Mark: It is! It’s completely different to anything else! Tell us about the big European tour in April and May; is that your biggest one yet, over there?
Katon: Yeah, it’s funny because we didn’t realise we’d have to do so much work! It’s cool, we don’t mind that after you put out a pretty damn good record, that’s what people want to see, and we should take that as a good thing. Right now we are rehearsing in Los Angeles, doing pre-production, putting a new set together, with the new album we’re adding some new songs to the show. We leave for Europe in April, we start out in Spain and go across all of Europe, and the tour ends in Belgium. But, we’ll probably have to come back and do another leg, because Europe is so damn big! You can’t hit it all in one tour! It’s great to be going over there, because that’s where the main base of the record label is, it’s based in Germany. We want to come back and do more, we’ll definitely do another leg in Europe, and try and get our asses down to Australia, and back to Japan. Last time we were in Japan, it was amazing how many people came over to see us from Australia!
Mark: Yes, we do that!!
Katon: It’s great, but we do need to come to Australia, the offer’s always been there, but the time is right now.
Mark: There is actually a healthy thrash scene down here now at the moment, we get a lot of bands through, so you’d think the promoters would be banging at your door to get you guys over here!!
Katon: I think it’s just a matter of time now, the timing’s right, the new records out, it’ll pick up steam now, the funny thing is, it hasn’t been released yet, but we’re getting all these reviews, the record label is definitely doing its job! The reviews have all been really good, so as the record is released and as it picks up steam, we’ll hopefully get more offers from Australia.
Mark: Let’s talk about the record now. “Immortal Legacy”, it’s an awesome sounding album, like you said earlier, there is that live feeling to it as well, was it a long recording process, it’s been five years since the last album, were some of the songs written across that period?
Katon: Actually the songs were written later, in 2012, we really started focusing on it and in 2013, mid-way through we started the process of recording. We didn’t really have an easy time with recording because we would stop and go out and do shows, or we’d get offered festivals. We did 2 festivals, one in Columbia and one in Ecuador, and we had 25-30,000 people a show! So, those were really serious festivals we were at, headlining at, so we had to take time out of recording, but we couldn’t pass these up! In total, we probably recorded, and the fans will probably say, “Holy Shit”, the longest we probably recorded before this was like 6 days, and on this record we probably did 10 days! Our first and second albums were recorded in 3 days!
Mark: That’s still pretty fast by today’s standards! I saw that the new single is “Hellion Rising” which is certainly one of our favourites on the album, it’s an awesome song, and can you tell us a little bit about it?
Katon: Yeah, well the origins of the song, we wrote about 95% of the material in my house in Los Angeles, me and my guitar player, Lance Harrison, would get together 5-7 days a week, and we would just write, and I think that’s why we saved so much time in the recording studio, because we do a lot of pre-production at my house. We also rehearse our asses off before we walk in to the recording studio, some bands go in there unprepared, and we go in totally prepared! The origins of “Hellion Rising” are based on a character that I came up with, which is basically a demi god, that’s been sitting on the sidelines of the world watching humans’ just kill each other! Finally this Demi God which is a Hellion, gets sick of this, he’s saddened by society tearing each other apart, so he comes to Earth and destroys the entire Earth, and wants to start all over again, with better people.
Mark: Another one we really enjoyed when we reviewed the album was “Tied to the Gallows Pole”, there’s a fantastic groove to that song!
Katon: Thank you. What’s funny about that song is, everybody in the band was really excited about that song, and we started to get ready to record it, and me being a perfectionist freak, wasn’t sure about the song! But everyone else said it has to be on the record, so it nearly didn’t make it on there, even though I love the song, we had like fourteen songs for the record and there are actually now 2 bonus tracks if people buy the vinyl version, there’s a bonus track, and one for the digital download. Now when I listen back, I think everyone was right, when I read the reviews that song gets high praise!
Mark: Is that one of the songs that will make it in to the live set?
Katon: I think so, obviously there’s going to be a few to pick from. When we were in South America, we were doing “Black Smoke” and “Hellion Rising”, that one is definitely in the set, and there’s another song called “La Boca de la Bestia”, and that goes with the three that are in the set. I can see “Tied to the Gallows Pole”, especially because of the response it’s had, being in the set too.
Mark: The closing track, which was quite different, was “The World Will Burn”, it seems more melodic than a lot of material on the album, was that intentional? Were you trying to do something a bit different?
Katon: We wanted to really show the depth of the band, people have this perception of us just being a Thrash Metal band, don’t get me wrong, we are totally proud of that, but as a band we’ve been growing over the years, and we wanted to challenge ourselves with the styles on this record. What’s great about doing these interviews is people will tell you what songs they like, and it makes you realise that we did the right thing! We did take some chances, and that’s probably why I felt a little bit uncomfortable about some of the material on the record. We could’ve played it safe, but we didn’t and that’s why songs like “The World Will Burn” and even “Tied to the Gallows Pole”, these were taking chances, but I think we were smart for doing it. I think it’s great that you brought up “The World Will Burn” for me that was a great song to write, and it was based on when Rome burned, I’m really in to history, so any ancient stories, stuff like that, I really love. I’m well happy with the song, and like I said we just took some chances and I think you have to do that. You can’t put out the same record, every record.
Mark: That’s right, and that’s one thing that appeals to me about the band, you have some real interesting lyrical ideas going on there. What are your plans for the remainder of the year, after the tour?
Katon: Well, more touring, there’s still stuff being worked out, we’ve just had two more offers from the US. Whenever a new record comes out, that’s when things pick up, so we’re sure there’ll be more offers to go to other countries. We really love travelling, and recording albums is a totally different beast altogether, but we really love touring, I’m sure we’ll get to Australia, and I’m sure we’ll get back to Japan, which is convenient, as they’re so close to each other. Obviously, we’ll be doing, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and South America, and America, as we live here. We’ll be all over the world, we’ll keep building the legions of fans that we already have, and adding to that, that’s our goal, is to keep building the band, and never to compromise, to keep playing Heavy Metal!
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