First of all, how was the Europen part of the “The Obsidian Conspiracy” tour? Any highs and lows? And how did this tour effect you as a musician? I guess now you are much more experienced than before.

This tour was a higlight of my musical carreer for sure, but the experience itself was better than anything I did before. I always wanted „to be on tour”, I mean really ON TOUR (with that amount of shows/per week, a nightliner bus, with the best band ever etc.J). You know I’ve been doing gigs almost since the first day I grabbed the guitar but there are many many major (or minor but important) differences of what I did earlier and what NM does. The biggest new thing that I had to grown up for was being there mentally every night even when we play for couple hundred or couple tousand people, and of course playing with my idols could’ve been another „problem”J. There were two nights where we actually recorded the whole show which was a huge pressure (especially for the 4th-5th show for me with NM).

How was the Turkey gig by the way? Warrel tweeted it as “Leaving Istanbul for Slovenia and Metalcamp! Didn’t get to stay here long but the show last night was killer! Thanks to the Turk metalheads!” So did you have fun? Some people complained that you threw all the guitar picks to the same area so they couldn’t catch any. :)

We had some problem at the airport so we got there a little late but the show was KILLER for sure! I think we played great and sounded great as a Hungarian friend of mine (that lives in Istambul) said. Jeff had a little issue with his amp but Peter, our guitar tech fixed it during the show. I’ve never been to Turkey and I can’t wait to play there again and next time I hope we’ll have some freetime for sigthseeing because there are many beautiful things to see (and eatJ). The only bad thing was that an asswhole ran on the stage from the backstage area and took Warrel’s hat off while we were playing our last song the Enemies Of Reality. I haven’t seen it but that was really fucked up man. You cannot do this to anyone especally after Dimebag… That guy scared Warrel almost to death. Overall it was an awesome show!

About the pick throwing, I’m still feeling a little weird. None of the guys has ANY bad rockstar attitude but they get used to these stuffs and I’m not yet. I’m really sorry if someone feels that I didn’t give the chance to get a pick. The other thing is that I was using Jeff’s pick so I didn’t want to waste his, You knowJ Next time I will throw as many as I can/have and as far as it possible, I promiseJ

Do you know what happened after the hat incident at the Turkey gig? You know some dumbass jumped to the stage and grabbed Warrel’s hat during encore, then Warrel went backstage and returned with his hat back on. Was he mad after the show and do you know what happened to that guy afterwards?

Warrel and some security guy jumped on that asshole immediately. I don’t know what happend to him, and actually I didn’t see nothing at all, I just heard about it. It’s just sad and stupid, man.

North American tour is coming up. How do you see it after the European part of the tour? Are you excited or did you get used to the whole thing now? What are your expectations from the North American crowds, knowing that the new album is well received over there.

Right before the US tour there’s a Japanese show that I’m excited about more than I usually do, but that’s just one show so overall it doesn’t compare to a 1,5 month long US tourJ There’s no specific expectiations about any tour or gig, I’d just like to play and feel myself as good as I can. I don’t know if the album gets any better recognition in the States like anywhere else in the world, but I’m really looking forward to play more of the new tunes live. People say that the crowd is a bit „harder” in a sense, but with NM it might be different since the band is more well-known and playes quiet often on the other parts of the World. Playing music is my life, so I’ll always get excited before any tours, shows, studio sessions etc.

You’ve been introduced as “a guitarist from Hungary”, so I wanna ask. Do you live in Hungary or are you an Hungarian American citizen? If not, how do you manage all the visas and the work permits and everything while touring?

I live in Hungary and we haven’t talked about moving there or staying here. We’ll see, but this is not the time to talk about it. Since I’m „working” with the band I’m eligable to get working visas for the tours or studio sessions.

Jeff Loomis recently told it’s quite possible that you are gonna be announced as the new official member of Nevermore in a few months. How can you describe this feeling? Is it as amazing as it seems from the outside? And if I return to the third question, if you are living in Hungary, how are you gonna move to the States?

Maaan, to know that they count on me as a permanent and (creatively) active member is the BEST part of all. This is the biggest honor for me as a die-hard fan as well as a musician. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, everything seems reeally bright and I think it’s just another „the matter of time” thing. And You know in the world of internet the are no sich a big distances at all. Right now we’re concentrating on spreading the new album anyways.

