MetalExiles.com recently caught up with SCORPIONS guitarist Rudolph Schenker. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

MetalExiles: The new record is amazing but was is the fascination with the end of the world?

Rudolph: "The end of the world it is not. When you hear the child’s voice say 'it is time', he is saying that is time for a change. We wanted to do a more mature record and give a message to lift up the collective consciousness around the world, especially the young kids who are the pillars of the new world. They care about what we do with the world so we decided to build Humanity Hour 1 around that idea and have a good message."

MetalExiles: What is the message?

Rudolph: "The message is to care more and the one from the '60s; Make Love Not War. I think it was important for us to not make this album too dark because it was in the beginning and we wanted it to be more Scorpions like, to build a bridge between the old Scorpions sound and the new Scorpions sound."

MetalExiles: You have been releasing records since 1971. How do you think you are going over with the new generation of people buying hard rock albums?

Rudolph: "We played last year at the Wacken (Open Air), it is the biggest metal fest in the world and over 60,000 people were there. We played 3.5 hours with former members playing our old material from the '70s and '80s and the young people could not believe what we were playing. A lot of the younger bands in America are saying that they were influenced by us and we see the young kids up front singing our songs. We still have a lot of attitude left and people cannot believe how strong the band still is."

Go to this location for the complete interview.