JT: Dragon Steel has somewhat "cold" sound. At that time we were still looking for our own style in music and the album turned out in the end to something in between prog and power metal. The average length of a song in the album was 7 minutes.

Chris: Andres left on his own wish. There were two reasons of his leaving : first-since the beginning he always wanted to play some very different metal style like hard-core and the second, he wasn't a real vocalist, so frankly speaking he didn't cope with his job as a singer at all.

2. Then Jurgen temporality took care of vocals. Why didn't he become a regular Holy Dragons' vocalist?

JT: I took the place near the microphone because there was nobody to sing. I never considered myself to be a cool singer but we tried a couple of people and didn't have much progress with them. But I wasn't satisfied with my singing and we continued to search for a singer and I went back to the guitar.

Chris: Jurgen is a wonderful guitar player! And he is a great composer but it was difficult to play and sing at the same time, so we thought that a free vocalist would be much better.

JT: Thanks! By the way, sometimes I still sing all concert set instead of Holger when he can't be present on the rehearsals, he is an actor and has less free time than other band members. Now I've trained to do it at the same time but at that time it was very difficult for me.

3. A local firm, as I read in your bio, declared to sponsor and promote the band under the condition that you will create a ballad album… and you did it but unfortunately they seemed to rip you off. Anyway you have luck and there appeared someone who get interested in that CD. It is quite unusually thing when metal band record album with ballads only (and what is important it was at the beginning of your existence) and all of them were new tracks. Could you possibly say something about that album?

Chris: By that time we had a great number of ballads, enough for the whole album. But they were not all that sweet sugary songs, which usually come to people's minds when they hear the word "ballad". Some of the ballads are rather heavy and serious, so I thought that it would be a good idea to collect them all into one ballad album and at that time there appeared that offer from one of the firms.

JT: The thing is that this firm wanted to promote us as a pop group, and naturally we refused when we understood their aims. Our pop industry (as everywhere) is based on lies and hypocrisy. These are games for vain idiots and I haven't yet gone crazy to play these idiotic games.

4. What are the differences between "Thunder in the Night" (first version) and "Thunder in the Night" that was released in 2000? I'm mean mainly musical change. I know that it got five old tracks and some new ones and at the end it was divided into two releases "Thunder in the Night" and "House of the Winds".

Chris: First of all, I I'd like to say that "Thunder in the Night" wasn't divided into "House of the winds" . "House of the winds" is a totally separate album. The first version of "Thunder..." was divided later into "Knights of Kamelot" and "Thunder in the Night".

JT: The first version of "Thunder in the Night", which is now called "Knights of Kamelot" is only like a demo-tape than a full length album. However we started to record it like a full-size album, but despite long lasting rehearsals before the recording drums and bass-guitar were simply awful. Then we rerecorded the major part of the tracks into the "Thunder in the Night" and the last left 4 tracks were included into "Judgement Day" album in Russian.

5. "Robin Hood" - the track from "House of the Winds" also appeared on "Judgement Day" because I haven't heard it's first version I would like to ask: was it changed? And why did you decide to put that track once again. The first difference looks to be obvious: the second version is in Russian and recorded with Holger's vocal :).

JT: Not from the "House..."! From the first version of "Thunder in the Night". It was rerecorded on the same reason : lousy drums and bass and vocals. We didn't want a good song to finish its existence in a demo, which will never see the light : )). So, it was rerecorded in "Judgement Day". The only difference with the original version is Russian language and before we had in the middle of this song a flute, which was played by the keyboards and now we have only guitars there.

Chris: By the way, this song is very old and it was planned to be included into Dragon Steel, but unfortunately the ready-made track was spoiled by the studio stuff and we decided not to include the 13th song into the album.

6. In 2000 the vocals for your debut CD "Dragon Steel" were recorded once again but this time with you new vocalist - Daniel Throne. So it looks that you really didn't like Andreas voice hehe. I guess that the Daniel's version of your debut is much better?

JT: That's deadly right! We are not the only ones who didn't like Andres vocals. Nobody did! Some people even asked to give them only the instrumental version of the album. When I asked them : why? They were confused and said something like : well, we prefer instrumental music. But the reason was obvious : the awful vocals. We rerecorded vocals and the song "Sorry, mama" completely and there were some keyboards added to some songs, which reflected our vision of music at that time.

Chris: Dan has made much better job than Andres! At least he never sang out of tune! : ))).

7. In the same year you started to cooperate with Dragonight Agency. I wonder how did you meet Bart Gabriel? And how the cooperation was going?

Chris: We met him via Internet. For some time being our cooperation was very good. He did a lot for us and we're grateful for that. He made Poland and polish people our best metal friends. Thanks to Bart we have many friends in Poland.

JT: We have really a lot of friends in Poland. For example, a writer Michal Studniarek or the owner of the polish Manowar site Rafal Tutuk and many other friends and fans.

8. It is said that Holy Dragons do not cooperate with Bart's company anymore. Don't you mind telling me why?

JT: Starting from some point Bart began to ignore our existence. That's more than strange as we had very good and fruitable cooperation for some time. So, what's the point of staying in the Dragonight, being forgotten? Just to be mentioned on the site with some stars?

9. Holy Dragons is six years old but in spite of that till now you had some serious conflicts wit other musicians and what is connected with it there were some line up changes. Are the founders hard to work with or maybe it isn't easy to find proper musicians? (because I have already heard your latest album I know that there is no problem with the founders I guess that they had and still have clear vision of further band's development and push the band in the right direction – but that is only my statement – keep on rockin' guys!)

Chris: On behalf of the founders of the band (as I happen to be one of them) : )) I can say that all these line up changes were because the people that left were not really belonging to Holy Dragons. They were just guests, visitors, who wanted just to while away the time, playing in a heavy metal band. You know something like a hobby : not very serious, no obligations, no real faith in what you are doing. And they didn't fit us with their qualification with such attitude to music. The current line-up is the best since the beginning. What's the biggest thing about the current line-up is that they all do care about the things we are doing and do their best, every little bit of their work in the band. And more - they like the way the band is developing.

JT: When people don't want to understand me, I'm hard to work with. Our previous band members didn't like heavy metal much and played it only because they thought that in HD they would get what they would not get in other bands. In my presence they shouted how they all liked heavy metal but in reality they never understood the spirit of it.

10. Why did Daniel Throne left the band?

JT: We always had very good understanding with Dan and we never had real conflicts. He was one of those people who took everything seriously and worked a lot. But unfortunately he didn't care much about his voice. He could walk around, having a sore throat and didn't want to go to the doctors and have his throat cured. So, many times we had to postpone rehearsals and recording sessions and gigs. Sometimes we even had to delay our recording sessions for a month. But we separated with him not because of that. The real reason was that our former bassist always blackmailed Dan, saying that : "If I'm expelled from the band (and he was at that time on the edge of being kicked out from the band) you'll have to leave too, because we're friends. You must leave with me because of solidarity."

11. …anyway… you couldn't find better substitution than Holger Komaroff. This guy is just amazing!

Chris: Yeah! He has a wonderful voice and great vocal opportunities! He hasn't shown all his vocal abilities yet and I hope that in future he will make much greater things!

JT: I worked with Holger 10 years ago in my project "Axcess". We played hard-n-heavy, then the band split up and we lost tracks of each other for a long time. And after Dan has left Holger found me and we decided to try again. And it turned out to be a great job and a very fruitful cooperation!

12. Was it Holger idea to start singing in Russian?

Chris: No, it wasn't only his idea. Or I should better say it was our common idea. We all have decided to sing in Russian almost similtaneously. It just happened so. You see, from the very beginning we were an english speaking band, so we thought it would be a great idea to try something new.

JT: The thing is that now the situation is as follows : we have a great Russian speaking community, which needs real power in Russian, because Russian language power is in great demand. There are some bands, but they are known only in Moscow and Moscow region. Many people listen to Aria and the project of their former vocalist "Kipelov" but it's not power metal.

13. Your new drummer Jurii Morev is seventeen years old, I suppose that he has real talent if you chose him for your drummer in spite of not having big incipience. Am I right? Where did you get him? Also your bas player is only one-year-older form Jurii. So your plan is to have really fresh and young blood in rhythm section I guess? :)

Chris: My friend (BF's guitaris), told me about him. So, we decided to try the guy and found out that he suits us. He has a good potential and soon he can become a really very good drummer. I think that you right saying about the fresh and young blood in the rhythm section, I have always said that the rhythm section (especially the drummer) has to be younger that the others : )).

