JAG PANGER - Mark Briody

\r\nJust before Jag Panzer arrived in Greece for their show we had\r\nthe chance of talking with the guitarist and founding member of Jag\r\nPanzer Mark Briody. Mark talks to Metalzone for their upcoming tour,\r\nthe chances of releasing a DVD along with it, their new live album they\r\nare about to release and also the new studio album.
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\r\nMetalzone: Hello Mark, this is metalzone calling how are you?
\r\n Mark Briody: Very good, looking forward to flying over to Europe tomorrow.
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\r\n Metalzone: Tommorow you’re flying here?
\r\n Mark Briody: To Italy yes. Then two days in Germany and then over to Greece.
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\r\n Metalzone: We’re looking forward to seeing you live here in Greece.
\r\n Mark Briody: I am looking forward to playing there. Last time we played in Greece,it was incredible.
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\r\n Metalzone: Really? This means we are good metalheads..
\r\n Mark Briody: The best!
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you wanna tell me a few things about your whereabouts at the moment. Your plans.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWell, right now we are about a third of the way to our new album. I\r\nthink we probably gonna try to record a live album. Possibly early next\r\nyear, we’re thinking about that. We’ve got one more album in our\r\ncontract with Century media and we really want to make it a double live\r\nalbum. That’s probably the next thing we’re gonna do. Right now we are\r\njust focused on these live shows. We are really exited about that.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you thinking about combining it with maybe a DVD?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWe would like to do that, I don’t think Century Media is interested in\r\na DVD maybe we can work out a deal with them , so that they can release\r\nthe live album and we can film the DVD ourselves, or hire a company to\r\nfilm it but I think there has to be a DVD with it.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nThe previous DVD you released "The era of kings and conflict" was also\r\nself produced. Don’t you feel you need a production company behind the\r\nrelease which will give bigger amounts of money and have bigger\r\npromotion?
\r\n Mark Briody: That would\r\ndefinitely help but it’s sort of up to Century Media. Whether they do\r\nit or not. We couldn’t do it with anyone else since they are the record\r\ncompany we are signed to. So either they are doing it or we’ll have to\r\ndo it ourselves.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you thinking about changing your record company cause I am kind of getting a strange vibe.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nThe contract runs up and you have to make a choice of whether you want\r\nto do it. Century Media is a great label. I don’t have any problems.\r\nThey’ve done a great job we’ve been in the label for almost ten years.
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\r\n Metalzone: 1997?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah we actually signed in 1996 and the first release was 1997. I think\r\nthey are a great label. They done a lot for us but when you’re hitting\r\nthe end of a contract, you always have to look around and see what’s\r\navailable.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel insecure about the renewal of the contract? Do you think the company isn’t satisfied with you?
\r\n Mark Briody: I don’t know I think usually with record companies if they’re not satisfied with you you usually don’t last for 8 albums.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nYes that’s what I think so too. You’ve had some strange whereabouts at\r\nthe beginning of your career. When you began in 83 and you released\r\nyour first EP Jag Panzer, you were in this record company Azra, then\r\nthere was Ample Destruction, which was a big hit and one of the best\r\nalbums that were released in the 80s, and then it took you ten years to\r\nrelease the next album.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWe did another album in 87 called Chain of Comand and we did the stupid\r\nthing, we paid for the recordings ourselves, cause we thought that\r\nmaybe if we had a finished album. The record companies liked it only\r\nthey said well can we just have the record. We borrowed the money from\r\nthe studio so we couldn’t do that so we really couldn’t get a record\r\ndeal to release Chain of Command. Then it became hard for us to find\r\nmusicians. Because we hadn’t done a release for a few years we didn’t\r\nplay around a lot and it was really hard just to find people who are\r\ninterested. Most people here in Colorado wanna play music that’s on the\r\nradio, because they want to make money and that’s not. we just want to\r\nplay good heavy metal and it doesn’t matter if it’s on the radio or not\r\ndoesn’t make any difference. Some times it’s hard finding other people\r\nwho want to do that.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nI think your attitude made you one of the most respectable bands in the\r\nmetal scene. Even listeners who aren’t funs of Jag Panzer, they\r\nappreciate your work. They know you’re a good band. And I think your\r\nattitude has a lot to do with that. Do you think so too?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah, I think it does. I think the important thing about the attitude\r\nof Jag Panzer is we are just metal funs. I listen to anything from\r\nAngel witch, Blind Guardian, I like good metal and so does everyone\r\nelse in the band. I think people can see that. We’re playing this music\r\nbecause we love this music. We’re not doing it because it’s a trend, or\r\njust a style or something. We do it because we like to play. We like to\r\nlisten to it.
