Stefan: Very well thank you!

R: Are you doing a lot of interviews and stuff right now?

S: We're doing a lot of interviews with people in the states right now, because of the gig we will do...

R: Yeah, the Metal Meltdown in New Jersey, are you excited about that?

S: Of course, it's our first gig in the states, and we are a little bit excited, because we don't know how the people will welcome us with our music, so it will be new for us.

R: I wanted to ask about the tour with Children of Bodom, how did that go, did you guys have a good time out on the road and stuff?

S: Oh yeah, it went very well.  This tour with Children of Bodom was a little bit... we didn't know if it would work, because of course they have a really different style from us, so nobody knew if it would really work, with us together.  In the end it really worked great though, the fans of both bands welcomed the other bands very well, and we had a good time with Children of Bodom and Sacred Steel, and we had no stress and it went very well.

R: I guess theres always a risk when you take different styles of bands out on tour together, but hopefully you turned a lot of people on to the band that may not have checked you out otherwise.  I think the same thing may happen when you play NJ, probably a lot of new people will check you guys out.

S: I think the states are not so much... not such a big audience for our style of music, maybe the styles that are popular are like Marilyn Manson or Korn or whatever?

R: Yeah, the style that you guys play is somewhat underground at this point in the US scene, but it's better than it used to be, we've had good tours like Iron Maiden.  Do you think you'll be able to do a full US tour at some point?

S: I think the NJ festival will be a good situation to check with how it will work, but it's very difficult to think about if we should do a US tour or not, but we know it can be very difficult to do a US tour.  We always get a lot of fan mail, people from the states say "We're waiting for you!" but it's a very big country, so it can be really hard to do a tour all across the states, and if we have a few thousand fans in the states, but they're spread out over the whole country so there may be 50 people in a club when you play there!  So it's a little bit of a risk, but maybe if the festival works well for us we will think about doing it.

R: Well, I hope it works out because I'd really love to see you guys, and I know a lot of other fans would as well.  When you do tour, what are your favorite songs to play live?

S: Well, on this last tour from the new album we played "Angel in Black" "Nuclear Fire" "Eye of a Eagle" "Fight the Fire" "Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove" and also our classic songs from the first album, "Chainbreaker" we did "Silver and Gold" "Running in the Dust" from the second album we did "Church of Blood" "Final Embrace" and "Play to Kill" we usually did about 80 minute sets.

R: Congratulations on Nuclear Fire, by the way, it's a great album.  How do you think it compares to the last two?

S: Well, it's a development from the previous two albums.  I think what's really special about this album is that we rev up our style a little bit.  We have some harder songs than before, and some softer songs as well, we tried to give a wider spectrum of music.  What was really important though is that after all it's still Primal Fear, and we have to do what the people expect from us, and we don't want to disappoint our fans, but still keep it interesting.  I think thats the most important component to being successfull over the years.

R: About your mascot, the metal eagle, where did that come from?

S: I think it was Mat's idea, a good friend of him is the designer of our covers, and I think they thought about what would make a good cover for the CD, and they had the idea to use the eagle for the first CD, and we liked it very much, because the eagle for metal is a very great symbol, and of course we are not the first to use it!  But for the second CD we decided to use it again because we liked it so much, and we ended up using it again for the third album, and we'll probably use it in the future as well.

R: On the album, who does the solos?

S: We both do the solos, it's really divided equally.  Of course in the studio for the twin guitar solos, we both each play both guitars of our own solos, but live we perform it together.

R: Who do you think are your biggest musical influences?

S: I can't point it on one band, but the first bands that influenced me were bands like Rainbow, they were my first heavy band, and Judas Priest and Metallica.  Ride the Lightning came out when I was just starting to play guitar, so it was something that influenced me very much.  In terms of modern bands, I like bands like Faith No More, or Dream Theater, I like them very much.

R: Are there any new bands that you think deserve more recognition?

S: Hmmm, let me think...  I don't know!  There are a lot of modern bands that I like to listen to, bands like Limp Bizkit, but at the moment I can't think of a band that I think is really great that doesn't have enough publicity.  One guy who I think is really great who's not a heavy band, but Kip Winger!  He's a really great guy and does really great music, but unfortunately I don't think he has as much success as he deserves.

R: Where did the name Primal Fear come from?

S: Well, Mat saw the movie "Primal Fear" and he thought "this would be a good name for a band!" 

R: [laughs] Well there you go.  What do you think of the state of metal right now?  In terms of how you're album is doing on the charts and stuff, do you think it's getting better or staying the same or...?

S: Well, when I look back a long time ago, like five or six years ago, it was really bad for the kind of music we're doing.  It seemed like only death metal bands could get record deals, and it was really hard for band with a more classic style like Primal Fear does.  As we look now, it's coming up again, people are listening to classic heavy metal more and more, and people like to go to concerts more!  A few years ago no one wanted to go to concerts anymore!  Here in Germany, really great metal bands, idols of my youth, bands like Testament, and they would play in front of fifty people, it was terrible.  It was unbelievable how a band of this high state only got a few people.  It really hurt!  Fortunately it's getting much better day by day, and hopefully in the next year or so it looks like we're have a good time for this kind of music.

R: What's next for Primal Fear?

S: First we will do a few concerts in Europe, a lot of summer festivals, and then in the Autumn we will start writing new songs, and then in Spring or Winter we will go into the studio and do a new album.

R: Is there anything you want to say to the fans in the US?

S: Well, we hope we can do a US tour sooner or later, and we look forward to seeing you all!