Okay, that's already two and a half years ago.

Yeah, so it's about time we talk again.

Great.

You guys have put out a new record called Inventor Of Evil. Tell me a little bit about what's been going on between this record and the last one. What have you guys been up to?

Actually after the last album we did a DVD. It's the 20 year anniversary of the band so we had a DVD coming out which included a couple of shows. I don't even know if we ever had an American release for the DVD actually. It's a good question. It was a lot of work about the DVD actually so it took a while to write new songs. We've been actually touring a lot. Not in the States. It was sad because it was difficult to get a tour going. We experienced a lot of new strange countries where we thought heavy metal would not exist but it did so we've been quite busy actually. We also had to get a new record deal going. Our old deal with Nuclear Blast Records was over and out so we thought about changing labels and this also took a little time so that was why there was a little more of a bigger break between Metal Discharge and Inventor Of Evil.

Yeah, you guys have been to Istanbul and Bucharest.

Yeah, we've just lately been two weeks ago to Kiev and the Ukraine. We've been to Moscow and we've been playing a lot of strange countries actually where it's difficult to imagine that there's a heavy metal culture. We just played in Macedonia where there was still war two years ago. It's great to see that the heavy metal scene is increasing everywhere. Also for a lot of people now heavy metal still stands for revolution against the government and for people that have a different opinion so it's hard in those countries to go in the street with long hair and stand for something that the government doesn't like. Even in Istanbul in Turkey it's getting a lot better. I remember the first time we were there, people still got arrested if they had long hair. Now all the metalheads are letting their hair grow there and so the government is tolerating that stuff now. It's great to see. That's why I love my band, that's why I love the music. Heavy metal for me stands for a free mind. For my own opinion and it's great to see that in those countries things are developing.

I totally agree with you. I'm all about a free mind. Things in this country are getting a little bit crazy.

It's a usual problem. The industries are dictating the government. It's all about earning money, making money as much as possible, and they don't care about the people anymore. We're just the slaves that are working for the governments. We're not enjoying our lives. In Germany the problem in the last year with the government was unemployment and people are not earning enough anymore here. I think it's the same problem in all the cultivated Western countries so basically we're getting dictated by the industries and they don't really care about what the little man is thinking about and how their life is doing. It's a sad thing but it gives some good lyrics for a thrash metal band actually. It's a good inspiration.

We've had problems like that in this country for a long time and I guess it's only natural that other people would eventually find themselves in the same situation.

It is. It's actually quite funny that just a couple of seconds ago I was watching some documentary about the Arabian Emirates and they are one of the most richest countries in the world. For an Arabian country they're pretty open-minded for Western cultures and stuff and Dubai is one of the richest cities in the world. It was very interesting to see that this Emirates, every citizen of the Emirates gets a piece of the country like some land and you get free of charge health security and stuff. They said that the Emirates are the only country in the world where the government's strive is to make the people happy. Every person in the country has work and health insurance. They got a piece of the country they can live on. They have so much oil there they don't need to make more money. It's very fine to see because we always think the Arabians are so bad. Dubai proves us wrong because it's maybe the only country where the government really cares about the people. It's freaky.

One of the strangest things here in the United States is that a lot of people have this strange view that here in America we're all individuals but everybody in the Middle East is a homicidal maniac suicide bombing terrorist. Everybody in Germany is lockstep Nazis. All this crazy shit. I never understood that because to me people are people and if people in this country are individuals then people everywhere are individuals.

I think the problem is people are watching too much TV. They believe what they see and then you divide all the races. You divide all the religious ideas. That's where we are now. When you see what's going on in the Arabian world, they also hate Europeans. They hate all the Americans now. It's getting very close to these religious wars again. This is very bad to see and it won't get any better because their government and their media are going to make it even worse of course. The same happens here in Europe now and in the States because our governments will also tell us that the Arabians are the bad ones.

It's these politicians stirring up shit. It's getting old.

It's of course also a religious problem because as you remember, your President made it a holy war against Arabians also which reminds me of the past. Of the church. When you went to South America and when you went to the Eastern world and they were sacrificing and killing everybody. It's not going to work. That's why I hate those religious fanatics. I think it's good if people believe and if they're peaceful but if they use religion to make war or to get the fanatics into the band to do something. Same with the Arabians. All those terrorists, they have nothing else to do. It makes me sick. I'm losing my faith in human beings this way because why can't people go back to what they are. Do something that fulfills your life. I guess we're too far away.

