Among the best things I always happily anticipate at the top of every musical year is a flurry new album releases and tour announcements. Doing their part, thrash metal New England vets and New Bedford, Massachusetts’ hardcore native sons recently returned with their latest effort in four years, “Cheap Heat”. Accompanying this blistering and emotionally charged album, the band just embarked on their extremely busy touring schedule, beginning an international tour, making stops in Australia, Japan, Belgium, Germany, sprinkling stateside dates in between.

A few days before the whirlwind began, I caught up with lead singer Nuno Pereira to chat about his Portuguese American upbringing, strange and funny fan experiences involving restaurants and hockey rinks, hypothetical teen fest lineups, actual WTF fest moments abroad and making this latest complex, melodic, gritty release. Peep the interview soundclips below, listen to the new album HERE and get your tickets to see them live HERE!