- The response has been great. I'd say about 99% of the reviews are positive and journalists loving the album. The fans are really into it and we just did our 4th show at a festival in Denver and it was sold out. The response has been that this first Earthburner album has really captured the spirit of old-school grindcore/grinddeath – so that's great as it was part of the mission.

- I'm glad you noticed that because it sums up that "deathgrind" sound I mentioned. Terrorizer's "World Downfall" is a masterpiece and it's the main reason that Earthburner exists. My vision was to embrace the elements of grind and extreme music. Earthburner has evolved into what is best described as a "deathgrind" band, because of the bands you mentioned – Terrorizer and my Broken Hope style of music. Musically, the early inspiration for Earthburner has always been my worship of Terrorizer's "World Downfall" – that album is what made me want to play/write grind since 1989 as I mentioned. When I first got that album at age 19, I was like, "I want to do THAT" as well as make a sick AF death metal band. I picked up "World Downfall" and Morbid Angel's "Altars of Madness" on the same day at a record store and both of those albums changed my life in all kinds of ways. So basically, grindcore and death metal play a role in Earthburner's music – it's like mixing peanut butter and chocolate. Haha!

- In 2011 I was first introduced to Mike Miczek – drummer for Earthburner and Broken Hope. Mike was literally a teenager at the time. I met Mike, and we were instantly doing Earthburner. I had a logo, a singer and a drummer. As I mentioned, we didn't have a bass player, but we recorded a three-song EP, so I played the bass and guitars on that. Then Broken Hope came back into my life in 2012 and Mike and I have been doing BH ever since and put Earthburner to the side – but as of 2023, Earthburner came back in a big way and we have this amazing lineup and album coming out.

That said, I was "all in" to do EB full-time in 2011... so we recorded a 3-song EP (I played the bass on that) and we made a music video and released it all – then it got put to the side.

It wasn't until 2023 that things with Broken Hope slowed down a bit and I started talking to Mike Miczek about really doing Earthburner... not just talking about it, but really DOING it... so we focused on Earthburner, got the right lineup, and made it happen.

The evolution has involved to Earthburner "finally" becoming a real band and getting solid musicians to the table to make Earthburner something special – and also, it's no longer a side-project, it's definitely a band I want to keep doing as much as possible forever.

We got singer Devin Swank from Sanguisugabogg, my stepson Tyler Affinito from Gloryhole Guillotine on bass, and Mike Miczek on drums from Broken Hope and me of course. I don't write the lyrics for Earthburner – Devin does that – so that is another big difference‚ I'm more of a horror guy, while Devin is a lyricist who has the current, dark climate of society in hand and speaks of these things. