Interviews

METHANE Sign with Distilled Entertainment

Posted by tarjavirmakari on March 9, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: . Leave a comment
Photo by Linda Gabor Photography

METHANE join Artillery, Onslaught and Generation Kill as official roster band of Distilled Entertainment, Artist management and tourbooking.

Distilled Entertainment is a global artist management and North American tour booking agency founded in 2004. Specializing in all genres of rock and metal, Distilled focuses on management services for both signed and unsigned artists and tour booking services for national and international acts. We place artists on stage with some of the biggest names in the industry. Our artists have performed alongside bands like Metallica, Slayer, Korn, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Machine Head, Hatebreed, Atreyu, and All That Remains, P.O.D., as well as other international-level talent.

“Distilled Entertainment is proud to announce we have added Swedish metal masters Methane to the agency roster! If you don’t know them you should! Check them out now!!!” – Patrick Donovan – Agent

After the January 27 release of Methane’s “Kill It With Fire” album things have rapidly begun happen with the Swedish thrash metal band. ” We are now looking forward to do some larger international tours to promote the album. Distilled roster is a filthy mix of thrash metal icon, we are pumped up to start working with Patrick and the agency!” Keep an eye out for upcomming tour dates for Methane in 2023.

See Methane Live
March 24 @ Pow Wow Rockfest in Stockholm Sweden
April 5 @ PLatsen in Linköping Sweden with Nervosa and Frantic Amber
May 27 @ Jarfalla Metal Fest, Jarfalla Sweden

Interview with LIV KRISTINE: “The album reflects where I am today”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on August 5, 2022
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Interview By Alison Booth

Norwegian vocalist, LIV KRISTINE is a true a pioneer of women in metal. She is well known for being the vocalist with gothic metallers THEATRE OF TRAGEDY and also the founder and original vocalist of symphonic metal band LEAVES’ EYES, plus much more besides! Liv is set to re-release her “Enter My Religion” album for the first time on vinyl on August 19th via Allegro Talent Media/ Plastic Head/ Zyx Music. The album will also be released on cassette, with two bonus tracks and as a double CD with unreleased tracks and demo recordings.

A little while ago,  Metal Shock Finland’s Alison Booth caught up with Liv for her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, which is broadcast every Tuesday from 6PM GMT on UK station TotalRock. The show with Liv can be heard here.

The forthcoming released was discussed, as well as Liv‘s career and more besides!  You can listen to the interview on the audio player and read some excerpts below:

Discussing the album release, Liv explained:

“I’m very, very happy about it because Enter My Religion was, as it was released back in 2005, it was there just shortly and then it disappeared and the reason for this was that my label partner back then – Roadrunner Records, were bought by somebody else. So there was an internal structural change in the company, so I was one of the ones who had to leave Roadrunner Records for that reason.

I really liked working with Roadrunner Records, but I got my rights back after many years and my first thought was let’s bring it back with a facelift. I’m very happy about the re-release, because it was a very important step in my personal development back then, but it just as much reflects where I am today.”

Regarding her career, Liv revealed:

“Sometimes I thought I really just wanna get out of it and around the times of Enter My Religion, or I would say before, a couple of years before, there was a court case, there was all this stuff going on, which has nothing to do with personal development, authenticity. It’s all about money and I felt strange in the music business. So now, being able to release Enter My Religion by myself is a huge step forward.”

On how her role has adapted over the years, Liv reminisced:

“It was very exciting to be able to go on the road and play gigs at the age of eighteen, nineteen years – coming from Stavanger, from the darkness of Norway where it always rains. All of a sudden we were out there and it went really fast and we got famous overnight.

We found ourselves in the middle of everything, this great music circus and we seemed to be pioneers. But we didn’t feel that way, because we were just being so authentic. We loved Shakespeare, we loved doom metal, we loved Black Sabbath, Anathema, Paradise Lost and we were just eager to express ourselves.

