Musicians with true metal heart. Their music is honest, do not do any poses and never succumb to modern influences. My offer to interview adopted guitarist Mark Briody, who willingly answered to my questions.

Jag Panzer band was formed at the end of 70 years. How do you remember at the beginning of the band?

I remember that time well.  We were just children. I wasn't even old enough to drive.  My Mother drove me to the recording studio.  We just wanted to play heavy metal because there wasn't much of it around.  All we had was Judas Priest, Rainbow and Black Sabbath when we first started writing and recording.  We wanted more metal, so we decided to play some ourselves.  But then shortly Maiden and the whole NWOBHM scene came out and we saw that we weren't alone.

On the world metal scene you have shined by released single Death Row in 1983  as well as  the EP Untilited. Do you think you were lucky  beginner, or you just choosed the right time in a good times? 

I think we got lucky with the timing.  We had no manager, no budget, nothing.  We were just 4 kids from Colorado trying to play heavy metal.  The timing was good because the whole world was ready for a new metal explosion.

Does anyone  in the band have music education, or is your talent  a gift from the nature, or is it improvement for many years? 

Actually all of us have music education.  Harry spent years working with vocal coaches, I studied at Johnny Smith Studios (guitar player for Bing Crosby), Christian has a music degree.  It's important for us when we write songs to communicate in the language of music, so it is a big help that everyone has had musical training.

Which bands and musicians influenced you in your youth and which of them are favourite in the last years?

Rainbow and Sabbath with Dio were the biggest influences for all of us.  I used to listen to those records many times a day.  I probably bought 3 copies of 'Heaven and Hell' because I would wear it out!  Later Iron Maiden became a huge influence.  'Killers' and then the first albums with Bruce were big inspirations to us.  There were also many NWOBHM bands that we liked - Angelwitch, Witchfynde, Tygers of Pan Tang.

Let's go to the new album. What´s your inspiration by writing the lyrics? 

Harry writes the lyrics and he tries to make each song unique (unless we're doing a concept album, but this is not one of those).  Some songs are inspired by literature while others are inspired by the metal community in general.  Harry will use anything he can in life to inspire himself to write lyrics.

Do you compose  music and  lyrics  together, or is it just a matter of some members of the band? 

We do the music first, then the lyrics and vocal parts.  However, there was one exception - The Book of Kells.  I wrote some music but then I read Harry's fantastic story behind the song.  So that made me go back and change all the music.  Then he heard the new music and we back and made his vocals better. That was very cool.

Can you reveal something more deeper from meanings of his texts?

I prefer fictional lyrics myself so my favorite is The Book of Kells.  It's a story about a man whose tattoos come to life at night.  They speak to him and tell him what will become of him.  He doesn't know whether this is a gift to him, or if it is not real and he is going insane.

Your album will release in Europe little bit earlier than in the U.S.. Is it your decision, or is it determination of the publisher? 

That is SPV's decision.  I don't know why this happens.  I would prefer the album be released on the same day everywhere.

Which bands will share the stage with you at the concerts ? 

We don't know that yet.  We're still discussing the details with different promoters.  We are very excited to get on tour, so I hope this will happen soon!

Into which countries  would you like to return by the tour and where would you like to come, from a number of countries, where you still didn´t  play? 

We'd like to play anywhere that we haven't played before.  There are many countries in Europe that we've never been to, we've also never played South America, Japan or Australia.  It's important to us to play some new places.  But of course it's still great to play familiar countries like Germany and Greece.

One of the countries  in which you didn´t play  is Slovakia. Finally, would you like to say something to your fans in Slovakia? 

Tell your promoters you would like to see Jag Panzer!  They only reason why we don't go to some countries is because we are never asked!