It went great, and we had a great time recording with Kurt Ballou, and it was at his God City Studios outside Boston, over three weeks in May of 2008. We heard and knew of him of course from CONVERGE, but before the studio we were impressed with some of his recent productions where he gave Death Metal bands like ANIMOSITY stellar, organic, natural tones with clarity, yet they were not over produced and processed. We went in with a certain idea, and with his help we were able to create something we are very happy with for certain.

They are representative of a political and cultural scenario present in the US in recent years. Traitors is a diatribe directed at the permanent culture of fear in American society, whereby any dissent against, or questioning of, the dominant war on terror narrative apparently gets one labeled as un-American (as Homer Simpson would say- woo hoo!) - or more specifically, a traitor! (DOH!) However, the much ballyhooed history of this nation is one supposedly built on the glorious dissent and rebellion of those so-called Founding Fathers of these U-nited States (or so we are told), who would (ironically) be branded the ultimate terrorists using today's definitions

Very much so, we live about 2 hours from them, in Baltimore, they are located in Philadelphia, so we can always drive up and stop in if we need to cover some serious matters, and we are very happy with the connection we have to everyone at the label, and how they go about keeping things as underground as possible both with the spirit and the music.

We knew Tomas from when we did a tour with DISFEAR in 2006... about 21 shows in the US... it was a lot of fun and we kept in touch for the most part, so when they were back over touring the US again in May of 2008, we asked him to lay down some vocals when he was in Boston (where we were recording), so he came by the studio and laid down some tracks, and needless to say it was an honor... and Guy as well... we go back to about 2001 with THE RED CHORD, and have down shows with them as well....

Well, looking at Traitors in the context of all of our output...we feel it's the best by far.... We think Retaliate (2003) was solid for the time, it was really just Sparky and I writing the music at that time, as we were a three piece before Adam and Mark joined the band. Retaliate is a solid straight-ahead album, with fun songs. Discordia (2006) was the debut with Mark and Adam, as they had just joined the band the previous year, and it reflects a young lineup, in our early stages, I think we sort of started over in 2006, cause with Mark and Adam we just got a whole new array of influences, and it showed in the new elements of melody and groove that were creeping into our songs, so I think Discordia is ok, but it was rushed and we are not as happy with the production, or with the songs which were a bit rushed. With Traitors, we feel like we have finally arrived and this is the album we have wanted to make for years, it all came together with this record- the songwriting and the performances and the production, its our best attempt at what we want to make the MISERY INDEX 'sound,' and we achieved (in our opinion).

Its something I worked out with the artist, Orion from Relapse, and it portrays the obvious 'traitor' in the centre, and he is hooded, representing all the so-called 'traitors' or dissenters that speak out in opposition to the dominant stance of right-wing America, an extreme and militaristic American worldview, that supports the 'war on terror' stance as an unending, permanent war on any one who defies the American/Western logic of unbridled free-market hyper-capitalism and its military enforcers around the world, and in the United States as well. So we have the primary proponents of this worldview on the right and left of the Traitor (the church and its theocratic ambitions, and the corporate world and its political representatives).

Actually we thought Theocracy was more our MORBID ANGEL song ha ha...and Thrown Into The Sun was kind of like our MASTODON/NEUROSIS song....but as long as people like it, that's the primary point.

Actually the Japanese version has only 1 bonus track, and it's the Color Of Blood and its actually the same version that appears on the MUMAKIL split, so it's not really anything new or special there...

Yeah, I am fine just with MISERY INDEX, I did a side band a few years ago with the guitarist from RUINER called QUILLS and it was fun, but time is the main factor, I am just working and into other things besides music, so with the band MISERY INDEX is all that I focus on.

Sure, it was a split we did in early 2008 with a Swiss Grind band that we really admire, and thought it would be fun, so we put together like 4 songs for the release and it was put out as the Ruling Class Cancelled split, by Power It up! Records, Germany. We really got into those guys after we ended up playing a show with them in the United Kingdom, and they ripped our faces off live.

I don't listen to it, but if someone else likes it, and it makes them happy, then that's all good.

Thanks a lot, and we hope to visit there next summer on our 9 week Euro tour.... Remember, have a good time, all the time!