Chad Bowar at About.com recently caught up with MPIRE OF EVIL frontman Tony "Demolition" Dolan. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

Q: Describe the songwriting/recording process for Hell To The Holy.

Dolan: "Antton (drums) came with ideas and lyrics in part, I came with lyrics and ideas and Mantas (guitars) had ideas and lyrics also. Mantas had composed all of the music already by the time we approached recording. I liked what he was coming up with so I didn’t want to disturb the process by slamming riffs in just because I could. I felt very strongly that we needed an identity for this band and Mantas was writing our face.

I thought what he was coming up with musically was who we were going to be and I liked it. We have always worked very well together. Our styles compliment each other's and we bounce back and forth easily with ideas. So when it came time for recording vocals, we sat and composed everything together and looked at what worked. Some tracks almost wrote themselves and it was a totally enjoyable process for both of us. The result was something we were both proud of."

Q: What inspired your lyrics?

Dolan: "The state of mankind mostly I guess. Religion, conflict, a changing world on the outside it seems, but looking back in history, it’s just cyclical. The problems are always the same: race, religion and simple basic instincts of man; prime evil (primeval). We have thrown some fun in there too, dealing with our own joyous teenhood in the track Snakepit'. The devil in music from a historic point links it all together in the track 'Devil', which speaks of the old blues players and Robert Johnson at the Crossroads. On the whole it is man’s basic self that we discuss."

Q: What are your expectations for the album?

Dolan: "We just want everyone to hear it, not just a small portion of fans. It’s about distribution and live performances. We just want people to enjoy it and feel good about it. It’s more basic and straightforward heavy metal, the way it was before we lost our way somewhat and got caught up in genres. Of course if it went platinum, that would be nice! (laughs)"

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Mantas recently checked in following the band's recent North American tour supporting UK brethren ONLSLAUGHT:

"What can I say? Twenty-one shows, no days off, 8400 road miles. Sleep? What's that?

I fucking loved every minute of it!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to every single one of you who came out to our US and Canadian shows. You guys were awesome Maximum respect to you all! See you again very soon."

The band has since posted over 300 photo from the tour on their official Facebook page. Click here to check out the gallery.

Following is an excerpt from BW&BK; 's recent interview with Dolan:

Mpire Of Evil's debut album, Hell To The Holy, shines due to the fact that Dolan and Dunn weren’t trying to recapture or outdo their Venom past. It's a different beast, rooted in traditional metal with thrash-like tendencies rather than trying to cash in on the classic Venom’s satanic MOTÖRHEAD vibe.

“We were interested in seeing how people responded,” says Dolan. “Because it's the three of us, we knew everyone was thinking it’s going to be another Venom record. In some corners people were screaming for that. We had some great album reviews at the very start, which was wonderful, but I remember reading a review from one black metal journalist that just ripped the shit out of it. He said the album was a piece of shit, it sucked, it was fucking pedestrian, it’s boring, and I came away from it saying ‘Thank fuck for that.’ Yes, we’re not black metal, and if we or the record company had tried to put us in that box we would have been sunk. This is more traditional metal, yes, but we just took a different approach to it.”

With over 30 years in the trenches, Dolan has paid his dues and is well aware of how quickly and completely the music industry can rip artists to shreds depending on the cards being played. He freely admits to being apprehensive about getting back in the game yet again, but when asked if Mpire Of Evil has fulfilled his expectations, he can only laugh.

“Funnily enough, yes. I'm really loving this more than I thought I would. When I was younger and doing this, ATOMKRAFT had limited success. We had shit distribution, so if people can’t hear you they don’t know you’re around, and when you turn up in town opening for a band everyone knows they want you to get it over with really quick. That causes a problem, but Atomkraft enjoyed that aspect of it because we had to turn it over every single time. It was never easy for us, we always had to work really hard and we never took it lightly. The thing is, when that’s all going on you don’t realize how much fun you’re having, so when you look back there’ll be holes in it. You think ‘Fuck, why didn’t I take my time?’ It’s like eating the best steak you’ve ever had at a restaurant and just wolfing it down. It’s just a memory after that, and you always want to go back there to have another one and eat it really slowly. When you do get back it’s different; they put the steak in front of you and it’s just not the same. I’ve found the restaurant and it’s going to be the same steak, only this time the chef’s a little bit better than he was (laughs). This steak’s going to be so much juicier and I’m going to eat it really, really slow (laughs).”

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