I think there's a certain limit to the number of times you can raise hairs on the back of peoples' heads before it gets kind of saccharin.

Bands are more willing to take risks and we don't need this big label over us anymore telling us what it means to sell records and get into magazines.

Most every album - and especially metal albums these days - are made in a way that you can grow tired of them very easily: They're made to be dissected and played on radio, released as singles or stuck on at parties.

I like what's going on in Finland, with the rebirth of Beherit. I also like a band called Oranssi Pazuzu and a band called Spiderpact. There's a great scene there where they don't really care what's going on elsewhere and create music in their own vacuum.

Ultimately I want my metal in a bar and not an art gallery.

The religion and it's many barbed indoctrinating tendrils just start to become what makes you who you are, so you have to kind of destroy yourself to be able to rebuild yourself and make yourself whole again.

I don't think there's anything remotely "new" or "experimental" about any modern metal bands.