How do you feel knowing that you will be touring Europe with Iron Maiden later in the year?
It will be amazing for both bands. Obviously its great for us because Maiden have such a huge fan base, but we will also be bringing along a lot of our own fans, hopefully the kids that will go on supporting Maiden after they stop doing what they do.

What was it like for you when you started out, going round all the small venues and trying to make it big?
Well it was hard, most places wouldn’t have a shower, and we travelled around in a small van, but its what you have to do to get to where we are today.

How is your new album, ‘The Crusade’ coming along?
The riffs and the skeletons of how we want the songs to sound are written, we are going straight into the studio after this tour to get it recorded, and hopefully it will be out in the fall.

Who did the artwork on the ascendancy album?
Paul Romano, he also did Mastodon’s Leviathan, he’s done quite a few albums, and he will be working on our new one as well which should be good.

What is your favourite album of all time?
Metallica – ‘Master of Puppets’. Its what I try to aim for when writing myself. I don’t think bands like Metallica and Maiden knew the impact their work would have when they were writing it.

Who has the worst tour habits?
Well we all have habits I guess, but we did have to let a member of the crew go a while back, he smelt too bad!Its not really a habit, its just not nice!

Are there any upcoming bands that we should know about?
Sanctity, they are on Roadrunner Records, they are a great new band, you can download some songs from the website at www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk.

Do you like doing music videos?
Its kind of boring to do videos, they take a long time, but I am looking forward to the videos for the new album, we will be able to do a lot more of what we want. We have a lot of ideas if the single that we think will be it actually is. The next CD will be good for all that!

Who is you favourite Superhero/Fictional character?
Spawn. I like him because he’s violent, he beats the s**t out of people and looks after his own, that was a cool comic and sick artwork. Todd McFarnlan has done a lot of albums actually (Iced Earth -