New interview with Faust posted

PR: First things first. How did you score that badass cover art? That's gotta at least be in the top-five for 2007 album covers.

Faust: Thanks man! Italian/American painter Alex Horley made it exclusively for us. He does works for comics like Heavy Metal and Marvel and upon deciding what kind of cover we wanted, we decided to go for him. We wanted to "re-invent" the [use of] paintings for cover art, with great album covers of bands like Deathrow and Kreator in mind. Some people thought it was too Manowar-ish, but fuck them! I like it, and I think it reflects our music well.

PR: What's the story behind the formation of Blood Tsunami? How did you guys get together?

Faust: Well, I joined the band during spring 2005 when the band had already been going for a year, but I reckon Pete formed the band as he wanted to do something more metal than what he did in Hellride. After a few line-up changes, the band came into form with Pete (guitar/vox), Dor (guitar), Bosse (bass/additional vox) and then me, Faust, on drums.

PR: Is Blood Tsunami going to be a full-time band, or just a side-project with you guys going your separate ways in between tours and albums? You do come from different musical backgrounds, right?

Faust: Blood Tsunami is definitely a full-time band, it is our main priority. I am also involved with the Italian band Aborym, but that is a studio band only, and it takes years between each time (it's time for work again, haha), and that suits me fine. Different musical background? Well, both yes and no. Pete and I are probably the biggest metalheads among the four of us with a great interest in classic metal, thrash metal, but also death and black metal. Bosse is very much into brutal death metal and stuff like Isis, Neurosis, and Rotten Sound. Dor is probably the rock 'n roll guy among us, but he is also into different kinds of metal. A slightly diverse interest in music is nothing but good and healthy for the band. We are in the process of getting down new material, and it is great to see how the material has evolved since last time.

PR: What kind of thinking went in to the album title? Were you trying to make some kind of statement with it? Or just crazy about being blunt?

Faust: Well, some people were slightly provoked by the title, but I don't understand why. Seems like they thought we were trying to define a whole genre, which of course we weren't. I mean, it is just an album title. It's not like it's the end of the world. Statement or not, we just wanted to name the album after the type of metal we execute. Venom had Black Metal, Dismember had Death Metal, so why shouldn't we use Thrash Metal?

PR: What originally got you interested in metal?

Faust: KISS was the first band that fired my interest at a very young age, a very classic example for a lot of older metalheads. From there on, I went to stuff like Iron Maiden, WASP, Motley Crue, etc, then to stuff like Venom, Metallica, Voivod, and Possessed. It was the classic route, really.

PR: Fans normally link Norway with black metal. Does that make it easier to be a thrash band from there, since you're relatively unique? Or is it a disadvantage having people automatically think "they're from Norway, so they're probably black metal"?

Faust: Well, due to my past in Emperor, most people who have an interest in either Emperor or Blood Tsunami will know the difference between the two. But I think there are so many bands coming out of Norway these days, and people don't really categorize like that any longer. What has definitely opened a few doors is my past in Emperor, but still, the band must stand on its own feet. If not, the distance to the floor is short.