and when it is mixed with good production and intelligent songwriting than it will be something that I as a fan will also enjoy.

I think that SABATON is cool and I like CRYSTAL VIPER, but I don't know so much about newer bands; maybe you can recommend some good ones to listen to.

We heard that it was a good label and we wanted to make a change; also it was recommended to us by our producer Bart Gabriel

The song "The Enemy" is a modern take off on the story of the trojan horse and it is a cautionary tale of how sometimes the enemy rises from within and that this is even more dangerous than the enemy that you can see and defend yourself against.

Thanks for the good words; I am very proud of the guitar playing on "Stand Your Ground". I think that I am flowing better and better and playing more melodic and less confined to the pentatonic scale than before. For me, my guitar playing on this album is the best I have ever done also, a great help to me on this album was the precise rhythm playing and harmony layering by Kevin Burnes, who really was a tremendous help in making the solos come alive.

Well I have to say that Todd, in my opinion, did his best singing yet. He did some things that only a very great singer like Freddy Mercury could do. Some of the songs have many tracks of vocals and the cumulative effect is brilliant. Todd transcends metal in his singing; he is capable of much more, for instance, if the band BOSTON or STYX needed a singer, he could easily be hired. Todd can integrate his melodic style in many a different band as he has. He sounds great in RIOT; he sounds great in BURNING STARR; he brings a lot to the table in whatever he does, I even really love his Christmas songs that he does every year lol.

BURNING STARR will be playing live if this album does well, which I think it will, and it is my hope to come back to Europe and bring our classic metal sound there for another round or two or three.

It is my honor Lior, and I hope to see you and all the great metal people in the beautiful land of Greece soon. Metal Onward!