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\r\n Metlazone: After Ample Destruction, Dissident Alliance was in a bad era for metal, and wasn’t your best moment. Is that true?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah it was a really low budget record, we recorded it for under a\r\nthousand dollars and that’s back when even studios were more expensive.\r\nWe recorded it very cheap. We believe that in Jag Panzer each member\r\nmust have equal input in the sound. This isn’t Mark Briody’s Jag\r\nPanzer, it’s everybody equal. And we had a couple of guys back then who\r\nhad a little bit different influences than the rest of us so the sound\r\nwas a little bit different from other Jag Panzer albums and the\r\nrecording just sounds terrible for a sounding record.
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\r\n Metalzone: You released Chain of Command last year. Was it around in an illegal way before?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nIt’s been bootlegged probably about four or five times but never with\r\ngood sound. Back when we recorded the album we sent some tapes out of\r\njust the rough mixes and all the bootleg’s that were out were just\r\nbootlegs from a cassette. We keep getting e mails from funs who ask us\r\nto release a proper Chain of command so that it sounds good. So I\r\ntalked to Century media can we release this and lets just do a few\r\ncopies. Don’t do a giant release. Just do a small amount of copies\r\nbecause I just want enough copies for the funs of the record. I don’t\r\nwant this to be a full Jag Panzer release.
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\r\n Metalzone: But this made you have two records within the same year in the record stores.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWell Casting the stones is the new album. Chain of command only had\r\n5000 copies and that’s just for the hardcore collectors. If someone new\r\nwanted to get a new Jag Panzer record they should get Casting the\r\nStones. They are for the collector who likes Chain Of Command and has\r\nthe bootleg; this new version is for you.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nDo you feel you have a solid core of funs that can support you. You are\r\nplaying classic heavy metal; your sound is true heavy metal. The way it\r\nwas back in the 80s. You haven’t become something trendier. You stayed\r\ntrue to your sound. Does this make it hard for you?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI would rather have a 100 funs of true heavy metal, than 10000 funs\r\nthat listen to trendy music. When I go to a show and talk to Jag Panzer\r\nfuns they’re real heavy metal funs like I am and it’s really cool to\r\ntalk to and I know these are people who are serious about music, and\r\nare really serious about heavy metal. For me it’s just better to have\r\njust a few of those than just a whole bunch of other funs who will like\r\nsomeone else next month. I try to separate the money from the music. If\r\nI do an album and I think it’s a great album, and it doesn’t make any\r\nmoney then I just make money doing something else. I don’t wanna change\r\nthe music, to get more funs.
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\r\n Metalzone: Is the metal scene in America helping you staying true to your goals?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah because I turn on the radio and I hear all this terrible music.\r\nThe metal scene is not that good. There’s a small falling of good metal\r\nfuns but also it’s not really that good. It is easy for me to hear the\r\nkind of music I don’t want to play. That’s all they play here in\r\nAmerica.
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\r\n Metalzone: Where do you feel that the metal scene of America has gone?
\r\n Mar Briody:\r\nWhat’s worse in America is that everything is getting so\r\ncommercialized. What they call heavy metal on the radio to me it\r\ndoesn’t sound like heavy metal, the band playing it is wearing some\r\nspecial shirts that you can go buy at the mall, and maybe they are\r\nendorsing some kind of soft drink. All of this has to do with things\r\nthat have nothing to do with the music and that’s just crazy. It’s all\r\nthe music is becoming in America, it’s all tied to products,\r\ncommercialism, and selling something. It really has almost nothing to\r\ndo with how the songs sound. It’s really important.
