[The Wildhearts Part I] "For the first time, I can see how bands get successful. In the past, the quote that was always used to describe us was, ‘The band that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory’. And that used to be the case pretty much one hundred percent of the time. We would always do something to jeopardise the situation for ourselves, which would always fuck things up. Now it seems like we’re not going to do that. We’ve gone from strength to strength. More often than not, a little light bulb goes off above our heads when things go right from making the right decisions." - Ginger

[ANJ] "With the technology today, the whole world seems the same. Anyways we’re trying to adapt for American audiences. For Russian audiences, we’re going to have to do this a different way. It’s a different mentality and a different culture. You can’t use the same thing. It won’t work like in America. Even the albums are different." - Anatoly Zhuravlev

[Beneath the Massacre] "I don’t believe in that many conspiracy theories. There are some, but I’m not the one who believes in these conspiracy things. I think it is way simpler than this. It’s capitalism. It’s the mass consumption of the society we’re living in. It’s bringing us nothing but war, conflicts and the bigger gap between the rich and the poor. A reason for all of these wars and all of these problems…the social problems are so obvious. It’s almost funny that people don’t understand yet." - Elliot Desgagnes

[Bison BC] "It's like training for a marathon and once you feel like your on top of your game you also realize that you've already ran the marathon...and then you just collapse from exhaustion. As for meeting rad new people, making new friends and getting people to check us out it's been fucking great. Having the internet around these days makes it easy for people to hear your band but nothing will ever take the place of straight-up bro-ing down. I can't think of a single show we've ever played where we haven't left without at least one new bro/broette for life. Crucial." - Dan And

[Enslaved] "It makes you think if you called up Gene Simmons and asked how to copyright it [laughs]. We could be rich now and swimming around in champagne. Seriously speaking, it was kind of surprising. I never thought about it, but when we used the term 'Viking metal,' it had one or two basic functions and it was to define the concept. We came from the extreme metal scene in Norway in the early 90’s and the term 'black metal' described a form of extreme metal with Satanic lyrics. We were extreme metal, but we didn’t fit into the whole Satanic fan club, so we needed something else to explain our concepts." - Ivar Bjornson

[Watain] "Let’s put it like this: If I had never been affiliated with black metal in the first place, I might have been born in a small South American village with no connection to this, I would still be writing music of a sinister caliber. That spark that drives my artistry into manifestation—that spark that helps me understand what I am here to do, that is the individualism that you are talking about, and that is exactly what is needed!" - Erik Danielsson

[The Haunted] "We could all be the moronic colossus at times. More than anything, I think it’s really about an attitude. It’s that attitude of ignorance that’s kind of absorbed all of our culture. It seems to be OK to be a fucking idiot! It’s seems to be OK to project this redneck, macho, bullshit kind of persona. It’s not even macho. It’s more this icky kind of surface crap that we portray to others, and that mindset that thinks its OK being a moron just for the sake of being a moron." - Peter Dolving

[Blistering Editorial – Metal and Politics: Strange Bedfellows] The 2008 Presidential election is a mere few days away and it had Blistering thinking: why haven't there been a rash of bands with a major political platform? Is no one willing to talk about politics? Do we not know enough? Are we just going to let Ministry's Al Jourgensen do all the talking? These questions were just some of the things on our mind before America elects a new President...

[Unearth] "The theme believes that the good of humanity will overcome the bad. The bad aspects of our society, the power hungry politicians for example, have the potential to take away our freedoms just to gain power for themselves. The album speaks of the hope that normal people will overcome for the greater good. Ultimately, though, the meaning of the album is up to the listener’s interpretation." - Buzz McGrath

[Moonsorrow] "There were already clear signs that folk metal would become a big trend. Finntroll was a big name in the scene and many of the bands that ride the wave now, were already gaining recognition. I always thought that this folk/pagan metal would have potential to make it big time, because it really was a new thing. Probably the only new genre of metal since black metal. In 2003 we weren’t yet touring internationally, even though there was demand for it already. But yeah, I had no idea that we would tour extensively around the world as we do now. I assumed that we would never make it to USA, but I was wrong, eventually." - Mitja Harvilahti

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