METAL HELL: What's the latest news on Venom? How deep are you into the creation of the next album?

ANTTON: Hi Joe good to hear from ya. The new tracks are coming along great; we had a lot already demo’ed before we went off to do the Scandinavian shows.

MH:  What can you tell us about the general direction of the new songs being developed at this stage?

ANTTON: I am really happy with the way things are going, its great to get in and blast thru the tracks as a band. You hear of so many bands now writing bits and pieces and   sticking them together in pro tools. I think you lose the energy and enthusiasm like that.

 

MH: What can you tell us about the new guitar-player? How does his style compare to
past Venom guitarists?

ANTTON: We have known Rage for quite a while now; just like I used to rehearse with my brother before I was in the band we used Rage to rehearse when Mykvs was in the states.Rage would come along to rehearsals and we would go thru the set.Rage is a great guy and a great guitarist; he plays the old songs very much like the early Venom guitarist, lots of dive bombs.

MH: Was any live recording done on the last tour for possible CD or DVD release?

ANTTON: We record a lot of stuff live but I’am not sure if we will be releasing it just yet.We had done some of At War With Satan in 06 but we added a bit more to it. It’s a long song (&) if we did the whole song it would take up most of the set. And with a back catalogue like Venom it’s hard to pick tracks to cut out of the set. Imagine if we didn't’t do Black Metal, the kids would go nuts. 

MH: What kind of studio recording would you like to go for on the new album? Would you like to do something raw & live or would you like to go for a more polished production?

ANTTON:  We were really happy with the production on Metal Black. Some people used to complain about the production on the early albums and when we recorded Resurrection people said it was too produced. You can’t please everybody.For Metal Black we went in like bands would years ago and basically recorded the tracks.As far as I'm concerned some of my favorite albums to date are older albums like AC/DC or Van Halen or even KISS.

MH: Do you usually lock in more with the bass or the guitars when you write drum parts?

ANTTON: It really depends, I’ve just started using in ear monitors and I’ve noticed that the bass is a bit louder than the guitars but that might be a brother thing. I used to play guitar before I started playing drums so I do like to follow guitars, like on the song from Metal Black “House of Pain” I am really following the guitar riff on that track.

MH: What music are you listening to lately? What did you think of the new releases by Hellyeah & Machine Head?

ANTTON: Lately I have been playing a lot of early AC/DC, I was a massive fan and I still love the early albums. I have been putting a lot of my CD’s onto my I-pod and its great to listen to some of my older CD’s again like Hughes n Thrall and the first Michael Schenker album. I have been trying to get the first two Alcatrazz albums on CD. I was gutted that I couldn’t make it to Download (Festival) this year. Both Hellyeah and Machine Head were on the bill as well as some other killer bands. It’s great to see Vinnie playing again; he is one of - if not THE biggest influence on my playing. I started playing drums along to Phill Rudd, Tommy Lee and Eric Carr but Vinnie made me get heavy for sure. I play drums in another band called Def-Con-One and we used to do Fucking Hostile live then we started doing Strength Beyond Strength. Vinnie rules and he is a really good friend. Machine Head are awesome. I think Dave McClain should have some serious coverage in the Drum Magazines. He is an awesome drummer. He has his own style, when you put a Machine Head album on you can tell its them even before Robb starts singing, now that’s rare. There are too many Metal Bands out now with the same guitar sound, the same drum sound, the same production, ya get these free CD’s in metal mags and sometimes its hard to know who’s who without checking the cover.

Cheers. ANTTON