It was kind of refreshing to see how things have developed since then. You have a lot of bands now, female fronted metal bands and I think that’s great. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the gothic metal genre or if you’re like more the rock ‘n’ roll lady, it doesn’t matter. I just think to me personally that it’s important we have more women in metal. I adore Doro and the work she has done, she was a pioneer for me.“

“Enter My Religion” Tracklist:

LP, Tape, CD:
1 Over the Moon
2 Fake a Smile
3 All the Time in the World
4 My Revelation
5 Coming Home
6 Trapped in your Labyrinth
7 Blue Emptiness
8 You Are the Night
9 Enter my Religion
10 Streets of Philadelphia
11 You Take Me Higher
12 For a Moment

Demotracks CD
1 Over the Moon
2 Trapped in your Labyrinth
3 You Are the Night
4 Streets of Philadelphia
5 You Take Me Higher
6 Stjernenacht (unreleased)
7 Woman in Me
8 One Thought Closer (unreleased)

Demotracks Tape:

  1. Enter my Religion
  2. For a Moment

Bonus single Vinyl:

  1. Trapped in your Labyrinth – Piano
  2. Fake a Smile – Piano

Pre-order the album here: https://livkristine.net/index.php/shop/

Official Facebook

Website

Interview: Japanese Martial Arts Warrior REFUTA KAMUY, aka ‘Iron Fist’, Electrified by CELTIC HILLS Album “Huldufólk”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on July 25, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews, News. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Interview + opening words by Markus Eck
Inside Photo taken @Nakajima Gymnasium in Sapporo

REFUTA KAMUY – Transcontinental fighting association. Such a highly enthusiastic and fundamentally honest to each other group of truly quivering idealists is not something you experience every day, even in the age of the Internet, if there ever was such a thing before! Thus, a Japanese karate martial artist, wrestling maniac and Metal lover found his way to German PR agency Metal Message ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ, only to be immediately gifted with new music by the Italian power metallers CELTIC HILLS. As a contact springboard for this Japanese-German fraternization acted the long-time active Chicago Thrashers Aftermath, whose rebellious accuser attacks also our fighter hero likes to use during sweaty training as a musical strength donor.

Suddenly electrified by the CELTIC HILLS album „Huldufólk“, Refuta ‘Iron Fist’ Kamuy immediately trained even more intensively and better. The fact that Celtic Hills even wrote the song „Metal Message“ as a tribute to their tireless promoter Markus Eck out of deepest gratitude, appreciation and joy, animated master Refuta to appoint the uplifting song as his very personal entrance anthem and his fight song in general. When the enormously jump-strong sportsman then also saw the special lyric video for „Metal Message“, it was all over him – so the muscularly really fabulously defined bundle of energy recently even made his own video with the timeless song. So it’s high time to let the damn likeable Nippon fighter have his own say.

  • Refuta, thanks a lot for your truly awesome support of Metal Message ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ and Celtic Hills – how does it feel for you to be an highly appreciated part of such an absolute wonderful intercontinental constellation ?

Thank you so much too! „An absolute wonderful intercontinental constellation“ – that’s right, we crossed the border with Metal and Martial Arts. As the lyric line out of the Celtic Hills song „Metal Message“ – „he brings it to the universe“, that’s exactly what happened!

  • The world sees you masked only – allowed to ask you for your age and the reason for the mask?

As a wrestler, this is not a mask, but a real face. I am the guardian deity of Sapporo City, Hokkaido and a villain. I made my debut in 2017, at PWS: Pro Wrestling Sapporo. So, maybe I’m 5 years old as‚ Refuta Kamuy‘. My age in human life? That is a top secret. But that doesn’t mean I can’t answer the whole interview!

  • Biography – in which age did you discover Metal for yourself and in which age and why did you start to doing power sports etc.?

Seikima II, the Japanese band, is the first Metal that I’ve ever heard, it was in my childhood in the 1990s. Their influence is huge. I learned that expression is free in a band where the ‚devil plays Metal‘. My power sports was influenced by Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Bruce Lee’s films from an early age. When I’ve red an introductory book on Wrestling in the library, I was also very impressed, but at that time I didn’t think I could do that myselves. I first experienced Karate and Wrestling from high school club activities. When I became an adult, I traveled around Japan on a motorcycle and updated at various martial arts dojos, and it became my current style.

