Having released their first album in 1998, Primal Fear has been releasing one album of power metal ferocity after another. Unfortunately, ever since the release of their third album, "Nuclear Fire", the band has been labeled as a Judas Priest knock off by many people. Obviously, they never gave the album more than just a cursory listen. Even so, the label stuck for many people. Even with the release of two more albums which displayed a wider variety of musical influences the naysayers continued their Philistine chants of unoriginality. Until now.

With the release of their sixth album, "Seven Seals", Primal Fear will wash away those persistent Priest comparisons once and for all with their most dynamic, accomplished and impassioned album yet. Let the seals be broken...

Randy: I can only hope it will come across great. We're very, very happy with the way it came out. If I was to make a comparison to the other Primal Fear records, it's a lot more dynamic, a little more diverse, there's more variety in the songs and um… yeah, just a little more variety overall, so hopefully it will come across great.

Randy: Well, for me the biggest difference was Charlie, first of all, he is a perfectionist, he's done a lot of great work with other bands and he's a drummer. So for me, he really took the time and also just kicked my ass to do the best I possibly could, as well as the other guys. He really got the best performances out of everybody, which I thought was a big difference from the last one and you can really hear it in the tightness of the record, the sound of the band; he got really great sound overall - drums, guitar, bass, the whole record and then mixing it with Mike Frazer just topped it off. I mean, he just did a great job and he's done many great albums.

Randy: It was really great; I got to see a lot of old friends. It was actually the first time I got to work in Brian Adams' studio, the Warehouse, which just is state of the art; beautiful, beautiful studio. Mike was really familiar, he'd done a lot of work there, so it was really relaxing. We got to do a little bit of sightseeing; we went over to the island, did some whale watching, so it was a great experience for everyone.

Randy: I think Mat had a lot to do with the design, so I can't really say why. I like the way it turned out. I don't know, maybe he did it for something different, a little more variety as well, in the artwork.

Randy: To be honest, so did I and I haven't had a chance to ask Mat why they decided to do that, because it's also released in Japan a little later, I think he said. Or earlier; I don't know - it's like three weeks difference between North America, Europe and Japan. I don't know why they did that, so I can't really answer that; sorry.

Randy: Either way, just us getting over there and touring the U.S. would be great - we don't care if it's opening or headlining. Of course, it would be great to headline; if the record does well and is received well and if the numbers are right, then we could afford to come over and do a headline tour. By all means, we would do it, for sure. So we're keeping our fingers crossed and hopefully, it'll happen either way.

Randy: I have been living in Berlin, Germany for… actually next month, November, will be seven years. And the rest of the guys, they live in and around Stuggart, which is about a six and a half hour drive south in Germany. So none of us live in the same city. They all live down there, I live in Berlin.

Randy: Well, a lot of it's done over the internet; we do email stuff. For example. I'm not one of the writers, so before preparing for a record, they'll just email me the songs, I'll download them, rehearse them, work on my drum parts, figure out some new things and then I will fly down to Stuggart and we'll do rehearsals there. For example, before a tour, we'll do like four or five weeks, I will fly down on the weekend and we do all the rehearsals, work out the set and come back to Berlin and do my teaching here and other projects and that's how we do it.

Randy: I teach drums.

Randy: Yeah, I just teach privately here in Berlin. That's how I actually made it over here to live. I had an opportunity when I quit Annihilator to come over to Berlin and teach and be with my fiancé.

Randy: It was totally open for me and it still is an option. It's like five writers, well, right now it's four, but I've never had the urge or desire to be a writer. I mean, I work out my own parts, I play all the drum stuff, but as far as writing, I never really got into that end of the music. But if anything ever changes, the opportunity is there, the guys are totally open for my ideas.

Randy: I don't know if the invitation had been there prior to this year, so I can't really answer why we hadn't been there earlier, but it was a great festival, I'm really glad we did it and I hope we can do it again in the future.

Randy: First off, I would say personally, it's a band, it's a democracy and I feel like it's a band being in Primal Fear, where Annihilator for me, personally, my opinion again, was always a Jeff Waters solo project. So that would be the biggest difference and that's very important for me to feel like I'm in a band and part of a band and part of the decision process, part of the writing, everything. So that would be the first and biggest difference.

Randy: No problem.

Randy: Basically, right now, what I can say for sure, is more touring, more recording and hopefully touring over in the U.S. I mean, most of our touring is done in Europe and Brazil, but I hope we can make it over to the U.S. I hope that's in the future for us. Just more success, I hope.