To me religion is nothing more than a political tool to imprison people's minds and control them and get them to do things in the name of some invisible deity that in all likelihood doesn't even exist. I just feel that people ought to throw off the chains of religion. I never understood the Christian doctrine of living your entire life preparing to die. Your lifetime is very, very limited. Death lasts for eternity. Take the short time you have here on earth and enjoy your life and strive for a better quality of life for yourself and everyone else because the time will come soon enough when you go six feet under.

Definitely, definitely. But if you would tell everybody there's no religion. God doesn't exist. Go kill yourselves because then you're going to have a better life, everybody would commit suicide. That's why I say that if people want to believe, let them believe as long as they don't cause any harm to anybody. Right now we have the best view on what's happening when the fanatics are breaking loose again. It's crazy.

That's true. I know in Moscow they've had a good music scene for the past 20 years. When you guys were there, what was it like to be there?

It was very professional actually. The venues are really good. The technical standard is really high. To compare it there's not much of a difference if I play a thousand seater in Germany or in Russia or in the States. It's really high quality clubs and the problem is that Moscow for example is a very expensive city. Ticket prices are pretty high and a lot of bands are going to Moscow now because the music scene is rising so much now at the moment. That's definitely true. Moscow is one of the let me say capitals. If I think about it, in Europe or the other side of the world, if you take London and Berlin and Barcelona, Moscow is one of the cities you have to name. It's modern. It's totally not what you think about Russia. People still think Russia is like a dirty communist country but if you go to Moscow it's totally opposite. It's the city with a lot of the most millionaires and the center of the city is so beautiful. It's all these old buildings and they're all renovated and it looks beautiful. I was very surprised when I was in Moscow for the first time. I didn't expect it to be that nice. It was quite cold when we were there 12 weeks ago but people there are also friendly. It was a nice surprise and this time the technical side for me was the opening bands are Russian support bands which were great old school thrash bands and kind of an American Bay area thrash style. Really good.

Wow, that's cool. The last time I saw you guys, you had come over here with Kreator and you guys played at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas. It seems like a million years ago. You guys are coming back to see us in June.

Finally, yeah. It's not that easy for an old school thrash band to tour the States these days and we've been lucky that this time we have this American tour going on and Nuclear Assault chopped off so they asked us to chop in. It's good to support a new album and to give a sign of life to these American fans. I know they had many American fans complain on our home page in the last year about when we are going to tour the States. It's not just our decision. It's difficult to release albums in America because thrash metal is not the most popular music in the States at the moment. It's going to be great to return and we have a strong album and we have a really cool set list with all the classics so I'm sure people are going to have a blast.

I hope you plan on playing a couple of new songs too.

Of course. The problem is that we're not headlining and I hope they're going to give us enough time to at least perform a 45 or 50 minute set. It's the least what we need to play all the cool songs that people expect. We have a really cool set list in our minds for that so this will include a 50/50 thing of old school songs and of the last albums. We've been playing a lot so we have a lot of experience of what the people like and which songs people like. We're going to get a really heavy best of all wrapped together which is nice too because then you have 45 minutes of just classic, cool songs. It's just killer.

Tell me a little bit about your new record, Inventor Of Evil.

Basically we thought about bringing in some more heavy metal flavor this time using some more heavy parts. Not just fastness. Also getting some more ups and downs into the songs this time which made it a little bit more interesting. A little more rollercoaster kind of thing which was also important for Destruction. I'm pretty happy with the sound also. We've been recording in Switzerland again and we're mixing with Peter Tägtgren and I think it turned out to be right from the comeback albums together with Antichrist, the strongest release and people seem to like it. We have some really good songs on the album I think. We wrote "The Alliance Of Hellhoundz" on the album which is a song featuring 10 different heavy metal singers from all kinds of genres from black metal to heavy metal to show some unity and some tolerance to the kids. I'm actually very happy with the album. We also had to have the mad butcher back on the cover which is one of the things we've wanted to do since a couple of years. I think Inventor Of Evil will be definitely one of the top five Destruction records in the next year.

You had guys from Dimmu Borgir and Soilwork and Hypocrisy and Candlemass and Death Angel.

Also some very old singers from the beginning of heavy metal like Biff from Saxon and Paul Di'Anno formerly of Iron Maiden. It was really cool to bring in the old heroes and the new generation and all the different styles for one song to show that heavy metal is a family thing. We come from the same roots. We all like extreme music in any kind of flavor and it's important to get this message across to the kids because sometimes I'm just wondering why people are so aggressive against each other. People want to be more true, more black, more heavy, more whatever. Come on. Calm down and enjoy music because heavy metal is still an outsider thing. It's still something that is not that accepted by the media and it's hard enough to survive as a heavy metal band in general anyway. It's real important to stand together. It's why we wrote the song and we tried to invite all the great singers from back then until up to date.