According to the above question, have you ever tried to contribute to some new Nevermore music? I mean if you write some cool stuff and play it to Jeff, do you think the band might use it in a future release? Or should you be an official member of the band first, to do something like that?

I can proudly say that they love my riffs and ideas. Let’s just say that I already wrote I couple songs that might appear somewhere in the future. BTW one of them is available for streaming at my myspace site (www.myspace.com/vorosattila), so you can make your guessesJ.

How did the whole Youtube thing happen? Did it have any purpose, or was it just for fun? Did you send these videos to them, knowing they need a second guitarist for the road, or did they contact you out of the blue? Can you tell us the whole process from the beginning?

Well, it kind of happaned on purpose but it was so surreal (and still is) that I felt there’s nothing to lose if I try and see what happens. I knew that they were touring with 1 guitarist lineup for more than a year, so I figured out to do a videoshot where I play some NM songs live. I did my first vids around September/2009 and sent them first to Steve Smyth and than to Chris Broderick. Steve wrote back a very nice and supporting letter which was cool, but Chris or rather his webmistress Stephanie Cabral who is also a well-known photofrapher in the States replied me where she asked me about how tall I am and things like that. She sent me my videos to Warrel and Jeff and than couple mails later asked me for my cell number. After the longest 1,5 day I got a phone call from Warrel Dane himself around 6 amJ. I immediately recognized his classic deep voice and we talked for about two hours, same on the next day. Than we talked via chat many-many times so he could get a little more accurate picture of my personal side. During the time we did these chats I had to learn some of his own songs, a bunch of Nevermore’s and two Sanctuary songs. Than I did some other NM’s in the case of necessityJ After a while he asked me if I’d like to join to his solo band which we made a short US tour with, and than I auditioned in person for NM as well. After the tour I pretty much had Warrel’s and Jim’s vote so I „just” had to get two moreJ I was afraid of meet and jam with Jeff but it turned out more than great to me, without seriously shit my pants of (which is a miracle when You audition to Jeff LoomisJ). Unfortunately I could meet with Van a little later but they know eachother well enough to trust the other’s word so I got the gig right before the European tour we did in May/2010.

I am a long time, die-hard Nevermore fan and I see “The Obsidian Conspiracy” as a great album but not on par with “Dead Heart in a Dead World”, “This Godless Endeavor” and “Dreaming Neon Black”. It may be difficult for you to tell the truth, but how do you see the new album?

One major blessing with Nevermore is that You never know what to except. There’s always something new on each record. Some people could not realize it, but if you are a very creative person you always want to do something different and not repeat yourself. Everyone knows that they could’ve done a Godless part II but that wouldn’t be an honest way for expressing themselves. For me Dead Heart In A Dead world is THE Nevermore record and that’s in my top 3 records EVER, but I think everyone has his or her own Dead Heart, You know. The rest of the discography has to means you something different, therefore You have to think different about them. For me the coolest innovations of the new record could be expressed by three songs: the catchy and „easy” to dig Without Morals, the more complaxed and probably less Nevermoreish „Maiden Spoke” and the experimental „The Blue Marble”. These are the songs that have a little different vibe and feeling compare to the earlier stuffs they did previously, but You can find songs like the titled track, „Obsidian Conspiracy” or „Termination Proclamation” which are more ””typical”” NM songs (of course in a good sense).

List the Nevemore albums from the one that you like most to the one you like least please.

Man, You have some mean questions hereJ As I’ve said earlier the Dead Heart album is in my top 3 albums, so that’s number one for me for sure. The rest I would classify as what mood I’m in for listening to. The two biggest classes are the oldies that were made with the 6 string guitars and the rest ever since the Dead Heart was released with the 7 strings in it. So NOT IN ORDER one would be the Enemies, which was the first album that was released after I got acquainted with the band and has a nice old vibe that reminds me for that, than comes Godless which is probably the heavier one in the discography, than Obsidian which is a little less complex but catchy and experimental with new soundings and arrangements. Then the oldies, the more technical Politics which is like a grandpa of Godless in a way, than the ultra depressed Dreaming, and than Nevermore and Memory EP.

Which songs are most fun to play live? And before the tour, did you sit with Jeff and practice the rhythm and solo sections, like who will play which part etc? Cos Jeff told in a statement that he hardly had to show you anything cos you already know all the songs.

