Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview with Destruction vocalist / basssist Marcel 'Schmier' Schirmer. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

On making new album Under Attack:

"It's the biggest time off that we had between albums, was four years, so we had enough time to write, which I think was much better than finally starting to write again after a few years. I think this was a good step that we took. We also chose a procedure of how to record. We left a bigger gap between this album and the last album, because before that, for 17 years now we've been writing an album every two years or so. We've been very productive, but this time it was just important to do a good album, and so we took some more time."

On the track "Elegant Pigs", which deals with rock bands using backing tracks:

"It's just a sad fact that a lot of rock and metal bands nowadays are using backing track tape for backing up the band, with vocals, and strings, and backing vocals, and guitars, and keyboards, and all kinds of shit. For me, when you play live, there should be no backing track. A lot of vocalists also back up their whole lead vocals with backing tracks nowadays, and that's a very sad fact. In that song 'Elegant Pigs', I'm asking 'What the fuck happened to rock 'n' roll?' It's lying. The fans don't know when the band is cheating, but for me it's a fucking topic that I want to talk about."

"A lot of my musician friends don't like the fact that I'm talking about it, but I don't care. For me, rock 'n' roll is a holy spirit, and it's a fucking no-go to do this in this kind of music. A lot of pop bands have been doing this for generations, but not in heavy metal. Yeah, I'm dealing with stuff that is basically bothering me. It's also a big release for me to write lyrics – kind of my own psychological session."

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

BraveWords’ Under Attack review can be found here. Check out our new Destruction feature at this location.

The Under Attack artwork was created by acclaimed artist Gyula from Hungary, who has also created artwork for Annihlator, Grave Digger, Stratovarius, Tankard and many more.

"Under Attack" video:

“Second To None” lyric video: