AGENT STEEL Members Discuss New Album, 'Alienigma'

AGENT STEEL guitarist Juan Garcia and vocalist Bruce Hall recently spoke to Metal-Rules.com about their forthcoming album "Alienigma". An excerpt from the chat follows:

Metal-Rules.com: Juan told me just recently that the final mixes for your forthcoming, new album, "Alienigma", have been nearly completely finished or finished already. I guess it's fair to say you are more than happy for Bill's (Metoyer) contribution for this album as a producer, aren't you?

Juan: Well, we thought we were done with the mixes a few weeks ago and a couple of the band members wanted some level adjustments, minor tweaks in the songs and of course this takes additional time, you can spend another few months mixing. For the most part we're finished with the new album, and I'm very happy with Bill Metoyer's contribution to the engineering and production of this album. Bernie Versailles also had his input as well with the mixes; everyone's contributed to the new album. The official release date has been set for August 31st for Europe.

Metal-Rules.com: What made you choose Bill to produce this new AGENT STEEL album? I mean, you guys produced your previous album "Order Of The Illuminati" all by yourselves — and I think you did a hell of a great job with it all in all. Did you feel like it'd be better to have a producer from outside so that all of you could fully concentrate on the most important thing, which is the music naturally?

Juan: We were very involved in the production of the new album; Bill Metoyer engineered and is co-producing the new songs with us. We got Bill involved because Bernie moved to Nevada and we were limited with his involvement in the recording and engineering aspects of things with AGENT STEEL since he is not here with us in Los Angeles on a full-time basis, so that is where Bill has stepped in and it's worked out for us well.

Metal-Rules.com: Talking about the production on "Alienigma", you have already told that the production is huge, heavy and has lots of depths. Did you feel that your previous album "Order" somehow lacked some of these elements?

Bruce: Not at all. I think "Order" sounds awesome. This is just a different record. The sound of an album starts way before you enter the studio. It comes out of your mind and you just try to meet that expectation. "Alienigma" started huge, heavy and deep and I am happy to say it stayed that way. Certainly nothing we say about the new CD is meant as a slag against any of the previous albums. I am proud of or admire all AGENT STEEL CDs for different reasons.

Juan: "Order Of The Illuminati" sounds very good. I just think the new material and production is a bit more intense and powerful because the direction of the songwriting is a bit heavier than in the past, so overall the songs sound meanier with lots of aggression. The new album has different elements that show a heavier side of the band; we try to evolve with every album and not make the same record twice.

Metal-Rules.com: When Bill joined you behind the mixing desk, did he give any cool and useful tips for you during the mixing process that even did some "miracles" for the final outcome of this release?

Juan: Yes, his suggestions are very helpful of course; he has lots of experience; the very first song that I ever co-wrote with ABATTOIR for "Metal Massacre IV" (Metal Blade) "Screams from the Grave" was engineered and produced by Bill Metoyer, so its good to be working with him once again; even though it took what over 20 years!!!

Read the entire interview at Metal-Rules.com.