J: Well, I have to be doing just fine as I am with Trivium in Finland for the first time since 1991. So, we’re doing great!

J: Well, the UK and Scandinavia are places we haven’t really played in for many years now. We’ve enjoyed a lot of success in other parts of Europe but over here we just haven’t been welcomed, not by the fans, but by the press and promoters, so we kind of just stayed away. We are slowly making waves and building up our name again and I hope people in the press and promotional sides have liked our new records. Thanks to Trivium, we were able to come over here now after all these years. We will fight hard and do the best we can to come over here again on a headlining tour at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2008.

J: 80s metal with a bit of modern stuff thrown in.

J: Well, lyrically, it was just some really shitty business times, that I went through a few years ago. Back then I hooked up with a manager, who was a total disaster. He in turn hooked me up with a record, publishing and merchandise company, that were a disaster. I spent a few years getting rid of them, which it not at all an easy or cheap thing to do. It was devastating on me, but then again I think that bad times are a very good source of inspiration for artists, no matter what the genre, metal or otherwise. So the lyrics have a lot of hate, anger and FU in them. Musically, it is just Annihilator. I mean there are so many different elements in there and influences from so many great bands of the past, that I can’t separate it any further.

J: The writing and recording were relatively painless and fun processes. The hard part was taking care of the business things that I mentioned earlier at the same time while doing the record. But like I said, those fights gave me some good inspiration for song writing. So everything went pretty smoothly, although we did spend a little more time on the vocals this time. You see, our previous record, Schizo Deluxe, has probably in my mind the best vocal performances in this bands history. Dave Padden did an excellent job and canned the record in a week and a half. Probably for this reason Dave went into the recordings of Metal a little…well, a lot of artists have this happen to them, when you come off a really good record and your confidence is at a really high level as a consequence. It’s not a “big ego”-thing at all but more a feeling of “Hey, I did it so great last time, surely I can do it again”. Of course, it didn’t help that Waters was telling him how great he was doing all the time. So Dave was a bit unprepared for the new album, like he didn’t sing for a few weeks before the recordings to warm up, etc. It took us two months to record the vocals for Metal, so Dave learned some good lessons on this one*laughs*. But he did fight it brilliantly to the end and the results are great.

J: Yeah, at the very end of the recordings, when almost everything had been done and the package was just about ready to be mixed and mastered, this idea came out. Actually this idea came out thanks to Michael Amott and Corey Beaulieau. I’m not entirely sure which one was it first, I think it was Corey, who phoned me asking if we’d have time in the recordings and if he could come and play a solo on the record. I was a bit confused first, like “huh, you wanna come and play on my record?” Of course I said yes right away and I think it was the same day that I called up Michael Amott, that “hey, would you like to play a solo on our new album?” So about in a week I had this idea that I could just ask some of my friends – guitarists, who I know and who like Annihilator’s music – to play on this record. I contacted some guys right away like Alexi Laiho from Bodom and Will from Lamb Of God and BANG, we suddenly had a bunch of guests on the album. It was really, really cool.

J: Yes, I would say that besides the singer/guitarist of Anvil, every one of the dudes had to be people I knew. I wanted to keep the group to my friends. Otherwise, the whole thing could have gone over the top and a bit fake, you know? Because like I said, the songs were there. We were ready to finish up, but this guest thing came out as a bonus idea that was just too cool to pass up.

So you didn’t feel right to try and get guys like Tony Iommi involved?

J: No, I didn’t want to go that far. I mean, I guess I could have asked some people who were almost at that level, but it didn’t feel right. It was actually my girlfriend, who said that “Hey, you want a great way for your fans to be able to say ‘Waters is trying to get big names on there to sell records?’ So that’s why we stayed with just friends of mine.

J: There were a couple of guys who wanted to spend time on it and do a really good job. Then there were guys like myself who just go on there and play. For example, I think Alexi is like that. He just rolls the tape and plays, he is that amazing. For me, you know, in the early days of Annihilator I used to spend days planning out and really spending time on solos, whereas know it’s just warm up-grab the guitar-roll the tape. If I get a good idea and make a mistake, I go over it again and fix it very quickly. I guess it’s experience. The more you play, the more you practise and the easier things like solos come to you.

J: A bass solo? Because Billy Sheehan wasn’t invited. *laughs*

But couldn’t you have asked someone else, like Alex Webster or Steve DiGiorgio?

J: Yeah, but now that I think about it, it’s probably because I personally know mostly only guitar players. *laughs*

You could have played it yourself.

J: Well yeah, I play bass on all the Annihilator records so, maybe next time. I’ll do it next time.

J: Well, we do share vocals with Dave during shows. On this shortened set, that we do with Trivium, Dave sings about two thirds of the songs, and as far as lead vocals go, I mainly sing Operation Annihilation. As far as albums are concerned, you gotta take note that singing is physically very hard work. I do so much as it is with albums, like write the music, play the guitars and bass, producing, mixing, so I tend to avoid additional work. Most importantly, Dave has a good voice so it’s better that he, as the singer, does most of the singing. I know some fans like my voice. Personally, I like singing a lot, although I’m not that good at it. I think I’d fit well on one or two songs per record doing lead vocals, maybe.

J: Well, we do share vocals with Dave during shows. On this shortened set, that we do with Trivium, Dave sings about two thirds of the songs, and as far as lead vocals go, I mainly sing Operation Annihilation. As far as albums are concerned, you gotta take note that singing is physically very hard work. I do so much as it is with albums, like write the music, play the guitars and bass, producing, mixing, so I tend to avoid additional work. Most importantly, Dave has a good voice so it’s better that he, as the singer, does most of the singing. I know some fans like my voice. Personally, I like singing a lot, although I’m not that good at it. I think I’d fit well on one or two songs per record doing lead vocals, maybe.

J: You know, they sound like it, sure. Actually, they refer to our own song from 1993, Set The World On Fire, that has those yells too. But then again, to that song the influence came from AC/DC, For Those About To Rock, Yeah! So I would call it an indirect tribute although it is pretty direct when you hear it. *laughs*

This beckons the question: Would it be possible for you to bring a huge row of cannons on stage during that song, when you play it live?

J: No. Unfortunately we can’t do that unless we sell a couple of hundreds of thousands of records. If we quickly sell two-three hundred thousand albums, we may be ably to give you some cannons.

J: No. Annihilator-records are not the best way to hear Mike Mangini’s abilities on the drums. He holds back and only does what he feels is necessary when playing for our music. He is totally different animal when he plays alone on his clinics or drum videos. For those not familiar with him, just check out mikemangini.com to find out.

J: It depends on the band. If I go see a band like Slayer, it’s just pure aggression, that makes you wanna punch something that’s not right there. This is very good, because it’s better to hit air or headbang than beat up your kids or your wife or be mean to other people. Slayer’s live show is great, because you can let all of your anger out – pure adrenaline. Then if we talk about bands like AC/DC or Judas Priest, it’s all about smiles, rocking out and positive energy. Bands like Rush, then again, make you wanna see the technicality of it.

J: My live-rig? Well, I just made a deal with a Polish company called Laboga Amplification, that made me these really cool amps. They’re like a cross between a Boogie and a Marshall JCM800. But they have two separate channels for both clean and dirty sounds, with separate send effects, for additional effects and all that. But I don’t do that. I like the Angus Young-approach, where you just plug in and play. No pedals, just a channel switcher, bit of compression and a noisegate. Then we’ve got some really sweet guitars going on. Two endorsments, first, we’ve got Ran Guitars, another Polish company, that makes some of the greatest Flying V’s that I’ve ever seen or played. You’ll see them on stage tonight. Second, we just six months ago got a deal with Gibson, and they’re making me some really cool V’s. So we have the best of both worlds, so to speak.

Are these Gibson-guitars going to be moulded like their classic V’s á la Michael Schenker or something different?

J: Right now, were using some older, ’59-model guitars for bodies, with custom paint jobs. Then we will stick the parts in that I wanted and it should be ready by fall. This is really amazing, because Gibson doesn’t give endorsements to that many people. I consider myself very fortunate with this.

J: Just the titles. I don’t think I’ve even read the original. Alice In Hell was just such a catchy title, as has been proven by history. It’s still one of our most popular songs. I actually don’t read a lot. I used to read a lot of psychology books. My mother was a teacher, so I got a lot of psychology books to read. That’s probably what I would be doing for a living, if I hadn’t become a musician. But to get back to your question, just a play on the titles.

J: No, I just thought that it was pretty risky to put a funny, silly song like that on a record. But I decided back then, while doing Never, Neverland, that that’s the way I am in life, sometimes silly, immature and goofy. I mean, I definitely don’t act my age. So since then, I’ve just occasionally put silly songs on our records and Kraf Dinner is definitely one of them.

J: I think we will try and tour as a support act until early 2008, just jumping on these bigger tours. Get exposed to some people who haven’t seen us before. Then go out as a headliner or co-headliner a bit later in 2008 for a tour and also hit all the summer festivals.

J: Hmmm…the deepest essence? What the hell does that mean? *laughs*

I have always linked this to the quote ”Heavy Metal is the totality of existence”, by Rob Halford.

J: Well, I was just about to say Judas Priest but…I have no idea on this. That’s my answer, I have no fucking idea. *laughs*

J: Thank you to yourself as well, I hope the same myself.