“He was cheap. The other was too expensive,” cackles BRAINSTORM singer Andy B. Franck. Those Germans always worried about cost vs. productivity! “He drank my beer and stole my pretzels!” Taking a more serious tone, Franck continues, “We knew (bassist) Andreas (Mailander, replaced on new Metal Blade recording Downburst by Antonio Ieva) wasn’t really into the band any more. Especially over the last twelve months, we felt he was drifting away. Last year we had to play some shows without him, then he said he couldn’t go with us here, then there and so on. When everything was said and done, I got the impression that it was a huge pressure removed from him. I do remember a discussion with him, some years ago, when I said, ‘We have to do this. We have to do that, then we’ll become bigger. We have to become bigger.’ He asked me, ‘Where do you want to go? Isn’t it fine playing here tonight? We’re on a good level.’ I said, ‘No, my friend. I’m still hungry and you should be too (because you’re first album is called Hungry).’ So we decided, if he has to quit, we’ll take him to a good (high professional) level, as a present. We gave him the double DVD. We gave him the re-releases of the first two albums and a show near his hometown, in front of a lot of people he knows, which was the Bang Your Head festival. For him, it was the perfect ending. The first two albums are remastered and have a good sound now. He’s got a DVD of all his live performances and a history part on there and a perfect live show. We showed him honor and respect. If my career ends one day, I hope the band will give me something like this too!”

Asked about the introspective lyrics on Downburst, the frank vocalist jokes, “I write this shit (lyrics) and then, weeks later, I forget about it.” While eliciting no jog of his memory, ‘Redemption In Your Eyes’ is immediately recognizable as Brainstorm, sounding as if it could have been written during the Liquid Monster sessions (it wasn’t). However, ‘Frozen’ is but one of the heavyweight subjects broached within the ten proper tracks. “It’s about physical abuse,” his tone straightening. “I read a book about it. The real me, inside is frozen somewhere else. They build up two different different personalities: one that lives during the daytime and the other, (appears) whenever they get abuse. It’s one of my favourites.”

Although it took three years, Downburst clocks in at 43 minutes, a little skinny in the digital age, especially given the lengthy hiatus. “If you would have recorded those ten songs in the first phase, many months before we entered the studio, the album would have been an hour long. In the studio we decided to kick out parts, here and there, and re-arranged things. We decided some of the parts were senseless. Why should we record an album just to have it be 60 minutes? I always say, ‘What about Slayer? They made an album that’s only 28 minutes and it’s a classic. So let’s make Downburst our classic.’ I’m down with that. After those ten songs, the album is said and done, but there are others, that are still Brainstorm, just different. There are two bonus tracks for the special edition in Europe. ‘Crawling In Chains’ more or less has death metal vocals. Pantera? I don’t know how to describe it. Very extreme metal vocals. ‘Hold Tight’ is a very soft ballad, just piano and me. They’re not bad, but a new fan might be surprised, in a bad way, if they were in the midst of the album. If you’re open minded enough, though, wow!”

Unconfirmed rumours suggest Brainstorm will make a limited East coast/Canadian run sometime in April and/or May.

Watch for candid, personally revealing interview with Andy B. Franck in the next issue of BW&BK; (#109) - out in February!