Peter: It's the love for the music and of course our true fans that kept us going.

Knowing that seldom bands reach that 20 year milestone, what did it mean to you and how (if at all) did it affect the direction of the band?

Of course I'm proud of the fact of being around such a long time. But this didn't change the musical direction.

Throughout the band's illustrious career (Now spanning about 21 years), you have released 17 albums-the newest being this year's SPEAK OF THE DEAD. With all the touring and promoting, how were you able to accomplish such a feat?

Oh, a year has 12 month, that enough time to write, record and tour, really not a problem. We only do this, its our "job", so it is a great thing to spend our lives for.

Speaking of SPEAK OF THE DEAD, it's another classic Rage album. I thought it was rather interesting that you tied 1996's LINGUA MORTIS to the album, specifically to the first half of the album. Where did the idea behind that come from?

Since we have Victor, a classically trained musician, in the band, we wanted to do another classic release. H´s 7 years now with us and we finally felt it's the time for this project. We had worked with Orchestra on his solo album before already, so we did it this time with Rage...

"Full Moon" is one of my favorite tracks from the new album and is definitely one of the heaviest anthems on the album. On my version of SOTD, I believe I have the Russian version of this song (aside the English), but there are also Spanish and German versions as well. Why was it recorded in so many languages?

Just for fun. I was joking in the studio while we tracked and later we thought it's a good idea for having interesting bonus material. The hardest to do were the Russian and the Japanese Version...

What expectations do you have for the new album and how would you compare it to the band's past few releases (SOUNDCHASER, UNITY, etc.)?

I hope we find a lot of listeners worldwide. Compared to the albums before, the new one reflects a wider stylistic range.

Although Anthony Clarkson has provided yet another magnificent metal album cover, I began to wonder- is there any correlation between it and the darker tracks on the album ("Kill Your Gods", "Speak of the Dead")?

Yeah, he got the lyrics and used some Motives for the cover, he did a great job!

What kind of touring schedule does Rage have set up right now? Are you missing any countries that you'd like to hit up on this tour?

We have toured from middle of March till middle of May already all over Europe and Russia. Over summer we'll play European Festivals, later this year we plan to visit South America and Far East...

Peter, I'll name some random bands and just let loose and tell me what you think of them, okay?

Scar Symmetry-

Don't know

Enslaved-

Heard once, it didn't really impact

Arch Enemy-

Good band. Do you know the skull on their last cover is one from my collection?

Mastodon-

Don't know

Blind Guardian-

Good band, good friends. They're the biggest in Metal in our scene here

Dark Throne-

Don't know

Lacuna Coil-

Good band, good people

Motörhead-

Great band, nice guys, big influence for me when I was starting

And finally, where do you see Rage in the upcoming year? What do you have up your sleeve?

We work on a new DVD that we recorded in Russia in May. It will come out next year, I guess.

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