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Andrew: I believe you guys are playing in Louisiana tonight. All ready to go?
Brett: Yeah! We are just waiting for the venue to open things up and yeah, we are ready to rip it up. We did 11 shows and took a week off. Now we're starting off the second leg of the tour.

Andrew: Yeah that's what I was going to ask you. You did some headline shows at the end of last month. How did those go?
Brett: They were really good! We did a lot of shows in a row and kind of spread it out across the east coast. We played a couple of festivals in there. There were some really good crowds and they were really into us, so it was good times.

Andrew: In those headline shows you must have played a longer set than what you'll play on the upcoming Exodus tour. How different was the set list?
Brett: Yeah we are doing 12 to 15 songs a night depending on the curfew that some places have and a whether or not there are lot of bands on the line-up. On the couple of festival dates we did, we played a 45-minute set. But yeah we have to cut out some of that stuff for the Exodus tour where we'll really have time for may be nine songs. It'll be hard to please everybody, so we're going to take something from the whole catalog, couple of songs from each album or whatever and try to please all the fans as much as possible.

Andrew: What do you feel about playing with Exodus on this upcoming tour?
Brett: I think it's going to be awesome. We're really looking forward to play with these guys. I've been a fan of theirs since way back, even before we started this band. It's really cool that both bands are still doing it and still kicking ass. We're looking forward to get out on the road with them.

Andrew: You were also supposed to do a video for 'Slaughterhouse' on this tour. Have you done that yet?
Brett: We got our footage done already. When we had time between legs of this tour, we shot it in Fort Lauderdale. They also shot a bunch of footage of us individually in Los Angeles. Basically we are like the voices in this guy's head, a serial killer. The video looked pretty crazy when we shot it. They're going to shoot the rest of the footage with an actor in LA. It should be pretty interesting. I look forward to seeing it myself.

Andrew: The new album is titled 'Invidious Dominion'. What does the name represent and what are the lyrics about, in general?
Brett: The title is basically a dominion full of hate, which is kind of what the world is turning into unfortunately, but its reality. The songs in there are varied. There are a couple of war tunes in there. We also have a song about a bad relationship with this brutal chick that you want to kill, and obviously you can't but it makes your brain blow up (laughs). Let me put it this way, there are no love songs and no happy songs.

Andrew: Par Oloffson did the album cover. He has worked with bands like The Faceless and Immortal. How did that process work? Did you leave it entirely up to him or did the band contribute to the idea?
Brett: He had some ideas, some paintings and stuff that were done. I told Gerardo [Martinez, Nuclear Blast USA] to try to look at the first album The Ten Commandments, try to take that concept and hook the demon around. We always liked that album cover and kind of wanted it like that. It came out much better than I was hoping for and the guy did an awesome job. We are really happy with the album cover.

Andrew: On this album, which songs would you say were the most challenging for you as a vocalist?
Brett: I think 'Target Rich Environment' was one. They might be releasing that one a little early too, as a teaser so to speak. That one has a good lot of screaming. It has got some cool hooks and different styles and things like that in it. It was sort of a challenge I guess, just because it has a lot of different things in it. So I guess it's a little hard to sing, but that's what we work for, you know. When everyone wants to hear a song like that I say, ah shit here we go, whatever. Looks like only I've got a problem with it (laughs).

Andrew: Quite a few death metal bands tend to go technical. But I would say Malevolent Creation have kept a pure death metal sound. Would you agree with that?
Brett: Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, there are a lot of bands that do technical stuff and they are talented musicians. I think that's cool. Our stuff is not easy either but we like to write stuff in such a way that people can get into it and get their aggressions out. You don't have to be a musician to get into it. If you like heavy music, you'll get into it.

Andrew: Your original Bassist [Jason Blachowicz] rejoined the band after the album was done. How is he finding playing the new album?
Brett: He's working back up good. He took some time off to get his tattooing career going. It was going good and he was running the shop, but he just wanted to be back with us playing death metal. So he came right back in, he's kicking ass and playing good on stage. He didn't screw up at all and he's been playing everything perfect. It's just like old times when we were having fun playing.

Andrew: On this tour you'll be playing only one new song. So there must be plans to do more tours to promote the album proper?
Brett: Yeah we're playing one new song now but we're trying to get another song in there when the album comes out but it's kind of hard to put more songs in as we've already got too many songs for this thing. We'll definitely be doing tours for this album after this tour is done. The album is coming out pretty much mid way through this tour. But we'll be playing a bunch of these songs in future tours. We'll probably do half the album.

Andrew: You're touring with thrash bands like Exodus and Bonded By Blood, and a traditional heavy metal band like Holy Grail. Was that a factor in coming up with the set list? Would it be any different if say you were touring with Cannibal Corpse?
Brett: If you're into thrash, you're going to dig the death metal that we do. It's not like we're playing with a techno punk band or something. It's not a hard transition to be into thrash and still dig what we're doing. So I don't think it's a problem and we're playing pretty much the same set list. Usually we play may be a little bit more of the faster songs but we're playing fast songs in this set list too.

Andrew: Who have you been most influenced by, over the years?
Brett: Definitely Tom Araya. I always liked the aggressiveness in his vocals. I grew up listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and stuff like that. I also like Agnostic Front. I also grew up listening to a lot of hardcore music. So I liked it heavy but wanted to give it an aggressive edge to make it my own thing.

Andrew: You debut album The Ten Commandments was a major success in the death metal underground. Do you look back at it and say, 'Holy shit, it's been 20 years since that album!'
Brett: (Laughs) Yeah I can't believe we're still doing this shit. I didn't even think I'd be alive at 30, let alone play music at 40. But we're still enjoying it. When we get up on stage, we kick the shit out of the people's ears. You've got to enjoy it to be able to do it. Anyone would feel that way I think.

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