  • Which Metal bands are your all-time faves and which bands are able to empower you musically mostly in your workouts and fights?

I have a lot of favourite bands, but let me pick up a few:
Seikima II: To remember the original intention and because it started with them for me.
Megadeth: I often listening to them when I want intelligence, madness, and fighting spirit.
Helloween: Their songs just make me feel great!
Angra: I especially like their releases with singer Eduardo Falaschi, „Rebirth“ and „Temple Of Shadows“. Perfect, if you want to overcome personal hardships!
Aftermath: they thrash hypocrisy and deception! Same as a real workout!
Celtic Hills: their epic simply makes one feel proud!

  • Do your sport partners also like to listen to Metal?

Yes, as many wrestlers like Hard Rock and Metal! ‘Mr. Karate Machine‘, who is training with me in my video, does not listen to Metal often, but he is excited by Celtic Hills’ „Metal Message“!

  • What do you like most in the song Metal Message and in the music of Celtic Hills?

The bands that Metal Message keeps to introduce, are all great, but if I have to choose from them, I especially like Hand Of Kalliach and On Atlas’ Shoulders. Their song „Age Of Fire” brings my soul to tremble! Hand Of Kalliach’s „Cinders“ and the snow-white landscape seems to come to my mind. There are times like that on winter days here in Sapporo City, Hokkaido. My favourite song of Celtic Hills is „Metal Message”! I love the lyric line „We want it higher!“ I downloaded the whole „Huldufólk“ album and listened to it repeatedly recently. It was amazing from the first song „The Secret Of The Grail“. It’s like the opening of a magnificent story! And every song is high energy and epic … Celtic Hills is amazing!

  • How would you describe the Metal scene in your city Sapporo?

As far as I know, we have many enthusiastic fans here. And one can visit many venues to enjoy gigs in Sapporo. Also various Metal acts from overseas come here to tour. Metallica often came to Makomanai Ice Arena for a while, and there are countless bands aiming to play live here as well.

  • Which styles of music do you like to hear nowadays then beside Metal?

I like to listen to video game soundtracks. They’re good for learning about how to expressing characters and scenes. I also often listen to a Japanese punk band called The Massmissile during my workout. Seiichi Nakano, their drummer and a friend of mine, has a fantastic technique and his double bass is even faster than my punch!

  • How did you end up getting right into wrestling?

When I was very young, I found a book by Hulk Hogan in the library that was like an introduction to wrestling for me. I was shocked by the powerful scenes of people with such a big and wonderful body colliding hard, and then finally fighting even harder with each other. It reminded me of a hero, such as Kamen Rider, who came from television to the real world. When I think about it more deeply, I think that in the end I wanted to be something that ‚transcended’ regular existence. And that has now come true even with this interview – we have crossed the border!

  • How would you describe and level your place in the Japanese fighter scene?

To be honest, I think I’m just one of many indie wrestlers. I can’t make a living wrestling yet, so I usually work weekdays (pretending to be human). Then on the weekends I become a wrestler and terrorize the PWS wrestlers. But I keep challenging them ambitiously so it doesn’t stop there. That’s another reason why I’m happy to give this interview.

  • Regarding the Japanese Wrestling League, how big or popular is this sport in Japan?

I think it has reappeared in recent years. And now I’m showing it to the interested world again!

  • How many matches did you do so far, and how many did you win?

In PWS, we do one or two combat events a month. Of course, COVID-19 has reduced that noticeably, but fortunately lately it is now back to the way it used to be. As for my personal track record, apart from the year of my debut, I have usually won the games. However, I think I have far more prestigious opportunities than pure victory or defeat, such as this enjoyable interview!

  • Your body looks just amazing and your fighting actions are a blow – how often and how long do you practise training a week?

Physical training I perform constantly 5 times a week. I also do aerobic and basic skills exercises on 1-2 days. Technical training takes place one day a week, sometimes special wrestling training on Sunday. Now, I obviously can’t do all of this if my regular work, an event commitment, or an injury interrupts my rhythm, but these are my ideal workouts. I also love to train in nature, for example in the mountains, by rivers or by the sea!

