Since I haven’t been able to watch your new DVD before deadline, maybe you can tell me a little about the contents?

you get a full dublin show from last year, a documentary and then some tracks here and there from 2008 festivals, a full show from ragnarok 2008. the deluxe edition comes with a bonus audio mix of the dublin show which sounds great. gives a new perspective on how the old songs sound now.

Did you record other shows for “All Empires Fall”, or did you plan to use the Dublin show and the clips from the other festivals for the DVD even before the shows?

no not really. after our dublin show in 2008 we began to figure out when and where we should film a proper dvd so we decided to basically do the same show almost a year later later. once we had that then we just had to take a look at what we had from the 2008 festival season and some of it was good enough to use.

I guess playing in Dublin is something very special to you…? How is your status in Ireland. Are you considered to be THE metal-pride of Ireland nowadays?

It never used to be, in fact until The Gathering W came out it nearly always sucked. Cynical old crowd of other bands etc. but since a new generation came up who felt a bit of pride in us we can sell out a pretty big venue here now, which is where we filmed the dvd. it's taken a long time to even get to that level.

I guess we are the standard bearers for Irish metal, which is fine, we put the work in. If it inspires some people then that's good. We have always been bigger in other countries though, not much infrastructure to support metal here.

What are your favorite countries to play in? And did anything really chaotic and bizarre happen lately on the road?

chaotic and bizarre things are always happening to us. I think every band has their spinal tap moments, we are no different. one story is only the tip of the iceberg. maybe our drummer getting 4 saline drips so he could even stand up and being carried to the stage to play in front of 20 000 people at summer breeze is the pinnacle of the last few years. that we played is a complete miracle.

You recently re-released “Imrama” and “A Journey’s End” on Metal Blade. How do you look upon these releases now? And did you have a hard time getting the rights back for the releases?

of course we had a hard time. prizing what you own from the business men is hard. especially when they are making money from you and you never see a fucking thing. we own them now thankfully. took a long time. if you own them already we dont ask you to get them again but remember some new fans were not even born when we made imrama so those albums should be out there for people to own.

You have been on 3 now closed labels (Cacophonous, Misanthropy and Hammerheart), where some of them even went bankrupt. Do you think your finally found your “home” on Metal Blade?

well yes and no. the industry is changing so fast now its hard to tell if labels will even exist in 5 years, or at least how we understand them now and in the past. but the past 5 or so years on metal blade have been good, we've watched the band grow and grow and hopefully this year and a new album will see us keep going in the same direction.

You have been around as Primordial since 1992, and still going strong in a very active way. Are you actually able to make a small living of Primordial now?

no not really. we make something and if we all quit our jobs we could make a bad living but there are kids, bills and mortgages to pay and we are older now. we cannot do what we did when we were 21. people should remember this about us and other bands like us who cant live from music, even doing something like the last american tour was a huge sacrifice for us. this all said we are owed so much money from old labels, publishers, foreign live performance societies who hold on to every penny for years and all that kind of shit. bands are always at the bottom of the pile.

Speaking about live, are there any songs you are really tired of playing, and some you may miss?

no not really. i always look forward to adding new songs to the live show after every album and seeing which become classics and which move people. no regrets!

Any news on coming album or tour??

new album recorded in june. out september hopefully. some festivals during summer and hopefully touring at the end of the year!

thanks

vae victis