MM: Its great to chat to you today how pleased are you with the finished Album and reviews so far.
JP: Hi Seb! It seems like the reception has been positive, which is a relief. Sophomore albums can be tough after a well-received debut. Expectations can be somewhat high, and living up to those expectations is a challenge.

MM: Which is you favourite track on "Conquerors Oath" today and why?
JP: Right now, I'd have to pick Traitor's Gate. It's a little different than anything we've written before, and it is a fun song to play.
 

MM: The Album cover is interesting to can you give us a bit of insight into it.
JP: It was done by Kris Verwimp, who gave us a wonderful double panel oil painting. It's based on lyrics from a few of the songs on the album put together.

MM: Will you be having a blown up copy on your wall at home.
JP: I'm proud of our work on this album, and love the way the cover turned out, but I don't post many trophies at home! I will keep a copy of the vinyl on my shelf, but that's the extent of it.

MM: You guys will be heading to Europe in the New Year,  is their any where you are really looking forward to playing.
JP: I'm excited for every gig, to be honest. Last year we finally made it to Europe for a short tour and it was a pleasure. I'm looking forward to catching a ton of music, some new and promising, some old and legendary. It's a live music dork's heaven!

MM: A lot of German dates, you seem to have a huge following in Germany, why do you think that is ?
JP: It could be the somewhat muscular sound of our music, or it could be the fact that we love a wide variety of German bands. We play thick strings in a low tuning, so there is a beefy element to it. There is a pronounced influence in our sound, I think. Probably from how much time we individually spend listening to German bands. That and Germans are serious about metal! Europe in general seems like the Promised Land of Heavy Metal, at least from the perspective of a guy from one of the more remote and empty parts of the USA, like myself.

MM: Fave German Metal Bands?
JP: I love the Teutonic thrash like Sodom, some of the power metal like Grave Digger and U.D.O., and bands like Accept, Scorpions, Gravestone, and hard rock like Lucifer's Friend.

MM: If I was a Visigoth Virgin which two tracks from the bands history would you play me to introduce me to Visigoth?
JP: I'd say Steel and Silver from the new record, just because it has a lot of elements of our sound condensed into a fairly compact temporal package, then Blood Sacrifice, to cover another element of our sound in earlier work, which is big, sprawling arrangements and changes.

MM: Which two Metal Albums would you play me to introduce me to the Metal Scene
JP: I'd pick Stained Class and Number of the Beast. If you don't like both of those, it's hard to see how most other traditional style metal would be exciting. I could be wrong, though. Who knows?

MM:What would you say has been the bands biggest achievement to date?
JP: One of the more difficult ones was our Eastern North American tour in 2016, just because of its sheer length and some of the roughing it a band getting established in America has to do. We did some van sleeping, floor sleeping, I spent a night on the ground outside at a rest stop. It's kind of hilarious talking with other musicians from the US about the weirdest places we've slept. Nobody gets paid as much for shows here, so hotels are rare at our level. As far as other travels, Keep It True and Pounding Metal Festival of 2017 were great, it felt good to play for such large audiences that were receptive to what we do.

MM: Can you remember the first time you ever played live and how it felt to have people watching you
JP: I don't remember most of the early gigs I did. I was an awkward teenager, and concerts are an intense adrenaline rush for me, so it's kind of a blur. I can only speak for myself, but shows tend to fly by, there are so many things to do and keep track of. Memory tends to get overwhelmed by that kind of environment!
 

MM: Why should we Buy Conquerors Oath
JP: Because we need the money, we're scraping by! Just kidding, but not really. Buy it, overhear it, steal it, copy it, whatever. I'm happy if people are listening. Getting paid is important to move forward and improve stage shows and gear so we sound our best, but having people exposed to the music is the foundation of everything. The music needs to come first, and it needs to be good and real, otherwise nobody will be interested in coming to a show, or buying a shirt, or telling their friends about the music, or traveling to festivals, or art being commissioned, or all the other things we love about heavy metal.

MM: Four Words to describe Visigoth
JP: Big, Loud, Low Riffs

MM: Quick Fire Round
1.Festival or Small intimate gig – Festival. Big crowd, big stage, tons of cool bands. Still love small gigs though.
2.Vinyl or Digital – Vinyl when it's done well. Some sounds terrible, some sounds great. CD audio has great dynamic range, but nobody uses it. Everything gets squashed these days.
3. Pizza or Hot dog – Pizza! Thin Crust 'Til Death.
4.Baseball or Soccer – Neither! Hockey! Though I'm not much of a sports man in general, more of a dweeb.
5. Donald Trump or Mickey Mouse – Both make me feel a sense of dull sorrow at what the ravages of the Grim Future of 2018 have brought, both to our politics here and our culture. I prefer to pretend that neither one exists by distracting myself with Rock and Roll!

Thank you for your time today any Final Words?
JP: Thanks for asking me about the band! And thanks to anyone who cared enough to read this far!                 

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