  • Your special nutrition – what do you eat and what do you strictly avoid?

Oh, I love meat. Especially chicken. And I also like rice a lot. When you live here in Japan like I do, there is simply no day that you don’t eat rice! So I love and appreciate the lunches deliciously prepared for me by my family, who can always please me so highly with these delicious ingredients! And I avoid alcohol as much as I can. I only drink it occasionally. Speaking of which, I forgot – I also like the poor victims on the other side of me in PWS fights! I will ‚boil‘ them all with my fists and kicks!

  • Anything you would like to add?

Nice to meet you all here! I am Refuta Kamuy. The wrestler from Pro Wrestling Sapporo – we are active here in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan! Many thanks to my brother Markus from Metal Message ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ across the ocean and to Jonathan and Celtic Hills for the great songs that gave me this wonderful opportunity to introduce myself. I am truly grateful and honoured. We have crossed the line! I hope that you guys care about the city of Sapporo and Pro Wrestling Sapporo even a little bit, and I will continue to inspire and motivate you for this with all my might! Thank you very much for everything!

Watch Refuta Kamuy’s videos, training with CELTIC HILLS’ song ‘Metal Message’, HERE and HERE.

More information at
https://www.instagram.com/refutakamuy_pws/
https://twitter.com/steelbaron273
https://www.facebook.com/refutakamuy

Interview with SOTIRIS ANUNNAKI V. -SEPTICFLESH “Our dream was really demanding, this time it was on the next level of difficulty”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on May 27, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Interview By Alison Booth

Greek symphonic death metal titans SEPTICFLESH have been a force in the music world for more than thirty years, having formed back in 1990 and releasing their debut EP in 1991. They built a huge following of devoted fans over the years and are still gaining new generations of them, eleven studio albums later.

The brand new album “Modern Primitive” was released on 20th May via Nuclear Blast Records. A week before the album release, Metal Shock Finland’s Alison Booth caught up with SOTIRIS ANUNNAKI V. for her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, which is broadcast every Tuesday from 6PM GMT on UK station TotalRock. The show with Sotiris can be heard here.

Much of the interview was of course about the new album and how it developed during difficult times, its production and also looking ahead to touring again and more! You can listen to the interview on the audio player and read some excerpts below:

On working with producer Jens Bogren, Sotiris explained:

“Well, we were really happy with the result that he managed to produce with Codex Omega, it was our first collaboration. And so he was the first on our list for the next album and fortunately he had also the time. He’s a really powerful producer, with understanding not only for metal, but also for music in general.

So, from the point of production, it’s essential to have someone that can digest the magnitude of channels that we provide, we provide more than one hundred channels of recordings. So we needed someone that will be really clever and he’s a master in his field. He was really open minded – we wanted that. We didn’t want someone to enforce an opinion you know. We wanted to discuss and listen to the options. He also had a lot of patience with us, we are really difficult [laughs].”

Discussing recording the album during the pandemic:

“Yes and actually it affected us as musicians and composers and so you can say that a lot of our experiences enforced from the lockdowns, from the situation, one way or another were incorporated on this album, so it’s a special album.

Also, all this time that we had in our hands, we had the chance to reflect on our direction as a band and everything and also to reflect I think about the direction generally, philosophical point of view, the direction of mankind. And that influenced me to write a lot of lyrics that are dealing with things that are involved around today. And so the majority of the songs are down to earth you can say, but it’s not an earth healthy, but an earth that declines.

So you can say that this album has this ominous atmosphere, all the way from the start to the ending song and it defines its character.

We had a female choir, male choir and children choir. So as I told you from the start, we had to find solutions, because our dream was really demanding. The whole creation we had in our mind evolved around many people, many musicians. We had also a lot of traditional instruments and we had to record for instance some Greek traditional instruments like a bouzouki, also we had to record a mandolin and a lot of other instruments. We had to communicate and we had to use the different studios. We had in some cases to be allowed to have a lot of people together, perform together and it was a really giant step for us. Of course, in the past we always had this symphonic element, but this time it was on the next level of difficulty.”