JT: I gave to many our prospective drummers the song " In the search of Unicorn" and never saw them after that. Ha-ha-ha! Morev listened through all our songs and his face was stone cold! And he came back to the second rehearsal and to the third and so he still keeps coming to the rehearsals! A brave guy! But seriously speaking he studies in the local music college on the percussion department. After having played in our band about a month and a half, he had his exams on drumming. He was expecting his turn to play for a long time, as many students were tortured on drums for half an hour. When he started playing, he played about 10 seconds, his teacher told him that he could go home, as his exam was passed!

14. Is the current line up perfect? Did you lastly find musicians that you were looking for?

JT: I hope that this new line-up is good. May be in five years I'll be more detailed about that question.

Chris: The current line-up is very promising and our new fresh young rhythm section has a good potential and our mature vocalist is still looking for every possible way to improve his singing. : )

15. Before "Judgement Day" you recorded demo "Warlock". Don't you mind saying something about that four-track demo? What was the reason of recording it?

JT: It was an attempt to start the recording of "Judgement day" : ). In reality it was our last work with Dan. At that time the band was on the edge of splitting. Everybody had a very depressive mood and everything was just falling out of hands. And you can feel the traces of this depression in our musical material - when a band is trying to create a depressive mood on purpose it is one thing, but when the songs get depressive but they were not at all planned to be like that it another thing. Having recorded 4 tracks Dan has left the band. The work has stopped and only next year we were able to continue it again.

16. Your music style has change quite a lot. It is hard to compare "House of the Winds" and "Thunder in the Night" with your last two albums "Judgement Day" and "Gotterdammerung" Isn't it? I think that on the whole only high tuned guitar are your trademark that mainly connect those releases (beside of lyrics of course). Will you agree?

JT: With every album we slightly change the structure of music, trying to do it the way that all our good inventions will be presented it them. I don't like when the bands from album to album are doing the same things, but it would be worth for some bands to play in the same style as they did in the 80-ties! Ha-ha-ha! We won't rush from one extreme to another as Metallica and I can assure you that we'd never release an album, having a name "Chameleon" or anything like that! But we'll never become a factory of producing identical matrixes of songs.

17. I have no idea what is people reaction for "Gotterdammerung" but in my opinion that CD is just great! And one of your biggest advantages is that you sing in Russian. It is excellent language to sing… very expressive and create brilliant atmosphere… What can you say about that album? Do you think that you will manage to bit that CD with your next album?

JT: Absolutely! No doubts! Speaking about this album and its perception : when we worked on this album I personally listened a lot to old Black Sabbath with Dio and early albums of Blind Guardian. I think that this album owes much to these bands with its spirit. This album is accepted with great inspiration by people. It was already called an "album-bomb" or "album-granade".

18. Whole alum is fabulous but I like one element in your music especially. In track called "Altairs of the Liars" there are at the end of the song great vocals (after that pause) that reminds me something in kind of Islam prayer... (I don't know how should I call it but I hope you know what I'm thinking about) and it is just amazing!!! Can I expect more such an oriental elements in your music in the future??

JT: This part was a 100 percent Holger's improvisation. And it was absolutely fantastic! The song itself was devoted to the lairs from religion. We have liars from rock-n-roll, we have false prophets and we have liars from religion, which pursue their own purposes with the help of the religious dogmas. I don't mean in this song only islamic religion or any other religion. In the beginning of the song you can hear the prayer of a muezzin and the chime of a church bell. Such a combination is a nonsense, we wanted to remind people, that there are liars in any religion and they like vampires feed themselves with people's hopes and fears. In this we generally wanted to create the atmosphere like there was in Palestine in the times of the New Testament.

And more : The intro of this song very well suits the name of our album and the concept of the Twilight of the Gods (Gotterdamerung is translated like Twilight of the Gods) : people of different religions are trying to make their gods hear them, but gods keep silence and there are wars, murders and conflicts on the Earth.

19. Far Eastern elements, Russian language and Heavy Metal. Don't you think that it is very unique and original mix? It is something new and great, that is why I love "Altairs of the Liars"; so much :)!

