Gateways To Annihilation will be out in a few weeks, what can you tell us about it ? 

It is a very dark record , as usual, it is different from our last release , we are very proud of the record!!

What is the link between the front cover and the title GtA ?

The cover illustrates a world being sucked into a black hole or a void , the title represents destroying old illusions and opening the mind to a new world.... 

The music and lyrics are still decicated to the Old Ones, or it's lore based on the human feelings (to feel and to describe) ?

The lyrics are myths and legends written in a fictional manner , but still hold true to the constant underlying beliefs in the True gods , not of a christian belief system... 

Musically it seems you reinvented Morbid Angel by taking the best out of your previous albums and by adding to that a special new vibe (like the solo of At One With Nothing)... 

Morbid Angel reinvents it's self with every record, there is a constant drive to move forward and not become sterile or stagnant. And I think the vibe is from the collaberation between us..... 

When I first listened to GtA, the symphonic side of the music appeared me, like in the intro of Opening Of The Gates, will you work more in that way in the future ? 

I think it is no secret that M.A. Is very influenced by classical music , And we looked at writing these songs like they were classical pieces ,as apposed to a deathmetal song, don't get me wrong ,we are and will always be death metal , we just wanted to use an unstandard way of writing death metal . Our intent with every song on this record was to make it the very best it could possibly be !!!! 

Would you like to add some classical instruments to bring more strength to your music ? 

Sure , I would definately like to add in say a string section to a song, I think it waould be great, I would not do it with the intention of adding strength , I feel our music is very strong as it is, I would do it for depth and feel..... 

The sound of the record is the purest sound I've ever heard, you skip from the groovy feeling of He Who Sleeps from the incredible violence on To The Victor The Spoils without any loses of sound quality... Jim Morris was of a great help ?

Yes , Jim did an incredible job I believe.. He was capable of anything that I asked him to do , effects etc... Jim is very good at achieving seperation amongst the instruments ,therefore giving each instrument time to develop and be heard!!!!! 

About the sound again, you succeded in keeping the energy of Entangled In Chaos, the loudness of Domination and the "evil" side of Covenant, did you know perfectly what you wanted before entering the studio ? 

Yes , we had an idea of what we wanted for the production and I feel we achieved it , we wanted the drums to be heard and seperation between instruments , I think on every record you learn more about recording and each record has it's success' and it's failures sound wise . You keep doing it and eventually you know what not to do ,as much as what to do . On this record we had a very successful outing!!

Erik Rutan played on that record, is he considered as an official member ? 

Yes Erik is a full time member he will be here for all of the touring and I think his contributions On GTA or unmistakably great!!! 

Steve and Erik own a studio, will they produce some bands? Ot it will be just to record some pre-production stuffs, or just their side bands like Hate Eternal did ? 

Well, I am sorry to say that due to a total lack of time on my part , I am not able to be a part of the studio with Erik at this time.......But he is in the process of having it up and running ,it should be open very soon ,possibly by September , And he will do everything from demos to albums. 

You were at Wacken, how went the gig ? What did you feel when the first notes off the new record went out of the speakers ? How was the reactions from the crowd ? 

Wacken was great!!! It was a nice big festival and we played to a lot of very excited people, so it was awesome.... We played He Who Sleeps at Wacken , and it wasa very exciting to me ,because I wrote this song, the crowd reacted excellent!!! 

You will be touring across Europe on the X-Mas festivals like one year ago, do you plan to use some special things on stage ? 

Well it is possible man ,but as is M.A. tradition I can really say nothing... 

What did you feel the first time you heard Gateways to Annihilation ? 

Well that is very hard to answer, becuase I was in the studio every day working on the record with Jim , so I was part of the mixing then the mastering ,so there was actually no first time hearing it for me.......once we were out of the studio , I didn't listen to it for a week ,and then when I did listen I tried to listen to it as a fan ,and to be honest , I was blown away, I thought it was killer!!!! 

Here's the end, do you have last words for our readers ? 

Thanks for all the support ,enjoy the record, we will see you on tour our brothers!!! Thank you very much!! I will see you on the xmas tour!! take care

Florent Campana