On the upcoming European tour with HYPOCRISY:

“Hypocrisy is a great band and the people that listen to Hypocrisy and the people that listen to Septicflesh have a lot of common ground – there is something that unites us. We have the opportunity to play a longer setlist, that is important for us. And I think as you said the mix is really good and the people that come will be really satisfied.

The next two years for us will be full of touring around the world.”

SEPTICFLESH are:
Seth Siro Anton | Vocals, Bass
Christos Antoniou | Guitar, Orchestra
Sotiris Anunnaki V | Clean Vocals, Guitar, 12 String Guitar
Psychon | Guitar
Kerim ‘Krimh’ Lechner | Drums

More info on SEPTICFLESH:
Facebook.com/septicfleshband
Twitter.com/septicfleshband
Instagram.com/septicflesh_band
Septicflesh.com

THE FREQUENCY CONSPIRACY – Ft. Members of Last in Line, Tyketto, 24-7 Spyz, Raven – Talking About Debut Album “Quarantine Covers”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on January 10, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews, News. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

THE FREQUENCY CONSPIRACY, the new project by 24-7 Spyz, Seventrain, Shockhead drummer, Joel Maitoza – featuring members of Last in Line, Lynch Mob, Raven, Pat Travers Band, Tyketto and many others – released worldwide their debut album titled “Quarantine Covers” on January 1st, 2022 (New Years Day) through So Cal Records / Alliance Entertainment.

Just recently we sat down with Joel Maitoza to talk about the debut album “Quarantine Covers”.

  1. Why did you decide to name your new project The Frequency Conspiracy?

A number of years ago, I read an article about the frequency conspiracy and it intrigued me (although I’m not really into conspiracy theories in general). In a nutshell, standard instrument tuning is 440 which was standardized in 1953. If you tune the A string to 432, it’s known to have more healing properties, easier to listen to and more in tune with nature. It was suggested that the monopolization of the music industry features this imposed frequency (440) that is ‘herding’ populations into greater aggression, psychosocial agitation, and emotional distress predisposing people to physical illnesses and financial impositions profiting the agents, agencies, and companies engaged in the monopoly.

  1. What inspired you to record an album of cover songs?

When the pandemic hit, bands stopped touring and the world basically shut down. I decided to contact some musicians I’ve always wanted to work with and record an album of cover tunes with a hard rock/metal vibe. The songs are some “hand-picked” favorites of mine that I thought everyone involved could have some fun with and the fans would enjoy hearing.

  1. How did The Frequency Conspiracy project come about?

It all started releasing two videos in 2020 featuring Last in Line/Lynch Mob vocalist Andrew Freeman and it just took off from there. I recorded the drum tracks in the studio by myself without any music. Just a click track and the arrangement in my head. Then I sent the tracks out to the individual musicians I wanted to have perform on the songs. The artists recorded their parts in their own home studios and sent the files back to me. It was really cool to hear how each musician interpreted and performed their parts. The songs just evolved. The creative process was absolutely fascinating and I think we captured some amazing performances on this album.

  1. Why did you want to work with a bunch of different musicians instead of just forming a new band?

I kind of took a chapter from the Steely Dan playbook and didn’t want the same musicians playing on every song. I could distinctly hear each chosen artist performing each song in my head prior to recording the track. It took some time to figure out who would play on what, but I think everyone did a great job working together and making their individual parts fit like a glove.

  1. What was the biggest challenge in making this record?

Individual tracks (sound files) and mixing. It’s much more cohesive when the entire band is all working together in the studio and bouncing ideas off each other. This was a bit more difficult because the individual tracks were recorded in various studios all over the world so the overall mix of each song sounds a little different, even though the engineer and I tried our best to keep everything consistent.

  1. Are you planning on touring at all?

Not at this point. If the album starts to take off, a few of the musicians that played on the album have already agreed to do a short run of dates in the US. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I have been receiving some show offers scheduled for summer 2022. It also depends on the pandemic. We’ll see.

