On a personal note, what was your highlight of 2009? (non-musical)

Sylosis – “Hmmm, music ends up taking up most of my life. Getting drunk with Adam Mayes from Viatrophy after his 2 and a half years of not drinking.”

Amon Amarth – “For me it was when I proposed to my fiancé.”

Tesseract – “I stood on the top of the still smoldering and very much alive volcano Mount Vesuvious…just amazing. Scared the shit out of me though as the wind was so strong and the rope barrier between you and certain death very small…I think I prayed about three times for God whilst up there.”

NoMadeSense – “Completing Twilight Princess on the Wii. Like, I totally forgot to finish it when it came out, so I did it this year. “

The Rotted – “Me and the missus left the stress inducing, overcrowded, overpiced city of London and moved to the middle of nowhere! We live in Somerset now, on the coast, in a tiny village where no one cares what we get up to. We dont have to pay through the nose for everything and were not surrounded by miserable bastards all the time! Im gonna be growing my own vegetables, making my own Scrumpy and keeping chickens so Ill have my own eggs too. I can see over the sea to Wales out the front of the house, and I have fields out the back. No one bothers me, and I can keep myself to myself. Its changed my life into a very peaceful, stress-free existence.”

Mia Hope – “Buying a house with my girlfriend, my daughter starting school.”


Bury Tomorrow – “I think that 2009 has been the year of catching up! Ive spent so long working and touring that Ive scaresly seen my family, friends or my girlfriend. Its nice to catch up particularly before our hectic schedule next year. I think having good friends around you is so important to stay sane and happy.”

The Dirty Youth – “Non-musical? Err I brought some pet chickens and named them after currys.”


Malefice – “Being lucky enough to see the Taj Mahal in person, it was absolutely breathtaking and something Id never thought I’d witness , it truly justifies being the “seventh wonder of the world”.”


What was your favourite venue to play in 2009?

Sylosis – “Sonisphere. On this Dragonforce tour Id say the Reading Hexagon and the show in Truro.”

Amon Amarth – “Again difficult to say since there have been so many great shows in cool venues during the year, but I really liked the Koko in London because its just a beautiful venue, the Vega in Copenhagen was also great as well as Melkweg in Amsterdam and NorVA in Norfolk, VA.”

Tesseract – “Milton Keynes Pitz – such a great stage and such a great crowd.”

NoMadeSense – “The Nags Head (Blues Loft) in Wycombe has got a great vibe, and were doing PLUGPLUGPLUG an album show there on the 20th of March 2010 where we play it start to finish PLUGPLUGPLUG so yeah, its always a good time there.”


The Rotted – “We really like this venue called Sawyers in Kettering, everyone who works theres a die hard punk or metaller, and theyre always really good to us after the show, we just stay and get totally hammered with them. They did it up amazingly for Halloween, there was leaves all over the floor, picket fencing everywhere, blood, graves, it was like being in the woods from the Evil Dead films! What a night!”


Mia Hope – “RAFA Club in Chatham”


Bury Tomorrow – “I think that my favourite venue to play its definitely the Pitz in Milton Keynes . The stage is amazing the sound is incredible , all in all its a great venue, and the kids there are so up for it, it just makes it perfect.”


The Dirty Youth – “The Cellar in Oxford, the sound is amazing!”

Malefice – “The Academy 2 in Manchester, that show was insane and the circle pit was the size of the room, definitely a new favourite of ours!”


Is there anything you didnt achieve in 2009 that you would like to have done?

Sylosis – “I wanted to get the second album done earlier ha but its good not to rush these things.”


Amon Amarth – “Yeah, I would have liked for us to be able to go to Japan for the first time and we did actually have an offer. Unfortunately it interfered with other touring plans we had, and we couldnt work around it. Then again weve gone to China, Taiwan and India, so thats pretty cool.”


Tesseract – “Maybe to have played Download with TesseracT, this year had such a good bill, it would have been great to have been on it. But who knows maybe 2010?”


NoMadeSense – “Would have been nice to have toured a bit more, and I still havent unpacked all my boxes since moving house in September. Ah well.”

The Rotted – “I would have liked to have hit Europe more times than we did. Weve been mainly concentrating on showing the UK what were about, so we played loads of great festivals and shows here, and its all been worth it, but hopefully we can show Europe the same thing next year.”


Mia Hope – “See the New Year in with my Dad.”

Bury Tomorrow – “We didnt do many festivals this year due to our album being pushed back. So hopefully we can achieve that next year.”

The Dirty Youth – “Not really, weve learnt a lot this year bring on 2010.”


Malefice – “I think over all its been a solid year, if anything we would of liked to have played more shows but were more than going to make up for it in 2010, so be prepared!”

What are you looking forward to in 2010?

Sylosis – “Finishing the new album.”

Amon Amarth – “To have a well deserved break!”


Tesseract – “Releasing our debut album One. Were are so close to finishing it, I feel like a child on Christmas eve…I wannit NOW!”

NoMadeSense – “Recording/releasing a new album and generally doing a whole wealth of shit expanding on the world of TEC. You aint seen nothing yet.”


The Rotted – “Recording a new album! We just had a weekends worth of solid rehearsing and were so psyched about this new shit. Its taking us back to the music we grew up on, the stuff that was so magic to us as teenagers. Its high energy, Death Metal/Punk/Rock N Roll! Upbeat and fun, but with dark and creepy riffs, music to drink and smash things to!”


Mia Hope – “Getting out and about to tour the album and meeting new people along the way.”


Bury Tomorrow – “Im looking forward to exploring the world with BT . We got some exciting things on the horizon which mean well be seeing different place weve never been. Im stoked about this.”


The Dirty Youth – “Touring/taking over the world.”

Malefice – “We’re on tour with Kittie & It Dies Today around Europe and the U.K from the 2nd January which should be a blast, that and continuing to work on the 3rd album, which I think will make a lot of people and sit up and take notice and say “fuck, these guys are the real deal!”);