Scorpio: Hello, Thomas! Here’s Vladimir from The MetalList Portal. Congrats with the new album “Victory”. It’s really nice. Let’s start :)
We won’t start from the band’s history, everyone who wish, can read it on your website, so let’s begin from the discussion of your new full-length “Victory”. So, first – cover. It reminded me IRON MAIDEN “The Trooper” cover :) So, victory over what?

Thomas Hansen: Hello! IRON MAIDEN’s “The Trooper”, hmm… maybe! I haven’t thought about that before. As the title goes, this is a Victory for me, and the band in many ways. It might not be a big Victory but still a victory. For me because I had a really hard time a few years ago but I did manage to get back on my feet and I think I came out of it pretty well. For the band it’s a Victory because even though we are facing so many bad things we always manage to survive and get better. With this album we have made our best work so far, so that’s also a Victory to us. There is also many other reasons that we wanted to call it Victory, and one of them can be seen on the cover picture.

Musically you’ve moved to the thrash metal side, why did you decide to make more heavier sound?

We did have 1 or 2 songs on the first album that was very thrash metal, so it’s not very new for the band to use elements of thrash in the music. I try to mix power metal with elements of speed, prog and thrash, and also other music styles. I didn’t decide to make this album heavier, that is just something that happens naturally. I think it might have been because of all the things going on with my life and the band during the last years.

Whose idea was to put 2 instrumental pieces, and what meaning do they have?
All music is made by me so I guess I am responsible for that. Hehe We have had 1 instrumental song on every album so far and on this album we have 2. Many will say that these are just put in to fill up the album, but they are made to have a purpose just like any other song of the album. The first one “In Memory” was made as a tribute to our ex-bass player who died in a car crash a few years ago. The second song “When darkness falls” is kind of an intro to the next song “Fortress of solitude”, so they are connected to each other.

For the second time you’ve recorded the album in TopRoom studio. So, you must like the sound, you get there and atmosphere, am I right?

Yes! This is a very nice studio and the sound engineer and owner B?rge Finstad is a very talented man. So we are very pleased at what he does.

I saw the video from BORKNAGAR “Epic” album recording in TopRoom. They really had a lot of fun. What funny moments were during “Victory” recording?

Haha nice question! Well there were many funny moments as always and some of them can be seen on the studio video we posted at our webpage' . We had a beer jam, where we played on beer cans, and we had another jam using a snare drum, bass drum, an acoustic out of tune guitar that had only 2-3 strings, and a Hammond organ. Great tune we made there. hehe

Why did you decide to found your own record label to release “Victory”?

After having recorded our album we sent out promos to many labels and got 5-6 offers, but none of these offers where worthy of taking. It would have been a risk and we might have ended up with the same situation again. Now we have 100% control over the music.

What conflict was with Sound Riot, label which released your first 2 full-length albums? Was it also the reason to release the new CD by yourself?

These people don’t know what the words TRUST, HONESTY and RESPECT means, and when you also don’t care about your bands and screws every band, then you don’t belong to this music business. They showed us the bad side of the music industry. So yes, that’s one of the reasons I made my own label. You can read the full story here' .



Is Epicus Records going to release only GAIA EPICUS albums, or you have plans to release other bands?

The main priority is off course GAIA EPICUS and my own solo album witch I have started to plan. But I have already started to look for other bands to sign and release on my label.

What are your concert/touring plans?

As soon as we find a new bass player and guitar player we will go out and play as much as we can do. Hopefully this will be soon, and hopefully we get to play in as many countries as possible. I am already working on getting good connections for concerts and touring.

Do the band members play in other groups?

At the moment it’s only Ole the drummer, and he has a lot of different projects going on.

What bands do you like? What is in your current playlist?

My favorite bands you can probably guess by listening to my music :) hehe But if I am to list some of them it would be MEGADETH, STRATOVARIUS, HELLOWEEN, GAMMA RAY, MASTERPLAN, IRON MAIDEN, DREAM THEATER and many more… At the moment I am just waiting for the new MEGADETH album and also the new GAMMA RAY live dvd.

Imagine, that you organize a metal festival. Who will be on stage? All the bands mentioned in the last question and GAIA EPICUS as headliner. hahaha

That’s cool, heh! What is the future of power metal?

Power Metal will stay alive! Get used to it :)

Which bands are your best friends?

Anyone who is nice to people, and don’t suck! hehe



- TOP 5 heavy/power albums of all time:

I only have a top 3 list.
1. MEGADETH – Rust in peace
2. METALLICA – And justice for all
3. IRON MAIDEN – Somewhere in time

- Today is 1st of April - April’s Fool. So the funny joke from Thomas Hansen

GAIA EPICUS will release a pop album in 2008! Yeah! that will happen!!! :) ha ha ha or will it?

- Your last words, Thomas, for your fans and our readers.

If you like melodic metal with good catchy songs that also has elements of power, speed and prog metal, then check out our new album! The worst that can happen is that you find a new great band to like :)

Thanks for your time and interest in GAIA EPICUS!!!



Read the review for GAIA EPICUS – “Victory” (2007)'