I love to play all of em, but if I have to pick one, I would say the Enemies, because that’s an asskicking one that the crowd gets mad of and it has some cool unisolo with Jeff. We had a couple of rehearsals before the tour, but we also set down at the hotel and just went over each of the songs we choosed for that setlist. And yep, I did my homework as good as I can, and since I’ve been being a die-hard fan of NM and Jeff’s playing I could catch them pretty close to the original ones. He was also really cool about which part should I play in the songs. The setlist turned out a little different of how we originally planed, so I got a little less leads, but from those that we went thorugh I almost got the half of the leads which is an honor, againJ They are probably the easiest guys to play with!

How can you describe the feeling to play along with Jeff Loomis on stage, a musician lots of people see as the best metal guitarist on earth right now?

And You might have not seen him jamming on that piece of woodJ He is a guitar god so to say, and he’s not „just” fast but one of the greatest songwriter which is totally not a common lineupJ I thought it’s gonna be a huuge challange and pressure on me but fortunately I could handle it. After I first jammed with him he came to Warrel’s last show and he said many ultra kind and supportive things to me and other people, friend’s there. I was flying (and still flyJ) because of those sentences. The other thing is that I just need to ask NONE of him in my monitors, because it is so good to listen him that it might confuse me when he gets really crazy. So no more Jeff on gigsJ

Nevermore utilized a number of second guitarists in their career. Who is your favorite?

I hate You bro! J I love all of the major guys like Pat O’Brien, Tim Calvert, Chris Broderick and Steve Smyth. All of them was great from another aspect. If someone would made me to say shit like this, I would say Tim Calvert because of his uniqe songwriting skills and lead guitar playing.

To me, Nevermore never had the attention they deserved. They are totally unique and utterly superb compared to millions of other bands, yet we can’t see Nevermore as a headliner in any of the big European festivals. I’m both amazed and sad to see Nevermore play under the afternoon sun, after all these brilliant albums. What do you wanna say about that? Nevermore’s music is catchy, intense, heavy as fuck, yet really easy to get into. So what prevented Nevermore to be a huge metal band by now?

I totally agree with You. Nevermore is one of the best metal bands ever, but I think it’s a little more complexed than that. In the musical sphere NM has a huuuge attention and respect for sure, but for the common people it is not enough that usually the songs has at least one cathy part because at the end it’s still complex. The other thing is the main ingredient of its uniqness, the ultra heavy music beneath the melodic vocals (plus both of them are uniqe in their own ways…). Sometimes it’s hard to understand for a guy that loves the „lighter” and less metal musics because of Jeff’s riffing and it could be weird for a metal head that loves the ultra heavy stuffs because he might be aware of Warrel’s voice and phrases. Nevermore has a really soild fan base that will not fade away with the new „trends and fashions”… It will survive everything.

The video for The Final Product seems more expensive than the Emptiness Unobstructed video, which is mostly live footage and stuff. Do you know why Century Media didn’t spend a bigger budget on a new Nevermore video? There are much smaller bands with more attractive videos out there you know, and I think Nevermore deserve much more promotional support.

I’m not really into these stuffs, but let’s just put it this way. I think You can make a very cool, intresting or even uniqe video with a single HD camcorder but You can also make a lame video with a million dollar budget on it. I have no clue of how much making the Final Product did cost, but in that particular video I can „only” see a studio which could be at anyone’s basement and a skinny,bald guy that scratches a wall and hangin out in the mud (probably a friend of the guys)J I’m half kidding and it’s still an awesome video though. I love the video of Emptiness and not just because I’m in (for about a second and a halfJ) but because it has a really close feeling to the lyrics in some way. I can’t really see the financial differences between the two vids.

Please describe each member in three words:

Warrel Dane: deeply sensitive (artistic soul), bipolar (infantile/silly or serious/gloomy), hypercreative (4th: food/movie/porn addict for a better descriptionJ)
Jeff Loomis: kind, sensitive, hypercreative
Van Williams: brotherhood, funny, New York (on many and good sense)
Jim Sheppard: hyperactive, big child, pixied

How is the new Warrel Dane solo album progressing? Any details or possible release date on that?

We’re talking about doing something in the near future and there are some ideas from Matt, Jonny Smokes, Dagna and me and I’m pretty sure that Peter Wichers will also make his trademark on Warrel’s new stuff, but there’s nothing already planned. It is definitely going to happen!