  1. What’s the future of the new project?

I plan on releasing a couple of more videos to promote this album and have a few radio interviews scheduled. I’ve also been working on an album of original material which I hope to release in early 2023, but no release date is scheduled yet. I’m not sure if I’ll record another “covers” album, but I really enjoyed recording this one and had a blast working with everyone involved.

“Quarantine Covers” Tracks listing:

  1. Carry On Wayward Son
    • Feat. Christophe Godin – Guitars / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Andrew Freeman – Vocals / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  2. Hell Bent for Leather
    • Feat. John Gallagher – Vocals, Bass / Joshua Jones – Guitars / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  3. Locked Out of Heaven
    • Feat. Jason (JMR) Richardson – Vocals, Guitars / David Pastorius – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  4. Words Get in the Way
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars, Vocals, Keys / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  5. Rock Candy
    • Feat. Joshua Jones – Guitars / Andrew Freeman – Vocals / Rick Skatore – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  6. Turning Japanese
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars, Vocals, Keys / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  7. Shapes of Things
    • Feat. Jason (JMR) Richardson – Vocals / Joshua Jones – Guitars / Miguelon Rodriguez – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  8. Sailing
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars, Vocals, Keys / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  9. Life in the Fast Lane
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars / Miguelon Rodriguez – Bass / Joey McCaw – Vocals / Joel Maitoza – Drums

Joel explains, “When the pandemic hit, bands stopped touring and the world shut down. I decided to contact some musicians I’ve always wanted to work with and record an album of cover tunes with a hard rock/metal vibe. The songs are some “hand-picked” favorites of mine that I thought everyone involved could have some fun with and the fans would enjoy hearing. It all started releasing two videos in 2020 featuring Last in Line/Lynch Mob vocalist Andrew Freeman and it just took off from there. I recorded the drum tracks in the studio by myself without any music, just a click track and the arrangement in my head. Then I sent the tracks out to the individual musicians I wanted to have perform on the songs. The artists recorded their parts in their own home studios and sent them back to me. It was really cool to hear how each musician interpreted and performed their parts and the songs just evolved. The creative process was absolutely fascinating and I think we captured some amazing performances on this album.”

Watch “Quarantine Covers” Promo Video:

Also check out the earlier released cover version singles:
‘Carry on Wayward Son’ by KANSAS – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdrbcunU4do
‘Rock Candy’ by MONTROSE – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlD9yzVTkco

The album was recorded at Exum Studios by Scott Exum (Stabbing Westward, Unwritten Law), Room 9 Studios by Jerry Whiting, DML Studios by Don Lithgow (RIP) and AJP Studios by Alex Pappas (Finch).

For more information on The Frequency Conspiracy, please visit:Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thefrequencyconspiracy

Interview with Peter Tägtgren, HYPOCRISY: “This is Hypocrisy and this is how it will always sound, so take it or leave it”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on November 5, 2021
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Interview By Alison Booth

Swedish death metal legends HYPOCRISY are celebrating their 30th anniversary – and what better way to celebrate than by releasing their highly anticipated new album “Worship”! The band’s thirteenth album, the first in eight years, is due for release on November 26th via Nuclear Blast.

Metal Shock Finland’s Alison Booth caught up with Peter Tägtgren for the Halloween edition of her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, which is broadcast every Tuesday from 6PM GMT on UK station TotalRock. The show with Peter can be heard here.

Of course the chat centred around the forthcoming album, but also some other subjects and Peter had plenty of interesting things to say! You can listen to the interview on the audio player and read some excerpts below:

On the positive feedback to the new singles already release, Peter expressed:

“You never know what to expect, I mean generations come and generation goes. But you know, it seems like people stuck to us which I am very grateful to and yeah, it’s amazing I would say, it’s more than we thought.“

Discussing the first single ‘Chemical Whore’, Peter explained:

“Yeah it’s kind of ironic I would say. Because I mean, when you see a few comments going ‘Oh is this an anti-vaxx song?’ I’m like ‘Come on man!’ We did the video in September 2019 so there’s no way.