At the end of the day music is supposed to be about fun anyway. It's not supposed to be something you take uber seriously. "I'm black metal to the death" or whatever. Come on.

It's what you see sometimes. If you visit the forums and see that people sometimes take them too seriously. I take my music real seriously but on the outside music is my fucking central thing in life and it's keeping me alive. It's entertaining and if you forget about that, then there's something wrong. People should always think about that heavy metal is a style of life. I see heavy metal as the whole word for the whole scene. Either you're black or death or heavy or melodic or whatever. It's important to not forget that. You just have people who have taken themselves too seriously about anything and it's important to keep the revolution going. On the outside also show some respect to your mate. There are a lot of great bands out there and a lot of great styles and that's what we're trying to say with the song.

Hell, I enjoy all of those genres of metal. Just like I enjoy rock music and some pop music and some big band drummers. I always think it's so weird when people are locked into listening to this one genre of music and they just won't listen to anything else. Why don't they just open their mind a little bit?

You know what? It's exactly those people that are so narrow-minded and show so much focus on one thing, I'm in the scene now since 25 years along where they all give up one day because they over taste on one scene for a couple of years and then just totally give up on that and then they turn to the opposite. That's what I saw so many times in my surroundings. My friends or other bands. The people that were not allowing anything else and just stare at stuff. Then one day they just totally gave up on everything and then they run away and they turn into a total hypocrite or whatever. I think it's not good to keep yourself too close and too narrow. It's going to kill you one day.

Yeah, because you get burned out on it and then it's not fun anymore.

It's like eating your favorite food every day. Eat your favorite food every day, one day you're going to hate it. That's an easy experience. Try that and you're going to hate it one day. If you have your favorite thing, if you over taste something one day it's going to be too much. Overdose and out.

I haven't had a chance to listen to the record yet but I was looking at some of the song titles like "Dealer Of Hostility" and "Under Surveillance" and "Seeds Of Hate". I get the feeling that the theme of the record is about all this crazy ass shit that's going on.

Of course. It's hard to escape from the reality of this and we're a thrash metal band that deals with that stuff. It's really important to get some meaning into the lyrics and talk about some actual stuff. As crazy as the world gets, as crazy are the lyrics. It's dealing always on things about religious wars, about greedy people, and about how senseless it is to fuck with your friends just to make more money and stuff like this. It's basically dealing with life. That's what all the lyrics are about. I'm having a really not negative but critical view on life. That's it. That's what all the lyrics are about except "The Alliance Of Hellhoundz" which is the song with all the singers which is dealing about togetherness and to help promote tolerance for the heavy metal kids.

You said that you guys did the record in Switzerland with Peter Tägtgren. He's a really fantastic producer.

He is. The good thing about him is that he is letting you go. He's not trying to force you to do something else. We didn't want to have a typical modern sound with all these terrific drums and looping guitars. We wanted to have real sounds. Peter is the kind of guy that likes it too so we were using no trigger drums. Everything is real. All the sounds are live sounds because it was very important for us to make a record that is handsome and strong enough to stand with all the new stuff and with all the new bands but have all original sounds. It has all the sounds that are not out of computers. If you watch the scene today a lot of the younger bands are using too much of the modern recording techniques of today and I think that Destruction needs to stand for real handmade music. That's why we were going to work with Peter again because he was totally behind us on that. If you listen to the album, it has a very, very powerful sound and it sounds really like the year 2005 but keep in mind that this album was recorded with real tools and no fucking Pro-Tools and no loops and no computer shit. I'm proud of that. That's why to work with Peter Tägtgren is so important for us because he understands what the band is all about.

I remember the last time we talked, we were talking about Pro-Tools where basically you don't really have to know how to play an instrument because you can depend on the computer.

Exactly. It's fucking bullshit. The same goes for all the drummers. If they play wrong it doesn't matter. You can correct every fucking beat and every hook. That doesn't make sense and then you see the band, the band sounds like shit live. We're proud that we're still able to do everything with our own hands and I think that's what heavy metal should stand for. I really hope that we're not going into the wrong direction with metal music these days. People cut back too much on the real playing and go into the studio and use too much technology because then we definitely have the wrong thing in mind.

It's gotten to such a point now where people think it would be cool if we could make movies with computer generated people instead of paying actors and actresses. Are they crazy?

Of course in the future this will happen. It's quite funny right now. We're having all those clone movies coming like The Island and it's all about cloning people. This will also be the future of mankind because of those greedy bastards. If they can save money on something, of course they will keep out the human factor and will try to make even more money at that. It's scary but what can you do?

