At first congratulations for your new album, this is a really great job, and there are many different songs, very fast songs, very hard songs, and songs very emotional songs.

Why have you made the album this way?
Eric: Well we try to make every album with some fast songs, anthem songs, right from the first album to now, but in this album we have the personnel to do this , anyway we didn't plan to make the album exactly this way, sometimes the songs take their time and sometimes they just come, this is what has happened in this album. Fight for Freedom, Warriors Of the World, Nessun Dorma after all, is like a symphonic metal music taken to its limits, something that the rest of the bands haven't done ever.

You have made another anthem song with Warriors Of the World, a great song to play live to make the people sing, How do you get this anthems?
Eric: how do we get the anthems? (laughs) I think they just come, there's no words to describe magic in the studio...you know, on each song we try to include the fans as much as we can because they are the greatest fans in the world and Warriors Of the World means every fan in the world together again.
Karl: An anthem is an statement from the band, you know someone can writte about flowers..or.. you know but, you say What do that do for my life?, so you know an anthem is an statement about what you feel in your life, and Warriors Of the World is the word to feel this.

I like a lot the album but I don't understand things like that kind of patrioticism about "An American Trilogy", maybe that patrioticism is understand in the USA, but maybe in another countries not so much...
Eric: We made An American Trilogy really for a tribute to Elvis Prestley, 25 anniversary of his death you know he's the king of Rock'nRoll, he was the one who was against the normal maners of the society, he lived great metal days, riding Harlyes, girls... in a word Metal Life!
Karl: Is not like patrioticism, this song is for everyone who feels able to brake the laws, I mean make something diferent you know, but it's not an anthem to a patrioticism. I think in Europe can be a meaning mistake between patrioticism and nationalism, but in the end this song it's a tribute to Elvis the King of R'n'R and everyone who lives in a rock or metal live!

The most important thing is Metal, of course Metal is our religion too so no problem with this. Eric,Karl: Hehehe Great!! Thx!

We know that a promotional recording has been delivered to the media. Just one thing about it, Why that order ? I mean the songs order. We've realised that one side of the cassette contains all the "slow" songs and the other, the heaviest ones in the other, any particular reason for it?? And will that be the final order in the CD??
Karl: As Joey explained, he arranged the songs in that order so it had a special meaning, as if the songs told us a story. You know a slow beginning and then finishing with power and strength.

It is surprising, and very risking isn't it?
Eric: Is like a live show, you begin slowly and then you get faster in order the show continue... to get more feeling you know... it's getting harder and faster with power and steel "bang bang bang bang!!" to the end...and then "good night!!" (laughs) I think it's cool and it is the manowar way.

"Call to arms" reminds me to songs like "Into glory Ride", "Hail and Kill", are you agree with me? Eric: Yeah I'm agree with you why not, in our WebSite The fans gives their opinion about the songs..., so great part of them prefered to listen a new manowar epic job reminding old times, but basically we've made what the fans like to hear about us.

Will you let the fans to go on stage to swimming to the audience during "House of Death"? It's the fastest song!
Eric: (laughs) It's cool but too hard at the same time, every time with the fans are special times for us! And I'd jump out the stage if after that I'm still alive (laughs)
Karl: (laughs) Well, If nobody breaks my fingers and if I can continue playing the song solos...yeah! (laughs) But you know the "securiy" rules in those cases
Eric: It's a Manowar way living, to invite them to do that, but you don't know what's gonna happen in live so it's always a very special event!

Well I was joking the fact is that "House of Death" is a brutal Speed Metal song!
Eric: yes, it's very very fast, yeah we love that, to make fast tracks you know.

"Fight for Freedom" reminds me to "Queen"! What's your opinion?
Eric, Karl: Really? It's fun!!
Karl: When we started to make this song, it was a song full of power and speed but we decided to make it a bit slower, and the result of this was just powerful and better than the first thoughts for this song.

Obviusly the typical Manowar ballad "Swords in the Wind" seems to be the second part of the well-known ballad "Master of the Wind" (Laughs)
Eric: Maybe you're right but it wasn't our intention, but what we want to say on each song is that people make what they want," do not accept things or shit from the others and build up your own life"
Karl: I can understand that, but people have to think that part of songs, even Manowar songs we listen to... remind us to parts of the new ones so it's inevitable, but it's fun to hear this.

Congratulations Eric for Nessun Dorma, it's a really great interpretation of that song, What can you tell us about it?
Eric: A lot, you know it is like Pavarotti singing Manowar songs (laughs) I'd to learn more exactly how to sing these kind of songs. With this song we have to explain that Manowar plays Heavy Metal but you'll think...a lot of bands play heavy metal BUT Manowar goes on to the limits and the unique band who has the balls to enter with new styles and get into this kind of things like Nessun Dorma. It was like a challenge that finally ended with a powerful and beauty crash that will make the fans feel that kind of magic part.

What can you tell us about the tour? You will be playing at the Lorca Festival, will you put an special stage design or something like that?
Eric: We don't know exactly what's gonna happen yet, it's a big surprise as all Manowar shows are (laughs)
Karl: It's like telling the end of a movie.

Is there a special stage - design for this upcoming tour ?
Eric : Our stage that involves power, that's metal, our stage has always been nothing but speakers, a wall of speakers, a wall of power, and it's always been plugged in, nothing fake about it. I think that if you blow off explosions and fire and bombs and dummies blowing off in the background, to me that takes away from the talent of the band. If a fan buys a ticket for the show, goes by train or whatever to the show, spend their money, buy a t-shirt, they should see the band. Not that they look to what happens in the background and don't see the band anymore. To me, it's a personal thing, to me it's more important that the people look to what's going on on stage, because that is what true metal is all about. Whatever we do in the studio, we do live, no bullshit, it's all real, it's all true. Our stage - set is just power, raw fuckin' power.

Are you gonna play live again some forgotten songs from the past as a surprise for the fans ?
Eric : We always ask fans to write to our website about which songs they want to hear live, and we remind to that when it comes to make a set - list again. We 're gonna try to include songs from every album, when you have 9 or 10 albums out there it's very difficult to fit it in a show, but we're gonna do our damn best to make sure that everybody hears what they wanna hear. The ones they vote for that are the ones we are gonna play.

The Oath would be a great song to hear live ….
Eric : ( laughs ) really ? that's one we haven't done in a long while
Karl : ( laughs ) Personally I'm looking forward to play the new songs as I'm so sick of playing Ross' riffs ( laughs again ) I wanna play my own songs.

Which songs from the new album will be played live ?
Eric : ( laughs ) he wants me to give away everything, doesn't he ? Ehm … we will probably do Warriors of the World United, hahaha I can't tell you what other songs will be there on the list and to be truthfully and honest I don't even know what we are gonna do yet, it's a month away or longer, we haven't really thought about it.
Karl : I don't think that there will be a song from the new album that we definitely won't play. I think every song has it's possibility to be translated live.
Eric : I guess it's just what the fans wanna hear.

The next questions are questions from the people from the website :

What is your opinion about the fact that people say that Manowar degrates women ?
Eric : Degrates ? Those people don't know Manowar. That's all I can say, because if they have ever seen us with our ladies that come backstage with us all the time, we treat them with the upmost respect. Like every man should treat a lady with the upmost respect. If a girl comes up on the stage and shows her tits to the crowd, that's her business, we have nothing to do with that. It's the press that has brought this on and people like for example in the United States, where we hardly play, read this foreign news, and jump on stage during a show and do the same thing, hey, that's cool, it's fun, but we don't degrate women in any way.
Karl : People don't realise, see there is a cultural idea that women are not sexual creatures, that they don't want to do things and have their own sexual power and sometimes the girls who come on stage, we cannot stop them from taking their clothes off. Look what happened on the video in Brazil, where the girl took her clothes off and I could hardly play my solo as she was rubbing me, we couldn't have stopped her if we wanted to, so a lot of times people think we are pushing the women to do this, but it's just the women themselves who feel sexual empowered at the show. Eric : ( laughs ) It's a good thing.