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\r\n Metalzone: Define me what’s heavy metal to you...
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nTo me heavy metal is the best kind of music because it’s the only music\r\nthat has everything in it. A heavy metal song could have an acoustic\r\nguitar someone singing and maybe a flute and it can be very mellow like\r\nthat, like classic Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio, with Rainbow eyes or\r\nsomething like that, and it could go to the total opposite to being\r\nvery heavy and fast, and aggressive. And it can be everywhere in\r\nbetween. It’s a really creative music. Metal has an attitude, real\r\nmetal where the music is the most important. It’s not about selling a\r\nsoft drink or something. Real Music
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel that the diversity of the styles in metal is spoiling the metal culture?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI think it gets spoiled when you get funs that don’t want to listen to\r\nthe other subgenres. Yesterday I was listening to Therion, that’s a\r\ngreat metal album. I know people that would say that this is not a true\r\nmetal record why do you wanna listen to it? To me it’s a metal record.\r\nAnd there are great death metal records, there’s great doom metal, you\r\ncan’t restrict yourself to one subgenre and say I only listen to Black\r\nmetal. That’s where I think you run into problems. But I think most\r\nreal metal funs they know a good band when they hear it regardless of\r\nwhat you call the subgenre.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel they loose their target if they listen to the media and what’s being promoted?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah, I think so, definitely. There are bands that don’t get promoted\r\nat all, that are fantastic. Here in America you don’t ever hear Blind\r\nGuardian, ever promoted and they are one of the greatest bands on\r\nearth. No promotion. You always have to se your own ears. You have to\r\nlisten for yourself and decide what’s good and what’s not. My favorite\r\nband is Sky clad and I am not sure if they’re getting much promotion\r\nanyway. You gotta make up your own mind on what’s good. I think that’s\r\nwhat’s good about the underground metal funs, I think most people make\r\nup their own minds what they like. When we’re doing these shows in\r\nEurope next week I’ll look at the audience and everybody will have a\r\ndifferent shirt on. It will be great. Somebody will be wearing a\r\nManowar shirt, somebody else Savatage, somebody else EdGuy or\r\nHammerfall and it’s going to be great to see everybody having their own\r\nindividual views, instead of a concert here instead of being a new\r\nmetal band concert with everybody wearing the same shirt. Everybody,\r\nall the same, it’s ridiculous.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to tell me a few things about the new material you’re gathering? Are you working on a new album?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah we’re working slowly; we always try to take our time. It’s so\r\nhard, I can’t even describe it really give you a good answer. Bands\r\nalways say the same thing. Oh it’s our heaviest, it’s this and\r\neverybody says. I don’t think I can give you a good answer, I am sorry.\r\n
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\r\n Metalzone: By the way, do you feel there’s an album you feel it’s your best?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah there is and when I say best I mean my own personal favorite.\r\nCause if you ask everybody else in my band, you’ll get a different\r\nanswer from everybody. My favorite is Stained to the Throne the\r\nShakespeare concept album. I really like that album a lot. I don’t like\r\nthe cover art at all, cause it’s pretty bad. I think maybe some people\r\nhaven’t listened to it because maybe they’ve seen the cover and they\r\nthought, ah it’s not going to be any good. But I think it’s a great\r\nalbum. That’s the one that I personally listen to the most.
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\r\n Metalzone: What makes it your favorite?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nIt’s very dark. It’s got a lot more strings in it. We have the Moscow\r\nstring Quartet, we’ve got a lot more strings, we’ve got church bells,\r\nand dark pianos, the whole writing, cause we had to write it based on\r\nMacbeth. It’s a Macbeth concept album, so the way we approached it is\r\nwe tried to think what a heavy metal soundtrack would be like at such a\r\ndark play. Every sound is just really dark and I really like dark\r\nmusic. I think that’s why it’s my favorite.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you listen to dark music?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nMostly classical, like Mussorgsky, or Wagner, or Schubert piano violin\r\nand cello trios are pretty dark. A lot of metal that I hear some dark\r\nmetal, but I don’t like the vocals.
