NEVERMORE singer Warrel Dane spoke to Metal Asylum in New Jersey about the band's latest album The Obsidian Conspiracy, songs that will be added to the live show, performing the album Dreaming Neon Black in its entirety, and the future of SANCTUARY. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Metal Asylum: What is the Obsidian Conspiracy?

Dane: "If I told you what it meant I’d probably have a few paramedics come through the door ready to commit me to a mental asylum. I think that if you listen to the lyrics, well obviously I know what its about, but I think its kind of obvious there is an on-going theme to it, dark subjects like murder, abortion, suicide, capital punishment…I guess its more obvious to me. But I think people will figure it out. It’s not a concept record and we already did one, Dreaming Neon Black, and I don’t want to do a disservice to Dreaming Neon because its my personal favorite record I have ever done in my entire career. So I don’t ever want to do that again."

Metal Asylum: Were any new ideas or elements introduced into the making of The Obsidian Conspiracy?

Dane: "Well not really because at this point we are really in a comfort zone. It’s pretty much Jeff (Loomis – guitars) and I who do the writing and we know each other really well and have a really good back and forth thing. We live close together also which makes writing the album more convenient. It was pretty much business as usual. There’s a little bit of piano on the album, that’s about it."

Metal Asylum: What songs will you be adding from The Obsidian Conspiracy to the live show?

Dane: "We have been playing the lead-off track 'The Termination Proclamation', the title track, ‘Your Poison Throne’ (the Europeans really love the chanting, rise…rise…rise) and I think it sounds better than the studio version because at this point I think we are really a better live band if that’s possible at this stage. When we start rehearsals for the show in the U.S. we will probably throw in a couple more, plus a few more from Dreaming Neon Black, Politics of Ecstasy."

Metal Asylum: Which leads into my next question…there are a few song that I don’t recall seeing in the setlist as of lately. I’m curious of your thoughts and the possibility of including them?

Metal Asylum: ‘The Tiananmen Man’?

Dane: "I would love to play that again. We did it back when The Politics Of Ecstasy came out. See, one of the problems with us is we fall back on the easy things when we work on a setlist and I have always tried to push the envelope a bit, everybody likes their comfort zone. That song is one of my favorites and the subject matter is still relevant."

Metal Asylum: ‘Poison Godmachine’?

Dane: "Yeah…we did that one live quite a bit, again, I would love to play it again but again it boils down to the whole democracy thing when we all sit down in a room."

Metal Asylum: ‘Deconstruction’?

Dane: "You know that was one of my picks for the last tour but it never happened, its one of my personal favorites. I think there are plans to play that on our next stretch of dates. Yeah, I love that song."

Metal Asylum: ‘Forever’?

Dane: "I think if your ever going to see the song ‘Forever’ performed live, its going to be when, if we ever, perform Dreaming Neon Black in its entirety, which is a definite possibility, however, its going to take a lot of convincing from me to get everybody else into that idea. Like I said before, it’s my favorite record because it came from a very personal place. I think a lot of people would like to hear that album live.'

Read the entire interview here.