[Vallenfyre – Reign of the Shadowking] “It’s the kind of music that has remained in the background of my head. I’ve held onto demos and records from that point in time, but I never had any inkling to do it again myself. It was something that was caused by the last few years and I’ve thought about it in my head, but I never thought I’d do anything. My dad dying was the catalyst and I thought, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’” – Gregor Mackintosh
[Sandstone - Welcome the Cultural Dissonance] “I know some great metal bands from Ireland and I think for such a tiny country, we punch well above our weight. But it is hard for Irish metal bands; we have a die-hard core community of metal fans here but it's hard to find places to play and touring can be a logistical nightmare which involves paying for ferries or flights when our mainland European buddies can do a tour for a lot less money in a clapped-out transit van. Maybe that's why few bands make it out of Ireland to a larger audience but they certainly deserve to.” - Stevie Mclaughlin
[Mastodon – The Beast Sure Is Burly] “Ten years doesn’t seem like much, but that’s just the nature of the beast. You have to work, work, and work, and a lot of people ask me, ‘How do you guys do it? How did you get signed?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, you need to find three other dudes that are willing to sacrifice everything including their jobs and are willing to get into a van and start touring.’ None of this happens overnight. For some bands it does, but not us. You just have to stay out there and keep working at it. That’s what we’re doing and it’s been 12 years.” – Bill Kelliher
[Serpentcult – To Nature…And Back] “There is no discussion if you put only four songs on an album, you either swim or sink. It doesn't allow the album to be filled with fillers or half-arsed songs; if one of the four songs fails then 25% of the album (and in my opinion the whole album) is already ruined. The album is one theme, and all four songs are connected. We had more songs for the album, I think we recorded like six or seven but these four tracks form the essence of this album, there was no need to add anything else. How we do that is a matter of gut feelings; one can hardly explain songwriting.” - Frédéric Caure
[Obscura – Tech-ing It Up In North America] “What I love is that the American fans are more open-minded. They’re into so many different types of music that it makes it easier for a band like us to come over and play. The driving distances are another thing, but it’s something I’m used to. I’m very happy I’m traveling with a bunch of guys that are fine guys. I would be very difficult to drive in a bus or a van with a bunch of guys everyday where we were getting on each other’s nerves. We don’t here. I never had any stress with these guys so far [laughs].” Linus Klausenitzer
[Ghost Brigade – Fear Is the Key, You See] “We've come a long way, for sure. In all possible aspects. We are better songwriters, we know better what we want from this band and most importantly, we are finally a team. In the beginning, playing this kind of music was very, very difficult for us, and thus we had a lot of arguments and we basically broke up during the recordings of both of our first two records. It was intense and in retrospect, quite ridiculous behavior. Now, after five years of doing this, I finally feel like the growing pains are over and we can just concentrate on the relevant things instead of arguing and whining all the time.” - Wille Naukkarinen
[Cipher System - Storm Chasers] “We don´t claim to be the most original band in the world, of course we sound Swedish. Many people say that we sound like a band coming from the Gothenburg area but that we have something that makes it sound like Cipher anyway. We have no intentions of sounding like other bands - we just make music in our way, but we as all other bands have influences. So the answer to the question might be that we try to make music that we like and if it accidentally sounds like another band it is not our intention.” – Henric Carlsson
[Junius - Light Is the New Day] “Some people like growling and others like singing. I think there are large audiences in both camps that we haven't reached yet. To some, Joseph's [Martinez] vocals might be a turn-off, to others it might be what grabs them. I know I've always gravitated toward melodies over screamed/growled vocals, which is something Joseph and the rest of us in Junius have in common. Any asshole can growl, but good melodies aren't easy to write or to sing.” - Michael Repasch-Nieves
[Hammers of Misfortune – Office Metal Forever] “The ‘broader audience’ seems to like their music neatly branded and categorized. Even the fact that we use clean singing eliminates some of that audience, the keyboards eliminate another huge chunk, the female voices alienate another contingent, and the fact that the album doesn't sound the same from start to finish seems to confuse almost everyone. It's not surprising to find yourself in the margins, when you look at these narrow expectations. So we don't try to appeal to a wider audience. I'm glad we don't fit in. I wouldn't want to.” – John Cobbett
[Evile - Grinding Through the Teeth Machine] “People don’t realise how difficult it is being in a relatively ‘new’ band. I won’t sugarcoat it; there’s no money. We’re only able to do this if we can not lose money. If you lose money it’s not doable. I really hope Five Serpent’s Teeth is the album that puts our foot in the door to be able to do this as a living. I personally do the band full-time. I do everything from e-mailing, liaising, online promotion, fan interaction. It has to be done. I’d rather the band have 100% output than me have a second job to hinder that.” – Ol Drake
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