Andy B. Franck: No. You couldn’t pay me enough to do that. King Diamond tried to do a tour with King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. After a couple dates he had to cancel a show, then he played two other shows and had to cancel two or three more shows. If I tried to do that, when I went on stage with Symphorce I couldn’t give 100 percent because I had to play another show. Then when I’m on stage with Brainstorm I couldn’t give 100 percent again because I already had a show. That doesn’t make any sense. It’s much better to walk on stage and say for the next two hours you’re mine and give 100 percent.
Is Metal Blade giving this CD a bigger North American promotional push than your previous albums?
I have no idea. I hope they do. I’ve seen that we’re doing well on Amazon. It’s the only thing I can check out now. It’s our last album for Metal Blade, and we will see what happens in the future. We have several offers from different other big record labels. I do not know yet. You don’t know about the results of the promotional activities until weeks after the release date. Then you receive the press and sales results. That’s when you see what happened and what did not. I can give you a better answer in a few months.
There are so many great metal bands from Germany. Who are some of your favorites?
A band like Helloween opened a lot of doors. I’m also a huge fan of bands like Kreator, who opened doors for more extreme metal bands. I toured twice with Grave Digger and know them very well. Of course other bands like Blind Guardian have been doing an amazing job for years. I like the latest Helloween album. It’s an amazing record. After about 20 or 25 years they are still releasing good albums. I hope we’re in the business for that long.
How strong is the metal scene for younger bands in Germany?
It’s different these days. Normal or power metal bands are having tougher times. Bands like us or Edguy are doing well, but we could be doing better. We’re one of the top bands in Germany, but many young metalcore bands are coming up. Bands like Caliban are selling a lot over here. You see this type of metal becoming really popular. It’s like all trends. They come and go. But I’m happy that Brainstorm has a really cool fan base and we can count on them. That’s really important for us.
It’s also different in that sales sometimes aren’t that big, but tours are. It’s very bizarre to see young German metal bands releasing new albums, and it seems like nobody cares about the album. But fans are downloading or burning the album and they go on tour and the shows are sold out.
