PRIMAL FEAR guitarist Henny Wolter is featured in a new interview with KNAC.com when the band hit Los Angeles on their North American tour. An excerpt is available below.

KNAC.com: Your last studio release, 16.6, did very well, didn’t it?

Wolter: "In Germany it did, yes. In Germany our most successful album is still Nuclear Fire. The second most successful album is the last one, 16.6 (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead). It was almost as good as Nuclear Fire, considering back in the time people would rather buy CD’s than download stuff. We think that 16.6 is as known, or as big, as Nuclear Fire, which is still our classic album. And people judge us by that. We are aware of it."

KNAC.com: Do you guys stay with the same formula each time you make new music?

Wolter: "This metal crowd, especially over in Europe, is a very loyal group of fans, but they don’t forgive you if you ever change your style. You know what I mean? You are forever fucked if you leave them alone and you do something totally different. If they don’t like it, then that’s just too bad. You are at the end. So in Primal Fear it’s kind of a difficult thing for us to go somewhere else or move. We can do new stuff, but within limitations. And we always have to be aware of the fact that we don’t scare off our most loyal fans—the metal fans. If they have the impression it’s not true metal, they will let you know. We will not ever take that risk. '16.6' is a modest approach to a little more of a RAMMSTEIN-type of riff. On the album before, we had the duet with Simone Simons from EPICA. But we stay within our range. As we play this, I believe the crowds will become bigger, slowly. We have no high expectations, like we’re going to sell out the next tour. But we plan on coming here regularly, and we feel that that is the best and only way to get some attention here."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

BW&BK;'s Martin Popoff recently caughht up with Primal Fear / SINNER bassist Mat Sinner:

Bassist Mat Sinner has put on a new iron-bound hat as heavy metal helper to his bandmate vocalist Ralf Scheepers, and the big, bald one’s first solo album.

After the current North American tour, sez Mat, “We’ll record the first songs for Ralf’s solo album. He wrote a lot of songs and he just wanted to come out and show a different side and still his metal side. It will be an interesting album with a lot of guests and a lot of nice friends appearing on this album. It will be a good album I think. We’ll actually start to do it… Uli Kusch from GAMMA RAY, MASTERPLAN… or wherever he played, HELLOWEEN (laughs), he will play the drums on this album and it will be a very interesting thing. Also, I will record a new Sinner album in the autumn, and we’ll play some festivals. I have to finish the new MICHAEL KISKE album.”

So to clarify, when is work on Ralf’s album starting?

“We start when we get back from the US. I think we will start in mid-June. I think the drums will be ready when we come back from America and we’ll collect the ideas from our friends and the guests who will appear on the album. I will play bass and produce the whole thing. Ralf will sing. The album will be out in January or February 2011.”

And stylistically? “In part it’s very metal. Very metal. So it will not be Ralf’s ballad album. There were some ballads where Ralf was showing a different kind of music, his talent in music, because he’s playing all the instruments on one song, for example. So you hear him playing guitar, keyboards, so it’s very interesting. But overall I will say it’s a very tough metal album.”

Heavier than Primal Fear?

“Part yes, part no (laughs).”

Primal Fear new live DVD named 16.6 - All Over The World, recorded in various locations between September and November 2009 and on a live CD aptly titled Live in the USA is out via Frontiers Records.