Chris: There will be such elements in future for sure. As we've said we try to involve and develop the best innovations in our albums in future. Plus, don't forget that we live in a place, where East and West meet, so that is naturally reflected in our creative activity. And this mix of elements comes from the mixture of cultures, which we have here in Kazakhstan.

20. How is condition of Kazakhstan's Heavy Metal scene? Are there any other Heavy bands beside of Holy Dragons? What bands from Kazakhstan would you like to recommend?

JT: The situation here is not at all like in Poland. We can't even speak about any Heavy Metal scene here. Some time ago I wanted to make Kazakhstan Heavy Metal internet portal, something like powermetal.kz but then I understood that there will be nothing to write about. There are some death and black bands, which appear and then disappear without any traces left. There is a band, called Black Fox. They play classic heavy metal. The band is very young, and I'm now producing their debut album. And there is another young (much younger than BF) band, called Phoenix. They play something like italian variant of power metal. I'm producing them together with BF. But Phoenix has very serious problems with vocalist and it may delay their release till some indefinite moment in the future. Naturally, we all are here in the underground and officially we all don't exist, despite the fact that here we've officially released more albums than any local pop-group, (4 official releases in Kazakhstan on tapes totaly 10 000 copies) which greatly welcomed by our local journalists from press and TV. I'm sure that even if we take top in the world hit-list, they will do everything to shut the fact up!

21. When can we expect your new album? It will be in Russian I hope?!

JT: The material for the new album is almost ready. In winter we hope to start the recording of it. It will be recorded in two languages, first in Russian, then in English.

22. Do you have any new tracks? How are they if you have any?

Chris: We have 10 new tracks plus there will be some tracks, which Holger composed before HD. But his tracks are closer to hard rock. May be we'll take some of his songs too. I don't want to speak about the new tracks yet. Let that be secret. : )

JT: In general, we have a lot of material but we've selected 10 best tracks.

23. I read that many people want you to records both “Russians” CD's in English… hmm I do not understand them. I'm sure that your music will lose some of its magic if you record these songs in English. Don't you think? What if Aria decided to record their albums in English? :) In some way it is the same!!!

Chris: We originated as an English-speaking band because we wanted to be understood everywhere in the world. I mean for us lyrics also plays a very important role. We want to convey some message for the people doesn't matter where they live. The same thing with the Russian language - many people don't know English and they also want to get our message. So, I think we must do both variants. We don't have the right to betray our Russian speaking fans and we also don't have the right to forget about English speaking auditory.

JT: Now the English version of Gotterdamerung is a bit delayed because it's rather difficult to Holger in his 33 years of age just at some instant begin speaking English. In general we try to express more in our fantasy lyrics that it is usually accepted. Because fantasy is a very good basis to say indirectly (like in the fables) to sing about some things, which are very important for every person despite the time or the world he lives in. I mean people that live in the fantasy world with 9 green suns have the same feelings and emotions as people who live in our neighborhood. For example a song about Wiedzmin (Sword of Destiny) is not about about Sapek's book but it's a song about that everyone has its own sword of destiny, doesn't matter if he wishes or not. We may close our eyes to this reality but it will find you anyway.

24. Do you have any deal already singed? If you have please tell with witch label and when it happened. Chris: We've signed a deal with Russian metal label "Metallism" and we expect our albums to be released. At present they are working on the cover art work for the albums. This label also has a mailorder, so you can buy them in Poland too.

JT: More detailed information about it you can find on our web-site when everything will be ready.

25. I have no doubt that you can't earn for live playing music, so I wonder what do you do for living?

JT: Chris is an English language teacher at a local State University. Holger is an actor in a children's theatre company but as the salary of an actor is very low is always busy, conducting parties, children's holidays etc. Our bassist Chris Larson is a carpenter and Morev is still a student and I have some occasional earnings and mainly I'm conducting the affairs of the band.

26. Ok, so for the end I would like to ask you for some words to the readers of Heavy Metal Pages if you do not mind.

Feel the power of the steel,

We will get the score,

We were born to fight and win,

IN GLORY WAR!!!!!!

Keep spirit of Metal, be true in everything you do!