Abaddon:We came back together to play on the Dynamo-festival and honestly I wasn't interested in making a new record. I absolutely wanted to play on Dynamo, simply because I love that festival. We were already negotiating for years with Andr� Verhuyzen (the organiser), and I also had to coinvince the other two guys, in which I succeeded. After our gig G�tz K�hnemund of the 'Rock Hard magazine' spoke with Rainer H�nsel of our label and said: "Hey man, you must release a new Venom record and we have to convince them to do so!"

Rainer is such a wild, angry man with a lot of potential. So, when there's passion involved, I would do everything, especially when somebody makes a lot of efforts for it. When somebody asks something of me, then I will do it, and not just for the money. It has to stay exciting and the best example is that I tried for 3 years to get us on Dynamo and it worked! That was the greatest moment in my live and I'm proud of it! "Cast In Stone" would never be made when Rainer wouldn't be so 'driven'. So today he's quite angry because of the fact that Cronos and Mantas didn't show up.

At six o'clock this morning I was ready to leave. Rainer payed for everything: free drinks, hotel, etc... If you are on a bad label, then you can moan and whine, but here everybody does so much, that it's about time that Venom does so too! So there I was alone at the station. I even had to buy them their tickets. I rang them up and they told they couldn't make it, what a lot of bullshit! (Driven by anger, the pearls of sweat are flowing from his forehead) Is it such a big deal to come over to London for one day, have a few drinks and have a nice chat? That no big deal, you know!

Question:Yeah, especially because the international press is gathered around here...

Abaddon Exactly! I go to everybody, talk a lot and this way people know my personal opinion about things. With Venom we all have three different opinions, who are all valable, so it wouldn't hurt if they would come over and explain their opinions... I think.

Question: To come back at 'Cast In Stone'... Why did you leave Neat Records to finally join CBH/SPV?

Abaddon: Well, in the beginning we weren't such good musicians and even lesser businessmen, so Neat showed up and began to release singles. We musically evaluated and one can hear that by listening to the singles. We also began to understand the musicbusiness more and more. I didn't realise that Neat wasn't doing what they supposed to do, and they didn't give us any support. One day I went to Music For Nations and said: 'Ok, you guys are the firm with which I wanna work'. It took me three years to get that deal around. In that time Cronos had left and I also had no band anymore. Mantas wasn't there either, and there I was with no songs. My intention was that Music For Nations would sign Venom to coinvince Mantas to come back in Venom. That worked out quite nice, and we made 'Prime Evil' with a new vocalist. If you work together with people and they go for it, then itsn't just enough to release a CD, there is more to it than that. What brought us to our new label is the passion of Rainer and his positive influence on us. He also distributed SPV and he asked if it would be ok if they would like to distribute Venom through them. That was no problem for us, since I was already in contact with them through my own label. SPV is a very good label and distributor.

Question:How are you musically evaluated since the 80's?

Abaddon: We became better musicians and we began to try out some new things, but we haven't forgotten the past. There a certain soul in our music which is typically Venom, and we want to keep it that way. But in the future we still wanna keep on growing. Cronos wrote songs like 'Raised in Hell', 'Flight Of The Hydra' and he looked back at the past, with these songs. My songs 'Domus Mundi' and 'Swarm' are more industrial oriented and maybe you could compare them to Type O Negative & Marilyn Manson. It's not my intention to sound that way, but it's rather relevant in the 90's.

Question:Do I notice some punksounds?!

Abaddon: Of course, always! Venom has grown up with punk in the 70's.

Question:I'm wondering... how many albums have you guys signed... Are you planning to stay at your current label?

Abaddon: We signed for three CD's. The question is whether we will record that much (laughs). As I said before, the guys aren't here today and that isn't any good. I don't wan't any friendship with them. Even going to a pub with them isn't in it for me. Still those are the essential things that keep a band together... If you learn how to deal with people, you learn to make sacrifices.

Question:What does the title 'Cast In Stone' mean to you?

Abaddon: We had three titles in our mind: 'Cast In Stone', 'Carved in Stone' and 'Set in Stone'. Of course we had a big fight again, about which one it should be. I desinged the cover and wanted to name it that way, and that's how it became eventually.

Question:Why the choice for a double CD?

Abaddon: We played a lot of festivals in front of an audience that didn't always knew what Venom was about. So when a 17-year old dude buys our latest CD, he will wonder what this gotta do with black metal. So we decided to put 10 extra songs from our older stuff like 'Countess Bathory' and 'Witching Hour'. The records 'Black Metal' and 'At With Satan' are already reached the status of classics.

Question:Did all of you guys agreed on the music, or did also ended up in a fight?

Abaddon: Of course! That are one of those infernal things we always do. I rehearsed and recorded 32 songs. Cronos learned 4 of them and Mantas not one. When the time was right to complete my songs I give them on tape in their hands and said that they must play the guitarparts. We have recorded all of it without any kind of rehearsal.

Question:What do you think of the fact that bands as Kiss and Exciter are coming back in the original line-up?

Abaddon: That's very good, but I also think it's very important that original young bands make the scene grow, because everything is still very underground. When something gets too famous, it gets jumped over by American labels which kill all of it and then all that is left is something like Metallica.

Question:Is it time to kill hardcore, which originally crushed metal?

Abaddon: Yeah, hardcore came up, together with grunge, so metal has to stand for itself again and these young new bands can do that. But they can search for inspiration with older bands like Exciter. That doensn't mean that they should sound like that, but they get their inspiration from it, and they play it their own way. This way, bands who call themselves black metal, don't sound like Venom. Maybe they get their inspiration from us, but they are original, they are themselves.

Question:Who is Satan for you?

Abaddon: That is something which is inside of me. It's the power to do wrong. The evil prevails. Christianity is dying and to give an example, I have bought a church and this way I don't have to burn down churches and if it's my house, this church isn't of any other christian use anymore. Churches buy people! People are mostly evil and Satan wins all the time. I don't have to destroy a graveyard to prove that the catholics are losing power.

Question:Are also the lyrics written in that direction?

Abaddon: Mostly satanic, but they also deal with thing that frightens me like psychose and schizofrenia. Real thing that come across people's lives and the reaction of the people about it. If there's a maniac who makes your house unsafe, then I must say I'm more afraid of him then of Satan. Satanism is a form of belief that is invented by Christianity.

Question:What are the plans for the future?

Abaddon: We are going to play six concerts in Germany for Rainer, who is also a great promotor by the way. Those will take place around Christmas. In January and February we will hit the rest of Europe. We are also going to play on some major festivals. The bands who will tour with us are Hammerfall, Overkill and Necropolis.

Question:Are you also coming to Belgium?

Abaddon: Of course, what did you expect?! We love Belgium very much. Our first gig there was in Poperinge. We see Belgium and The Netherlands as our homebase. Venom means nothing in England. The Venom-heart is with you folks overthere.

Question:Do you have something left to say for our readers?