Torsten: Hey, everything’s going well after touring and promoting Obsidian? You have acclimatized in Italy yet?
Albi: Italy is going very well. We are one of the most acclaimed newcomers in our country and we have an intense live activity. People know us and have very good crowds at our gigs. Now we want to work on the foreign countries.

Torsten: One of the highlights surely was the opening gig at the Gods Of Metal Festival part II. The billing was a real killer, you opened for acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Sadist, Megadeth, Korn, Black Label Society and Type O Negative. Certainly a great pleasure for you?
Albi: Of course it was! It’s one of the reasons that made us very known in Italy. Gods Of Metal is the main Italian metal event of the year and playing there means to metalheads that you are among the big ones. It’s a honor for us.

Torsten: The audience and the bands enjoyed your gig?
Albi: The audience was great and followed the show with passion. It’s so gorgeous to play in front of thousands of people. They go fuckin’ crazy and when one makes them scream all together they sound like something is exploding.

Torsten: I’m sure that you can tell us delicious tour-stories!? ;-)
Albi: There are so many! But let me tell you this one: After the show in Vienna there was Budapest. When we entered the suburbs of the city we were all sleeping except Nicolas and Tommy who asked the driver to stop in a gas station for a shit (one cannot shit on the tourbus or it will smell up like hell). O’Beast, Mnemic’s bassman went with them. After some minutes some mistake happened and the tourbus left the gas station without them. No mobile phones, no money, no ID or passport. They had to walk all the way down to the other side of the city to reach the club with a cold morning wind blowing and wearing only their t-shirts, shorts. Fortunately when I woke up they were already back. But bad luck never comes alone and that night we had one of the best shows and parties of the whole tour!

Torsten: You released your first killer My Own Private Armageddon with an exclusive track (Last Generation Humans – live) for the Japanese Crowd. You’re planning something big like a tour through Japan?
Albi: Nothing is planned at the moment but we would really love to do that. The Japanese crowd is famous for going fuckin’ crazy and we’re looking forward to experience that. Bonus tracks are a kind of rule for the Japanese version of an album. Also Obsidian is released in Japan with a total unreleased bonus track. The name of the song is Prey.

Torsten: Let’s talk about Obsidian. The critics are better than the critics for My Own Private Armageddon. It’s no question that the quality could be increased. Which things you wanted to change for this album? And you managed changing completely?
Albi: Obsidian is a second album and like almost all second albums is more mature than the previous one. When we started composing it our task was to write an album with a live attitude, lower in speed and more diverse than its predecessor. We achieved a better songwriting but I really don’t know if the speed reduction happened. It sounds much more violent than MOPA!

Torsten: You’re playing in the same line-up since 2002. Could this also be one reason for your successful development?
Albi: Of course it is. A part from being band members we are close friends too. Some of us have been playing together for fifteen years and we knew each other way before starting up this project. A change in the line-up is always a big waste of time and I hope we can go on like this as long as SLOWMOTION APOCALYPSE will exist.

Torsten: A straight aggressiveness is spread on your CD like seen in track titles like Fuel For My Hatred. Who or what is the reason that makes you so pissed?
Albi: Our music is all about rage. We want to sound outrageous and awake this kind of feeling in the listener and we want to make him/her think when he/she reads the lyrics. Fuel For My Hatred is about this. About using extreme music as a weapon to fight for what you believe in and also as the best way to party with your friends. Is the good old punk/hardcore spirit and we all are the legions of the extreme ahahah! What makes us pissed? Looking at humankind and see a lot of injustice and stupidity. People dying for nothing, people fighting for nothing, people living with no other possibility than starving, wars and murders hidden under the battle against good and evil, religions talking about love but dealing all the time with money and power.

Torsten: Your first album was a conception one. You left this path of songwriting. Why? And what is the core statement of Obsidian?
Albi: We left the path because the topics I wanted to talk about in the new album would not fit together in a concept like form. The message inside Obsidian is that life is a war we want to fight endlessly and on every side, without killing anyone but only using our brain and keeping our eyes open.

Torsten: According to this, your lyrics are important for you to spread a message?
Albi: Sure. We are not the kind of band that use lyrics as a filler. Writing lyrics it’s me telling you something I think is really important.

Torsten: When listening to your sound it doesn’t amaze that no one other than Tomas Lindberg lent his voice for guest-vocals on Obsidian. You are good friends? What was the reason for this cooperation?
Albi: Tommy and Nicolas supported a Great Deceiver show many years ago with their previous band, that’s how they got in touch with Tomas. When we finished writing The Blessing we thought it would have sounded gorgeous with his voice and we asked him to collaborate with us. He accepted. For us he his “The Voice” and a very nice guy too. We are very proud of having him on our record.

Torsten: Anyway, with Claudio Ravinale and Gianluca “GL” Perotti two other guest-musicians can be found on your album. It seems that you have a well functioning scene in Italy?!
Albi: There are a lot of bands and in recent years something good is moving underground. The problem is that we don’t have many good labels to promote bands all over Europe and the world and this kind of music is not much appreciated in our country. We’re pretty fucked ahahah!

Torsten: You’re following the right strategy in marketing! Obsidian should be sold out soon if the girl from your myspace site hand out the CD’s personally ;-) Maybe she has some other promotional stuff for me? ?
Albi: Ahahahah! Which one? We have many in our profile. You know what?! We like boobies!

Torsten: What is coming up next? You’re creating the next killer-album yet?
Albi: Yes, we already wrote a couple of new songs and we will keep writing during the next months. I hope we will tour Europe again before entering the studio.

Torsten: Give us your actual top 5 Playlist please:
Albi: Ok, not a chart but one from every member... Nicolas (rhythm guitar) “All Shall Perish – The Price Of Existence”, Ivo (bass) “The End - Elementary”, Ivan (lead guitar) “Dååth – The Hinderers”, Tommy (drums) “Three Inches Of Blood – Fire Up The Blades”, and for me it’s “Twisted Sister – Big Hits And Nasty Cuts”.

Torsten: The last words are yours!
Albi: Thank you for this interview and congratulations for your questions. You sorted out some interesting topics and I enjoyed replying to them. Most of the times interviews are made of the same default questions and they get fucking boring but this was not the case! I hope we will play live in your area soon.

Thank you for this interview. We’ll meet at the final of the European Championship next year ;-)
Rock on!