It’s definitely about how I see doctors and the pharma industries are in cahoots. You know like ‘if you force pills down the throat, we will give you some percentage’, so to say, you know just in a wider simple aspect. So, doctors don’t really need to prescribe you these pills, but if they do, they will make a couple of bucks more, so they’d rather do that – some of them. I’m not saying everybody, I’m just saying, you know sometimes instead of taking a pill, maybe it’s better to go to a psychologist to talk about it, you know.

I mean, the whole reason why I wrote this song from the beginning was actually I have a lot of friends that I’ve seen going down on pills. You know, this Benzyl that’s in the pills, that’s really addictive. Yeah, it becomes a very bad circle of needs so to speak, so I just felt I needed to open up about it.”

Describing “Worship”:

“I would say my whole idea of this album or writing this, is mainly just to write better Hypocrisy songs and a fatter production, that is the goal. And I think it has all the elements you need in there – there’s a lot of sad songs, a lot of slow songs, a lot of mid tempo songs, a lot of epic songs, you know like you float away on it. So, I hope people will be happy with it. To be honest, I really never know what Hypocrisy fans want from Hypocrisy [laughs]. ‘Cause I mean in the past, there’s been so many different kinda styles of albums, but you still have this feeling of Hypocrisy in it. So I guess it’s in my DNA when I write music, I think in a certain way and yeah, it becomes Hypocrisy no matter what. But I definitely feel it’s closer to maybe the end of the nineties albums, you know in the way of the style of songs so to speak, I would say. But still, it’s Hypocrisy today. It’s nothing I wanted to clone myself or anything with the songs, it’s just what comes up in my mind.

Mikael and Horgh, they contribute with a couple of riffs each as well. So I mean it’s important to write with your heart I think and not look around and see what’s popular and what is not,. You know it’s this is Hypocrisy and this is how it always will sound, so take it or leave it.”

Discussing the album cover art:

“Yeah, it was actually an idea that I came up with when I was in a hotel in 2017 in LA. I was just laying in bed and got an epiphany or whatever you wanna call it, like ‘wow’ and I just start finding paper to write on. I was drawing on a piece of napkin and shit, you know with the pyramids and the cross, it looked like hell ’cause I’m not a good drawer. Then I took a picture and sent it over to Nuclear Blast, the CEO, I was like ‘I got this great idea about this shit you know and if he can help me develop it with someone that knows what to do’. And that’s what Blake did and he did a fantastic job.

So, the album cover was done before the album was written and the videos were done before all the album was done, I mean all the songs on the album were done. So we did pretty much everything backwards than we normally do. We did photo session in April in 2019, we did a video in LA that’s not out yet and then we did Chemical Whore in September 2019, so everything was done before actually all the material was done. Which is good though, ’cause otherwise we’d have had to wait a little longer, because normally you only focus on writing good songs and record it and boom! Then the company goes ‘You have any photo?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you have any videos?’ ‘No’. [laughs] ‘Later maybe later’.

So it was good to have this kind of set up for once. You know, these things that you don’t think about, that will come eventually and becomes very important, is done before you’re done with the album.”

On the tour situation, Peter revealed:

“I’m afraid it’s gonna be another wait. Actually, we had a tour for October/November this year, but we never announced it because we were just watching how things were going bad during the summer. Because actually, the album was I think supposed to come out at the end of the summer so we would have a month before the tour start. But the pandemic, it made it hard to get all the vinyls and things because the factories doing vinyls were under the Covid thing, so not everybody could work and things like that. So you know, to get a vinyl in three months actually became seven months, then eight months and nine months waiting because of this whole pandemic stuff. So yeah, what can you do and so suddenly now we’re here in November for the release. So yeah, I was glad we didn’t announce it at all.

So right now we pretty much have a new European tour done for September/October next year and I can tell you there’s some UK shows, not only one, only go to London of course that everybody do, but we’re gonna do a couple more I think, that’s what they’re working on.”

To pre-save the album and for more details, visit the official HYPOCRISY website here.

HYPOCRISY is:
Peter Tägtgren | Vocals, Guitars
Mikael Hedlund | Bass
Reidar Horghagen | Drums
Thomas Elofsson | Session Guitarist