Here is one about the song “Brother”. Do you know if Warrel’s brother contacted him or anything happened after he wrote that song? Are they still completely saparated? I guess so, cos he’s still bitter about him as we hear on the “The Blue Marble And The New Soul” lyrics, as “…Your brother may stab you in the back and laugh…”

Man, this is something so personal that I don’t really want to interupt. He still has bad feelings about his brother but this is something that should not be displayed. If he writes about it, that’s another story but I think You should ask him than.

Speaking of Warrel, is he a really good cook? Have you ever eaten anything done by him?

Unfortunately I haven’t taste his pastas, but the rumors says that he is reeelly good at in. I already know that he has a really good taste because he loves Hungarian food just like the others. Good foods have an important place in this band:)

We know Sancuary are back, and they told they most likely will release a new album, so have you heard any new stuff yet?

I haven’t heard any of the new stuffs so far but it exists for sureJ Warrel says that Lenny has some awesome songs and riffs already.

Can you name some of your favorite bands?

There soo many, so I tell You those that affacted or affects me the most. PanterA (all time fav next to Nevermore), Slayer,  Sepultura (Arise and Chaos era), Machine Head, Lamb Of God, Daath, Gojira, but I do love non-metal music like Queen, Pink (mainly her live stuffs), Christina Aguilera (the second disc of Back to BasicsJ) and of course classical stuffs like Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Mozart, Bach etc. (especially the „Romantic” era). I’ve been being a lil fed up with heavier musics since a while and I always look for new things because there are so many out there. For me there’s only good or bad music and I would suggest to everyone to keep always your ears open.

Can you name some of your biggest inspirations as a guitar player?

Dimebag Darrell is the one, and than comes Jeff immediately:) They are THE inspirations but there are so many others like Kerry King, Zakk Wylde, but I went through all the „guitar heroes” like Malmsteen/Vai/Satriani/Gilbert/Petrucci, too, I love some newies like Andy Timmons, Marco Sfogli, UFO’s like Guthrie Govan etc. My new all time fav is Pink’s current guitarist, Justin Derrico and the guys from Daath, Emil Werstler and Eyal Levi.

While on the subject of inspiration, what do you wanna say about Dimebag Darrell and Pantera? I play guitar too and he was one of my personal heroes and an amazing source of inspiration, so what are your thoughts on him and his legacy?

For me PanterA and Dime gave the biggest push to be a musician and simply an addict of MUSIC. I had a PanterA tribute band called Remembering The Steel before I joined to Warrel’s solo band and NM. This legacy is probably the biggest of all time in metal history in my opinion. Dime’s emotional guitar playing is just beyond everything. Time will tell it, but I think he is as big and as influental like Eddie Van Halen, Hendrix, Slash and all the „elite” guys, the biggest innovators. The only difference is that there is noone that can play like him. I could go on talking about him forever.

Hungary is not a metal country, and the most famous Hungarian band is Ektomorf. How do you see the Hungarian scene? Are there any good bands that we should check out?

I wouldn’t say that. Hungary is just too small country comparing to other European countries or the States… I would say the ratio is almost the same as the common ratio just on a smaller level if You know what I mean. Unfortunately it has some bad effections but overall there are many great musicians in Hungary (not necesserly metalheads, but musicians in other genres).
Nevermore fans might check out a band called Wendigo (especially their first record). One of the guitarist, Jozzy is a beast on guitar (on of the best out there, and not just in HungaryJ), he’s just waaay to humble to play more leads unfortunately. There’s another band, named Angertea (myspace.com/angertea) who’ll work with Neil Kernon… They play „Toolish” kind of music on their very own way. I would also suggest musiclovers to take a listen to a really close friend’s of mine, Nuke’s music (myspace.com/postindustrialmotorcore). They considered their music as postindustrial motorcoreJ If you love cathy and southern things mixed with Nine Inch Nail, You’ll dig their stuffs!
Anyways, Ektomorf is the most famous band that has only Hungarian members, but I don’t know if You knew that Five Finger Death Punch was formed by a Hungarian guy, Zoltán Báthory. He wrote all the first record himself, he found the other musicians, he did and does maaany thing for and in that band and they have a HUGE success in America and worldwide (in the US they play in arenas and they’re selling hundreds of thousands records nowdays(!) and broke in the radios with a heavy music).

And the last one, complete the sentence: “NEVERMORE…”

“Nevermore is a highly creative, diversed and MUST band that everyone should at least take a listen to or have the whole discography starting with the Dead Heard In A Dead World”

All best!

Cheerio,
Attila