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\r\n Metalzone: You don’t like the brutal vocals?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nNo I am not a fun. I know most of my friends really like it and I know\r\nit’s popular but I don’t like it much. Dio is my favorite.
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\r\n Metalzone: Many people think so. They think he’s a master with his voice he uses it like an instrument.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI think he’s the best. Metal heads are even saying it; I don’t think\r\nanyone is even close. He’s unbelievable; he’s got an incredible voice.
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\r\n Metalzone: Tell me where do you get your inspiration from? What inspires you into writing music?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI usually just hear something in my head. At the weirdest times, I mean\r\ndriving in my car somewhere, and I hear just a riff or something, in my\r\nhead and if it stays in my head for about a week then I know that\r\nthat’s going to be a good song. But I never know how it gets in my\r\nhead. I don’t ever sit down and say I am going to write a song. I have\r\nto let it come naturally.
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\r\n Metalzone: So you test it yourself through time? How long you can remember it?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nYeah because it has to be something that sticks with me. It’s got to\r\nstick with me for a week before I even touch it on the guitar. In my\r\nhead and I wanna be able to sing it.
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\r\n Metalzone: How does it come to you? Do you see a beautiful morning, do you get hurt emotionally and you get inspired by it?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nUsually, I get it when someone cuts me off in traffic or something.\r\nIt’s usually something like that. Like anger, and then I hear this\r\ngreat riff and then I am not mad anymore.
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\r\n Metalzone: That’s the greatest anger management I’ve heard.
\r\n Mark Briody: It is!
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you have any ideas about what your new album is going to be about? Any traffic troubles lately?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI know Harry our singer, he writes the lyrics and he says it’s going to\r\nbe a concept album. We haven’t done for a few albums and I am exited\r\nabout that and he said we’re going to talk about it on the 13 hours on\r\nthe airplane tomorrow. We don’t live close to each other, it’s the\r\nfirst time I see the band in six months.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel this is maintaining your chemistry, the fact that you don’t see each other a lot?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI think it works great, because now I am really exited to see\r\neverybody. And we’ve known each other for years. It’s like seeing a\r\nlost brother again.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nWhere do you feel you stand as a band? Do you feel you’re still rising\r\nor do you feel you’ve reached a certain level and just maintaining\r\nstrengths?
\r\n Mark Briody: I think\r\nthe music is getting more depth to it, with each release. I have a\r\nsound in my head of what I think it all should sound like, what the\r\nband should sound like. I don’t know if we could ever reach it but we\r\nget close with each record. I think from a creative point of view I\r\nthink we definitely getting better with each one. From a business end I\r\ndon’t know if we are selling more now or less and I try not to get\r\ninvolved in that end, but from a creative point I think we’re\r\ndefinitely getting better.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nYou have a lot of things in your head, inspiration comes from your\r\nhead, and the band’s sound is in your head, how do you explain that?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWith music, you can’t rely on your fingers. Fingers know patterns, they\r\nknow scales and they know riffs. I imagine a song in my head; it is\r\nsomething I never would have played just by sitting down and picking up\r\nthe guitar and say oh, I think I’ll write a song today. Because I think\r\nwhen you do that, you get to familiar with the instrument and you get a\r\nlot of the same patterns and stuff, and I try not to do that. I think\r\nthe mind is the most powerful thing on earth. So I really try to use\r\nthat, and I always to sort things out in my head, before I record it,\r\nor wearing it on a guitar or anything.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you daydream a lot?
\r\n Mark Briody: Oh yeah all the time.
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\r\n Metalzone: I think that’s your trouble with traffic!
\r\n Mark Briody: Probably yes.
