Well we signed a deal with Century Media to reissue the back catalog, so they issued the first two albums last year, I think around November or something, October maybe. And this year, the other three are up for re-release, so we are starting off with Angelic Encounters, and the other two will be released after the summer or so, but all five of our studio albums are going to be re-released.

Well the news just got out that we signed a deal with the people from Century Media for a new record, that was just issued like one hour ago, so we'll be writing songs for a new record that will come out sometime next year to coincide with the band's 30th anniversary.  So, that is the big news for today actually

Yeah I started the band back in 1984 when I was around 12 years or so. There was a big gap in the 90's before the band got back together around 2000, I think. We did a few more albums and went through a lot of bad luck with small shitty labels until we landed a deal with a big one, so that is pretty cool actually.

We write a lot of stuff about horror movies and gore and things like that. Religious leaders, political leaders, things of that nature. What the world is going through, all the shit that we are being put through that is led by the church or different religions like Islam or Christianity, which is always a big issue.  I think also pretty much everything that goes on, things that we read about, things you see on the news, things are are pretty much all around us. We try to not focus on just one topic, but on lots of them.

Not always. Sometimes, I think, there is just a lot of frustration that comes out, and we like to make a statement about certain things without turning into a political band or whatever. It's not something that we ever did, be a political band, but there are a lot of things going on and it's important to speak your opinions, I think. Sometimes (writing lyrics) it's like a tale that creeps into your mind that you want to write about that is inspired by a horror movie and other things, but not everything is dead serious. Some lyrics are, some are not.

Well a lot of people have been in the band over the years of course, and the current lineup has been together for I think about 10 years now. Our drummer Yuri left the band a few years back to tour with the band Melechesh, since we were with a small record label that stored the albums for years, and when they came out, no one was interested. The label didn't promote it, and nobody knew about it, and he was really frustrated about that, so he started touring with Melechesh. I think in the same period, Paul and I started with Hail Of Bullets which became pretty big, so we were focused on other things. After a few years he decided to play with Thanatos as well, so I think after all these years the band has developed our own style or niche, a cross between thrash and death metal. With the rerelease of the albums, we are starting to see a steady rise in musicianship, so we are hoping

Yes I think the second one, Realm Of Ecstasy from back in 1992? I have always loved that one very much, and the last one that we did a couple years ago Justified Genocide. Those are my favorites. The fans they loved the first album, which is OK, but sounds too much like a demo to me.

I love to listen to metal, but also Hard Rock and Classic Heavy Metal. It ranges from stuff like Sabbath and Rainbow to Immolation and shit like that, you know? A little Death Metal, a Little Trash Metal plus some classical metal like Maiden and Priest. Most recently  I have been listening to an old band that has made a reunion album and it came out to be a pretty good album so that's the one that I have been listening to the most.

I think when we started out ,thrash metal was still in the developing phase,  bands that were really loud and aggressive we were into most were Venom, then Slayer, and Death and Possessed. I think those were the bands that influenced us the most when we first started. We tried to make our own little mixture of that (sound) and those are bands that I still love very much. I think with the new album, the direction that we are going to take is dark and aggressive like when we first started but with a more up to date sound.

Well we have played a lot of shows with Hail of Bullets, which is good. The funny thing is, the bigger the band, the cooler they often are, you know? With the underground bands there seems to be some sort of rivalry, but with the bigger bands you don't need that shit anymore.  Playing with bands like Immortal, Bolt Thrower, stuff like that, those are really great people and we have had some really great times with them. Even with Morbid Angel, they sometimes have their antics but they are still pretty cool guys. So yeah, I cannot complain about those guys. Hypocrisy, Napalm Death, yeah very cool people.

Well that's a very good question (laughs) a few years ago we said that Justified Genocide was going to be the last album. It didn't take off the way we wanted it to, so it was like there was some unfinished business. We wanted to get a deal with a major label like Century Media, Nuclear Blast, ot Metal Blade records. Now we have signed the deal with Century Media for, 3 albums, so if people like the albums, then there could be another album after these, ya know? I think that Thanatos will exist in a couple of years but it's hard to see 5 or 10 years down the road.

I think the Facebook page is the thing we put the most big news out on and it is Facebook.com/Thanatos333. There is also the website www.thanatos.info, that is also pretty much kept up to date.

Thanks so much!