SOCIAL MEDIA

TM - What's your favourite memory of watching another bands play live?

AK - The first time I saw Judas Priest in 2005 in Helsinki, it was great it was my first real heavy metal concert and I really enjoyed it. I also sawManoWar it was great from d starts to the Finish the setlist was great and there were no unnecessary moments.

PM - We did about 24 or 25 dates of opening up for Hailstorm in Europe Paris and it was incredible. Madrid was amazing it was just insane it was a treat to be playing with them. They have played with us when they came to New Zealand. We got a really good repporwith them said they invited us to Europe to open up for them it was like Christmas for us and a lot of fun. 

We went to an island and the first night we got there we went out drinking and then we went driving down the road. I looked to my left and I saw this massive billboard and in my pissed state, I rubbed my eyes look again. It was us on the billboard and then we go play the show the next night. The next day we got told that the mayor wants to see us and have a chat.

RS - I loved watching Prince and George Michael play rock in Rio and then David Bowie was playing Glastonbury. We played just before him and me when we played Hallelujah and time of stage. David Bowie said to us that it was very eclectic and I nearly fainted I'm not normally Starstruck but I was with him.

We finished a show in Bristol and we had a day off to travel and the next gig was in Newcastle. We had a whole 24 hours off and Bradley wanted to see John Bonham grave because it was on the way and we were like yeah ok lets go find it. We got lost this little Country Lane and this lady was walking down her driveway and paul said i am going to ask this lady walking down her driveway if she knew where the chapel was.

We don't have much time to visit stuff  when we are on tour so I'll just go to stuff around were we are playing. I am normally the first up in the morning and try to visit as much as possible.

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In 1991 one I opened up for Judas Priest on the operation rock and roll tour in the United States, my mother came to the show with my family and she knew Rob Halford was my hero. I was playing as his opening act and she wanted to meet him. I said I will make that happen but it will have to be after our show, I took a shower after the show and left my mum sitting at the table and Rob Halford was talking to someone across the tent.

TM - Can you tell us a tour story?

TS - We got lost one night in tilburg in the Netherlands we went went drinking with these two guys at a bar called the little devil.

TM - No way, I love that bar! I went to watch Steel Panther in Tilburg one time and my sister and i typed in rock bars near me into Google and came up. We started walking down a back alley and i said to her this doesn't seem right. It was right around the corner. It has a sweet room at the back for gigs too.

John Petrucci is the guitarist in my group Dream Theatre, there is a lot of great things we do together but we really great writing partners. My favourite thing is when I meet him in the studio and working on unison fast line that we play together.

MAX - I think Sepultura is more metal and sofly is more tribal group and kill or be killed is more Melodic with three singers. I think it's fun having all these projects it keeps me Sharp and relevant in the metal world each project. I gave my heart and soul too and Kill Or Be Killed we have a demo ready for next year so we will prob be releasing a album next year at some point.

I meet Mickey Dee in Oslo as he was dating an old friend of mine. I didn't know Mickey dee was Swedish, I thought he was an English man so I was talking to him in the English the whole night. When we were leaving he leans over and says to me hey let's go to the Rock bar in Swedish.

BW - we are looking forward to trying foster beers! Every since we saw the add on TV we have wanted to try it.

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TM - I'm sure you can try it in Australia. I love how they have all those band beers in Europe with Iron Maiden on it and other bands. I saw the beers in France when i was over at Hellfest.

One of our trailer Wheels ripped off the trailer and dropped down onto the ground. It was grinding and pulling the car all over the road, thankfully all was ok and we pulled over.We were stranded on the side of the road with a trailer full of gear and no way to transport it.

The best part to me was  influencing kids to make music last week. We played with great white under Ross and there were some little girls in the front row singing along, these girls were 4 and 6 years old. They were really little and my singer had them come up sing sweet child with us. They almost brought tears to my eyes seeing these two little girls come up sing sweet child and be a part of the concert.

Mike Cortada designed it. He took my vision from the very Inception that I wanted to create, a very 80s slasher aesthetic and really have a provocative look to the cover. It has a VHS look that I grew up gazing upon in the video stores, such as Creepshow Friday the 13th and Halloween.

There are 2 theories as to how we came up with the name, depending on who you ask. The first one is that it came from the story of Absalom from the bible, the son of king David and supposedly the most handsome man in the land. Our guitarist and singer dug the name because the story is full of revolutions and deception and battles. The second theory is... 

We played at Monsters of Rock This Summer and Gene Simmons band was playing after us. Matti had Gene Simmons biography in his hand and he really wanted it signed 

My oldest brother was my biggest influence because he was a Prodigy and played drums before I did I didn't want to play drums at that time but I just enjoyed watching him.

We have done a lot of work on that and I have got a lot more to do. Probably two and a half years more of filming. It is not going to just be the typical footage of the band, We will also be interviewing people whose lives have been affected changed or touched dramatically by the band, so it is going to be quite an extensive and deep documentary.

"We will be down in Australia with a new singer and hopefully our last singer, he hasn't really infectious personality and a really positive guy it's infectious for the rest of us."