Hey 😉 It´s feeling good actually! We´re really happy to have our album released now and that we are able to show and present it to other people now, as far as we´ve been working for this very hard and quiet a long time! But being on the road again with the new songs feels great!!

Well of course there are certain aspects that are similar to the first record, lyrically seen. But this time I felt way more comfortable with writing lyrics and putting my ideas and thoughts on paper. I think the lyrics fit to the songs better and are way more personal on this album now, but maybe even darker. Writing lyrics for me is something I don´t plan or anything like that. There are certain issues I want to write about definitely but  a big part  of the stuff are things I just have to write down. It´s often a way to handle things and bad experiences for me. The last song on the record, Distant scream for example is a very very personal song which I wasn´t sure if I want to put it on the record but finally we felt like we really should do it. And it feels really good afterwards. Making an album for me is like writing a book and being able to close it finally.

I think the biggest inspiration for this one have been all the experiences we made in the last two years since we released our first record. I mean, we really played our asses off since we started this band and after Violent Demolition we were able to do a couple of tours through Europe and learned and experienced so many things.. And this just gave us so much motivation for the new album! We are all very young still and everyone really developed as a musician and a human being in the last years I think. That´s what you can hear on Awake the riot.

It´s hard to point certain names or bands.. Of course we are big Thrash metal fans, US Thrash and German Thrash, but that´s actually nothing we are thinking of when we write the music. It just happens. We don´t listen to a cool Thrash band and say let´s do the something similar or anything like that, we just write it. Everyone has its musical background and influences but when we write Dust Bolt´s music we just try to create something we like and we can identify with, without thinking of any genre borders.

Oh thanks Well, that´s way more easier! I can only speak for myself, I´m not sure what Flo, our other guitar player, would answer. But one would definitely be Chuck Schuldiner! His music and his guitar work meant so fucking much to me and it still does! His style is so unique and no one could ever imitate his spirit he had when he played.., same with Dimebag! As far as I´m also a Blues fan and also play other styles of music on guitar, I´d also like to mention Gary Moore! Both, his Gard Rock and his Blues stuff is just unbelievable good! I love the way he played the guitar and I sometimes try to add some bluesy elements to my metaleads which is really fun!

I think you really nailed it! I´d probably say the same. There are also many different styles of handling Thrash metal vocals but I really like the ones you can understand the words still. Just as an example, "Extreme Aggressions" by KREATOR – the music on this record is very brutal, fast and heavy – but when the vocals begin it just all  blows you away by the raw aggression and brutality. Combined with the lyrics the title extreme aggression just fits perfectly. So vocals really can be the last element needed to make the whole music one final step more intense.

We´ve often been asked about the development and the status quo of the genre but it´s really hard for us to say something about that as far as we are about twenty years old and started getting interested in Thrash Metal only a couple of years ago, so it´s impossible for us to compare it to any other time. But one thing I can definitely can say is, that Thrash Metal is still alive and will always be alive and there are always more and more young kids coming who are Thrash maniacs and there are some great new and young bands out there! I think the next generation of Thrash will be kickin ass!

Hard to rank this from our own perspective, but the place we see us is this new generation of metal music. The established bands are getting older and it´s just a matter of time how long they still will be able to play shows and make good records. So that´s where we see us, bringing some new and young energy and awaking a new thrashin generation.

We are going to play all the weekends and some small tours from now on, for the greatest part in Germany, Austria, some Switzerland and Czech Republic I think and we will be doing some small Festivals. That will be it for this year actually, but we are having a big European Tour for the first months of 2015, but I can´t tell any details on that yet. After that we are trying to play the big festivals in 2015, too.

Thank you very much for your interest and support, really looking forward and hoping to playing France as soon as possible!! See you all soon, if you haven´t yet, check out "Awake the Riot" and cheers!