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.

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 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.

I have a lot of mental scars from being brought up Catholic and being sent to Catholic school for 13 years!

I think Nouveau Gloaming is a classic black metal record and I would hate to be a band that kept trying to recapture the same essence, but failing, for the rest of its days.

I don't bring any ideology or barriers with me into my music.

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.