BW&BK; recently caught up with SLAVIOR/ex-FATES WARNING drummer Mark Zonder to discuss Slavior's upcoming self-titled debut. The following is a brief excerpt from the interview:

“Slavior was an idea in my head for probably the last 10 or 12 years," Zonder says of the band's origin. "I tried it a few times – it wasn’t called Slavior, obviously – with the same approach but I just couldn’t find the guys. I did it a couple times but it never got to where I wanted it to be. The biggest problem was that you really need to play with someone in the same room if you’re in a band. I did so many records with Fates Warning without actually being with the guys – even the Warlord records weren’t done that way – and it just wasn’t moving quick enough. Gary Wehrkamp from Shadow Gallery is a good friend, and I love him and everything, but he’s in Pennsylvania and I’m in San Diego. What made things click for Slavior was that Wayne (Findlay/guitars) is 25 minutes from my house, so we get together three or four times a week, and it’s amazing how much you can get done and how much more creative you can actually be when you’re working together in the same room.”
“The beauty of it is that when you start doing something like this there’s a consistency factor," he continues. "When Wayne and I are putting songs together it’s not like one of us is saying ‘Dude, let me play every riff I know and we’ll stick it in a song.' We’re very conscious of the verse / chorus / verse / chorus thing. When we auditioned for vocalists and Greg (Analla/ex-Tribe Of Gypsies) sent his stuff back we were completely blown away by what he was doing. His style is so melodic and so hook oriented that it decided what direction Slavior was going in. We don’t have the big lead sections. I’m not a big lead fan myself, and I’m not sure if there’s anything that can be played these days that hasn’t already been played. There’s a time and a place for it, but I like the musical passages and vocal parts that change. That’s more pleasing to my ear.”

Watch for the full story in BW&BK; #104.

As previously reported, Slavior will release their self-titled debut on March 30th through InsideOut. The tracklist is as follows: 'Origin', 'Shatter', 'Swept Away', 'Altar', 'Another Planet', 'Deeper', 'Dove', 'Slavior', 'Give It Up', 'Red Road'.

Go to this location to check out audio samples from the album.