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\r\n Metalzone: Tell me about your upcoming tour? What are you most exited about.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nHigh energy metal, an hour and a half of classic Jag Panzer. It’s going\r\nto be great. Playing Europe is incredible; it’s what you dream about\r\nwhen you’re a kid. You dream about these great crowds and that’s what\r\nyou get when you play Europe, and especially Greece.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to tell me how you feel about the mp3 swapping over the internet. Do you feel it’s affecting you as a band?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nI think in the underground metal community it’s great. Because it’s\r\nlike in the early 80s when I was in high school we used to swap in\r\ntapes over the mail. That’s how people used to swap songs. That’s how\r\nit is today in the internet. In the underground it’s no problem, where\r\nit’s a huge problem, is where you have a casual fun who wants to hear\r\nsome metal and instead of buying the record he just downloads it. And\r\nthe problem with that, I don’t care about the money in my pocket, but\r\nwhen people start downloading albums and sales go down it gets taken\r\nfrom our recording budget. Then it makes me mad. I don’t think it’s a\r\nproblem with the underground; people download the album and hear it\r\nthey’re going to buy the CD.
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\r\n Metalzone:\r\nDecade the nail spiced bat, was a re recording of your first EP and\r\nAmple Destruction cause Joe Taffola didn’t give you the wrights?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nHe’s not interested in giving up the wrights. I am not sure why, I\r\nhaven’t spoken to him in a few years. Century media told me they tried\r\nto get a hold of him, tried to talk to him, but he asked for a lot of\r\nmoney, and it was too much and he just isn’t interested into releasing\r\nthem. I didn’t want to re- record the songs. That was my last choice.\r\nPeople were asking for the material, and we had to do the last choice\r\nwas to do the Decade of The Nail Spiked Bat. When we decided to do it\r\nwe said let’s record it like we did in the 80s. Let’s put out the\r\ninstruments and play. Let’s try to make it sound like it was recorded\r\nback then. It sounds very different from the other releases we did\r\nrecently.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you feel that the feeling is the same? Many years have passed and you have evolved as musicians.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nTechnically it’s a lot better. To the average metal fun, to them it\r\ncan’t be the same, can’t have the same feeling. They grew up with and\r\nthe original had a lot of underground feeling. So I understand when\r\nsome people tell me they like the original better.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you want to tell me a few things about the live album?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWe are thinking about how we want to do it where we want to record it,\r\nit’s in the planning stages. Century media says they want one we want\r\nto do one. That’s actually a big step. Record companies want to do live\r\nalbums at certain times. A couple of times in the past we’ve asked\r\nCentury Media if we could do a live album, and they told us , ah, not\r\nyet you should do a studio album. I talked to them a few weeks ago and\r\nthey were really interested in a live album, we’re interested in doing\r\none, so I think it’s going to happen soon.
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\r\n Metalzone: You’re not going to record anything from the European tour?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nWe wanted to but we just didn’t have enough time to coordinate that.\r\nThere’s actually a lot involved into getting a live album. Got to get\r\nthe mobile recording company, you have to make sure you get to the\r\nvenue early to do a full sound check and you’re really running two\r\nsystems, a live p. a. system for the funs to hear and a recording\r\nsystem so it’s kind of, too much to plan for us, for this trip.
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\r\n Metalzone: Are you planning on putting live covers of songs?
\r\n Mark Briody: We were talking about it but I don’t think we’re gonna do any of this in these tours.
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\r\n Metalzone: Do you have the set list yet?
\r\n Mark Briody: Yes I do
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\r\n Metalzone: So what are we going to listen to?
\r\n Mark Briody: I am not gonna tell you. It’s a secret!
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\r\n Metalzone: Please.
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nThere’s going to be a large amount of Ample destruction, almost the\r\nwhole album and something else from every record. We got about seven\r\nrequests from funs on email saying they want us to play some songs, and\r\nwe put those in the set list.
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\r\n Metalzone: Any new songs?
\r\n Mark Briody:\r\nNo. We usually write by ourselves, for a while and then we work Harry\r\nour vocalist to it, and then we do a few more demos like that. And then\r\nwe bring the whole band in. So where we are right now, I am still\r\nworking on my material and Chris is still working still on his, and the\r\nother guys in the band haven’t heard anything yet. They won’t hear it\r\nyet. It’s got to sound pretty good to my ears before they hear it. So\r\nyou won’t hear anything till probably January.
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\r\n Metalzone: A message to your funs?
\r\n Mark Briody: We’re looking forward to playing in Athens. \r\n

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\r\nΕλένη "Blackie" Μιχαηλίδου\r\n

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