I think there was a brief period where Norwegian bands were evolving and that was an interesting time where it seemed like a band like Darkthrone was stuck in the midst of a lot of change and seemed a bit redundant.

Everyone's attention span these days is limited to how long it takes to flick the iPod wheel on to the next song.

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

I don't want people to feel like they'd overdosed on too much candy.

People are appreciating the old stuff again and there's no MTV-style scene police to try to make us all listen to Machine Head and Pantera *puke*!

I do try to pay attention to new bands and what's happening within the scene. I try to make sure I give everything a listen - even if I loathe it.

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.