One of the things these poor bastards don't understand is that money is something that is not meant to be hoarded. It's meant to be spent. When you have two percent of the population that's got 98 percent of the money, pretty soon that money will be worth as much as a piece of toilet paper and they'll be wiping their asses with it.

You're totally right.

I think these people are really going to fuck themselves in the end. The rest of us will make do and start all over again but those poor bastards will probably shoot themselves in the head because they're so used to all these comforts and all this money. They wouldn't know what to do if they didn't have any.

We're living in a society where it's important to show that you have money and show that you can afford this and that. What is this all about? You're your own individual. You don't have to show that you have a lot of money and have a big house and a big car. That's unimportant. That's a problem we have here in Germany at schools that a lot of kids that cannot have Nike shoes and cowhide pants or Levis. Those kids have problems at school to get accepted because you need certain brands to be cool. It's totally wrong. You can take a piece of whatever and make your own trousers out of it and be cool with that. You're going in the totally whole wrong direction. It's all about making money in the industry. It's merciless so as long as you're promoting this stuff, the machinery is working on TV and kids are eating and swallowing this shit. It's sad. Still my little hope is that at least some people are not going to fail. Some people are still standing strong and since the Internet is an international thing, there is more information going to all the countries in the world. There will always be some people that are against all of that stuff and some people who have narrow minds and that's a good thing at least.

Us sane, rational people will continue to reach out to one another. Absolutely. I guess we've covered everything from the state of the world to the new record. Any other DVDs or videos coming out?

We actually filmed a video clip for "The Alliance Of Hellhoundz" song with all those singers. I really hope that at least some channels will play that. I don't know how the Headbangers Ball is in the States these days.

It's back and stronger than ever I think.

Maybe there's a chance that they're going to play it before the tour and Paula will do her best to get it going. We recorded some stuff from the festivals and some stuff on the last tour. There will be a new DVD coming out next year I think so I think the DVD thing is important because a lot of fans in the world cannot see the band live. It's great with all the technology we have to record a DVD for a good price now. Also some other bands can make a professional DVD that fans at home have a chance to see. I think we're lucky that we've been recording a lot of the last shows that we did so we can surely do a great DVD again next year I think.

Besides that even if you do have the opportunity to see bands, the visual is very important too. In the cases where you guys don't get to come over here very often, it's nice to have a visual treat.

Exactly. You reach the fans that don't have the chance to see us often. We get a lot of great responses from the last DVD we had, especially from people in countries where they never saw us. People from Singapore or Malaysia or some South American country that we never played. They were like "yeah, finally I saw Destruction and we're totally happy." Of course it's quite expensive for them to get the DVD but on the outside, they were able to see the band in their home this way which is a nice thing. I like that. Also the DVD prices are quite reasonable these days I think. At least here in Europe. I don't know about America. They're not so much more money than a CD these days which is cool.

DVDs pretty much run anywhere from eight bucks to 20 depending on what it is.

Yeah, that's a reasonable price I think.

Malaysia is another one of those countries where there's some weird political shit going on against certain types of music.

Oh yeah, just lately we've had some offers to go over there to play and right now everything is skipped and we have to wait and see if it's postponed to whenever. Those governments don't want different opinions in their countries. They don't want that the kids get different opinions in their heads because they need to follow of course. Let's wait and see what's going on there. What I heard from China lately was also the heavy metal scene in China is increasing in the last years.

Oh yeah! I saw this really kick ass band. They were out on tour with the Street Dogs. I think their name was like Brain Damage or something and they were this punk band from China and they were just incredible.

Great. The government there is not tolerating more stuff so the kids have more of a chance to play their music and enjoy their music so I'm sure it's going to be a big dream to play in a country like China one day because China totally stands for total control and heavy metal has of course nothing to do with that. I think this will happen. There's hope.

Absolutely. That's the one thing that you can always count on. Have hope for stuff. Any other thoughts or comments?

Hello to everybody in the States. We're looking forward for summertime to come over and play the States again. I just realized it's the same time period where the World Cup of soccer starts also which is a bad thing for me because I'm German. I'm a soccer maniac but I hope I will find some TV stations in the States that play the soccer stuff.

You will because there are plenty of us soccer maniacs over here. I love soccer, Formula One racing, and NASCAR.

That's good. Then maybe we will have the chance to see some games over there in the States. It's strange because it's in Germany and I'm on tour in America at the same time so it sucks.

I think our satellite stations will be able to accommodate you.

That’s cool. I heard our bus has 150 channels so that’s cool.

There is sure to be a soccer game on one of those channels.