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3 Inches of Blood: True heavy metal will never die!

The headline itself expresses the credo that the band 3 Inches of Blood has always had. No surprise that they called their new album “Long Live Heavy Metal”, and they have every right to do so. Luckily they could find time for an interview.


I have heard that your “Long Live Heavy Metal” tour starts in May (details at STALKER tourdates, the ed.). You will play together with ANGELUS APATRIDA, GOATWHORE and HAVOK. Very cool package I think. What can we expect?
You can expect a full blown heavy metal show, one that covers different facets metal. We´ve toured with Goatwhore before and they are good friends, and they have they´re own sound, so its not going to be a boring show, it won´t be a show where all the bands sound the same. What it will be is a headbanging good night!

When did you play a club show in Germany the last time? Seems to be long ago, right?
The last time we played at a club in Germany was on the Bonecrusher 2009 tour with Black Dahlia Murder and Necrophobic, that was a great show, we learned from those German shows that we had some amazing fans in Germany. Having said that, its been too long since we´ve been there, it will be great to go back.

What, in your opinion, makes power metal and heavy metal in the way you play it so timeless?
Heavy Metal is an art form that speaks to people from all walks of life. It has the aggression and energy that we all feel inside, I think that may have something to do with it. With Metal and Powermetal there is a unity of the fans. There is less elitism than other subgenera, To compare to a lots of genres, metal fans party their asses off together at a metal event, everyone is there to celebrate the music and not compare clothes.

“Long live Heavy Metal” reminds me of bands like JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT and other similar artists, but at the same time it has something fresh. What have you been able to add to take the heavy / power metal into the 21st Century?
I don´t necessarily think we identify with the “Powermetal” name as much as the “Metal” name. With the old lineup of the band I think there was much more powermetal influence in the sound of Advance and Vanquish but, when Justin Hagberg and Myself joined and took over songwriting, I think it´s able to hear our more straight up metal influences. Powermetal to me represents more of a classical music sound and distinct chord progressions that we don´t familiarize with. We definitely share the powermetal sound with our vocals, and we share the european and NWOBHM influence, but I think we feel comfortable referring to ourselves as a Heavy Metal band. As far as taking that sound into the future, its something that we do that we are proud of, we have no intention of changing but we will continue to grow.

How would you describe the sound of “Long live Heavy Metal”?
Long Live Heavy Metal is a very loud and crisp sounding album compared to out last one. I think everyone in the band stepped up their performance for this album. That mixed with the quality of the recording is what LLHM turned into. The sound is straight up 3 Inches of Blood playing our brand of high energy heavy metal.

In recent years, traditional Metal / Power Metal became much more popular again – how do you assess the current metal scene and where do you see 3 INCHES OF BLOOD in it?
To be honest, I don´t pay attention to current trends or whats popular very much. Since we started lots of different subgenres seem come in and out of the spotlight, I know this from the younger local opening bands at show that open up ( they always sound like what is popular). We see ourselves doing what we do regardless of what´s popular because true heavy metal will never die.

That´s it – do you want to add something?
I´m looking forward to playing in Germany again, the land of true heavy metal!!

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Markus Seibel

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