Great, thanks!

Yes, it kind of seems like once something that has been a threat to us and our society is slowly starting to disappear, it is immediately followed by another wave of bad news. But we can only hope this whole madness finds an end pretty soon and that justice wins at the end. And I really do hope that in the near future we can all think of it as an event that, despite all the terrible things that've happened, still ended quickly before more disasters were about to come.

The band did form earlier but it took some time to get ready for our first gigs and to play them in front of a live audience. That finally happened in 2019. Our first concert was such a huge success to us that we instantly got eager to play as much shows as possible and to record our material. Covid reduced the expected number of shows of course and it also caused the delayed release of our full-length. However, the less festivals took place during the pandemic the more thankful and motivated we got for every concert we were able to play that year.

I wouldn't say easy going at all but if I could say anything positive about the Covid era, it gave us some extra time for the songwriting and the preparations. But we actually planned to start the recordings right after the second wave of the pandemic in January '21. However, due to the third one being on its way, planned things always turned unclear, which was nagging of course. So it gave us lots of troubles during the recording days in March as well, making us postpone the recording process 'til June. Nevertheless, we took it as an opportunity to put the finishing touches on the guitar parts.

The idea behind the title was to fuse the atmosphere of the music and the band with the experiences we've made over the years while spending our time in our hometown, Linz. Our rehearsal room is located in the cellar of an abandoned slaughter house in the middle of the most run down part of Linz, where lots of bizarre things take place from time to time. Looking from an artist's perspective this provides lots of inspiration and heavily contributes to the charm of the music one makes. It represents our story. And yes, that's where the "underground" also plays an important part. It started in the underground, let's see how much it gets to the surface.

I think each of us has his own take on this album. Personally, it does represent a feeling of letting the past be past forever to me, liberating oneself from a sorrow-stricken way of life where the only thing people want you to set focus on is a boring, or let's say even hopeless, looking future that doesn't give you nothing but a shivering fear of an endless routine that wants to take you over. That's where Rock N' Roll comes in, which has left the world for far too long. That's the point where this album shows what we really want to do in our life. Creating our own stuff, letting everything out, carry other people along and entertain them and living our life the fullest.

It was actually the very first thing that came to my head when I imagined what the cover should look like. I wanted something with a city that has similarities to the streets of our hometown. I just had to, because that was how we wanted the atmosphere of our music to be, especially for the debut: Something that comes from deep inside and what everyone who listens to our music should see.

I also wanted to include the character of the EP again, but this time he evolved. Now he seems as something bigger, more threat inducing or shall I say something like a higher being. But when I think about it why I painted him like that it's probably because it should express the „Get out!" message of the song "Paradiser" from the EP but also the thoughts that were put into „Nightrider".

The drunk guy lying in the gutter shouldn't really represent a poser but more an abandoned Metalhead that first sees this „being", whether it's an illusion or not, as a threat. But eventually it may turn out to be some kind of sign, telling him to get back on his feet and break free from his miserable situation. But those are my thoughts to the image. Since it may not very clear to see what exactly is going on, it also lies in the interpretations of the spectator.

I think it lies more in the feelings that the style of old-school metal gives us. It is a pretty wide spectrum of course but it still has this mixture of rawness, melody, speed and Rock N' Roll that the post 80's styles of metal mostly ceased to contain. Old-school metal seems to be out to convey power and a way of life more than just shock and controversy, but that of course depends on the genre. It's not always easy to describe but what is definitely the case is that with the decline of Rock N' Roll as a lifestyle in music in the 90's, metal also changed from time to time completely. But that could also be a simplification from our perspective since we did not live through those times. We can only interpret it through the music itself.

Over the years we've barely listened to anything else than old-school-metal which results in our music hardly showing anything that does not relate to the vibes 80's metal gives to its fans. We know what we want, we know what it should sound like and what kind of atmosphere the music should have. But an important factor could be that each of us has his own preferences and inspirations that he puts into it, which prevents the music from being too monotonous. But that's all I can say about it and various bands probably do that. Maybe there's something about our way of doing music that turns out to be the formula but we don't really know it ourselves.

Every member in the band has the chance to give what he's got. That either being particular riffs or melodies or even a whole written song here or there. On the same time each member that participates in the writing process wants to express himself in a way, resulting in a consistency of different elements one can bring into a song. Those being hooks, complex melodies, expressionism, fills, etc...

While the creation of the songs for this album happened in a span of two years, it still brought us into a healthy flow of inspirations and eagerness for more things to come. We learned lots of lessons that we can use for the future. And besides the troubles caused by Covid, we still were having an amazing time during the recording. The studio that was provided to us turned out to be the most comfortable place in Eferding, which is also where I come from and kind of gave us some bonus points.

That it is vastly important not to wait too long when taking the next step. You never know what is to come next, waiting out there to prevent you from getting your plans right and reaching your goals the way you've imagined it. And also a better feeling for organization and team work.

We always knew that we'd never be satisfied with our material if the sound isn't as convincing as possible when it comes to old school-metal. Because if there's something new coming out that wants to be old school but doesn't have that special feel in the sound that makes it so likable, it loses a lot of spirit. And the person that made it possible to reach that exact feel is Aexxl Stoecker, who we met at a gig in Innsbruck where we played as an opener for his band, Stallion. He's a brilliant producer and a good friend. Without him, this album as well as our EP wouldn't have reached that many listeners.

When Leon showed us the riffs for the song it already felt like something that wants to tell some kind of story. So I thought about what kind of story would fit in there. At that time, I was reading about the Austrian civil war that took place in 1934 and I decided to take this historic event as a fundamental idea. As soon as I got the melody for the chorus, the words „Red and Black" fitted perfectly in there, which happen to be the colours of Austria's two main parties. It was the war between the Social Democrats and the Christian Social party, which ended up in the rise of the „Austrofascists", therefore continuing the suffering of people among the state.

To be honest, as soon as the recordings were done we had no patience whatsoever so we ended up listening to the unfinished product so often, that in the end there was barely anything new to us. We did this to communicate with Aexxl about the sound effects and other additions! Nevertheless we were astonished with every progress and therefore very satisfied with the final product.

Taking as many opportunities and playing as many gigs as possible to make the times of nonstop show cancellations and prohibited action finally past!

Thank you, it was a pleasure!

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