Do you feel you are the pioneers of Metal concerts, you think that too many bands have copied you in concerts ?
Eric : A lot of bands have copied us and that is a form of flattery. Manowar is often imitated, but is never duplicated, so we are the first of pioneering Heavy Metal and take it to it's symphonic stage, and now a lot of bands came out with orchestra's behind it. We were the first band that came out with great melodies in metal and now other bands try to put in a melody as well, and now we are the first band to be approached by Philips to be the first Heavy Metal band that come out with a 5.1 Super Audio CD Sound. I don't know if you are familiar with that, surround sound audio, which is the future of music, and we are pioneering that as well, and I'm sure in a few years from now, when all records will be Super Audio Cd, we're gonna be talking with eachother again, and you will be saying : " you were the very first band that came out with Super Audio Cd " and I'm gonna say : " yes, that's right, because we had the fuckin' balls to do it ".

What is your opinion about Metallium, a band that follows the concept of Manowar and the Warriors of Metal ?
Karl : I race motorcycles, ok ? One of the rules of racing is that you never follow in the line of the other person in front of you. You always search for a way around to get ahead of them. These bands, that's what they are doing, they are following in our line, and it's funny, because Manowar is up front, but is still looking for other lines, but these other bands, as long as they follow, they will never find their own path and their own direction.

Do you think Heavy Metal is a style, a style that began with Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, than Manowar …
Karl : But when you mention these bands, they all have their own separate identity, that's the mark of a true band and others imitate, but every super - band has their own identity, so it's a tribute that all those bands imitate us, but I like to see those bands try their own thing, find their own line.

Are you still in contact with Rhino, David Shankle and Ross the Boss ?
Eric : Yes, all the time. Rhino is coming out with his solo - project which is finished now. David is still in the music - world, so we keep in contact with him and Ross, well whenever we see him, it's " Ross " you know. We are all Brothers of Metal, it's no cliche, it's the real deal.

Are there still coming a lot of Manowar albums in the future ?
Eric : ( laughs ) Well, I hope so, I don't see us doing something else, this is all I wanted to do all my life, it's a dream come true for me and for Karl, for all of us. And to be able to tour the world, play your music that you love, for the fans that you love, party after the show is over and have a good time, and to fuck as many chicks as you can along the way and get paid for it, ( laughs ) who wouldn't want such a life - style ?

You have released a live dvd and you're gonna release 2 more live dvd's, why so many live - material ?
Karl : The fans asked for it, that's the easiest reason, that the fans has asked for it.
Eric : It's funny, we're together for so long and the question we always got from the media was " why don't you do a live - record ? ", so now when we come out with a live - record, the first thing we hear from the media is : " why didn't you play the old songs on your record ?", and now we came out with another live - record to please the people and we played a lot of the older songs on our second live - record, and the media reacts with " why don't you come out with a DVD, everyone else has got DVD's ", so these things take time, and so it's been a long time since we did a studio - project, but we haven't been sitting on our asses, we've been doing a lot, the 1st live - DVD is out, the 2nd one is done but not out yet, the 3rd one is done and not out yet, we also have the live - show in Brazil done in Super Audio sound, that's done for a future - release, we've made our Warriors of the World United video, that's done, so a lot of things have been in preparation for right now, because we all talked about this and said, when we tour, we're gonna be busy on the road, so it's time to get these things done when we are off the road so our fans can still get to continue to get new Manowar products, while we are on tour. We've always been very very busy, but now that we're on the road, now that the touring - schedule has started, now it's gonna be a much easier process for us.

How did you get this drum - sound on this new album ?
Scott : Many years of experience. And like my attorney said to me one time : " if you want to keep a secret, tell no one ". ( laughs )

Is the cover of the album still a secret ?
Eric : It's revealed on the Net in parts at this time.

Why do you show the cover in parts on the Internet ?
Eric : We feel that the art-work is just as important as the album, because we tried to incorporate every album cover into this cover, so when you flip through looking for Manowar, you are looking at the art - work, it is just hitting you, just like that.

When are you breaking the world - record again ?
Eric : I don't see the need for it, nobody has broken our other record, so we have proved to the world 3 different times that we are the loudest band in the world and the most powerful band, and that is part of what metal is all about, being powerfull, not disturbed powerful , but crystal clear sound powerful, and our live - performance shows that, it's a unique sound that we are very very proud of, and I see no reason why we have to prove ourselves again. Let's one prove us we are wrong.

Thank you for the interview.

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