Twin Cites Metal recently caught up with POWERMAD guitarist and head brewer for Surly Brewing, Todd Haug. Todd reveals exclusive details about the band's forthcoming album, their first in nearly 25 years.

TCM: So what’s the status of the new music? You released one song, 'Souls Descending', through your website, so has a whole album been recorded?

TH: Yeah, we did 'Souls Descending' to try out some new ideas. I’ve really changed, obviously, since the last time we were in the studio. Technology has changed the way we write because we’re all busy with very independent lives. We wanted to continue working together but we can’t just get together every night like we used to. We’ve all set up Pro-Tools studios in our basements just to do simple guitar tracking as a way to create ideas and be able to share them electronically. Any time of the day I can record a riff and send it to Jeff and Joel and get their feedback immediately. It took us a while to figure out that process. We used to focus on having rehearsal, having the drummer there and feeding off each other. That’s always been a big part of our music, having the energy that comes with fast drumming. So this process has taken us quite a while as a result, but we released 'Souls Descending' so we could give some fans an idea of what we were working on because they’ve been waiting a long time."

"We also wanted to try out an engineer that Joel knew out in Virginia and we went out to his studio. The drums were done, Dirk had recorded his tracks at his studio in Cleveland and we just did the guitars, bass, and vocals over a weekend out in Virginia to give it a trial run and get the song out. We continued writing the rest of the songs, and it helped us decide to go back and work with Kevin more. We decided to have Daniel Bergstrand mix it, who’s a prominent metal producer and mixer in Sweden. The album is done, we just have to make decisions about artwork and figure out how we’re going to release it. We’ve had to spread everything out, Joel’s got his own business. It’s frustrating that it’s taken this long, but as it gets closer we’re all getting fairly impatient. It’s all been self-funded, so we’ll probably end up shopping it to see if we can get some support with getting it out there and with the marketing. There are no plans to do any extensive touring, but we’d definitely like to get out to more festivals. We went to Germany last year and it was great, but it’s a lot work to go over there for one show. We’d love to be out for the festival circuit in Europe during the summer. There’s a big market for the kind of metal we play and I think people will be very receptive. Dirk’s had a busy year with SOILWORK so we’ll obviously have to plan ahead if we get the opportunities. We’ve got nothing to prove, this is something we wanted to do for ourselves but we also feel like there were things left uncompleted. The band just kind of dissolved. Everybody drifted away and did other things, there was never a decision to just break up so we were just in this weird state of stasis for 15 years."

Click here for the complete interview.

Check out the brand new Powermad single and video, 'Souls Descending', below. More on Powermad at this location.

Powermad achieved cult status with the critically acclaimed 1989 masterpiece The Madness Begins, are perhaps best known for their appearance in the classic David Lynch movie Wild At Heart performing their thrashing anthem, 'Slaughterhouse'.

More than two decades later, the quartet’s unique blend of thrash and power metal has evolved and grown into a raging beast fueled by a voracious appetite for all things heavy. With a new drummer - SOILWORK's Dirk Verbeuren - and a long-awaited second album in the making, Powermad, led by vocalist/guitarist Joel DuBay, is ready to once again tear up stages worldwide!

When asked about Powermad’s re-emergence, DuBay said: “It’s about damn time! Jeff, Todd and I are extremely anxious to complete the new record with Dirk, and with every new song we write, we’re more and more excited to bring our brand of metal to anyone that will listen."

What’s the new music like? "It's intense..." (An evil grin crosses his face) "I’ve never been happier about Powermad than I am right now! The music is emotional, crushing and spans the sonic landscape. I think people who've followed us since day one and people who are new to Powermad will find things in our music that they like. We're a band that intends to bring it at every show we play to those who’ll be there with us. Powermad is back bitches!”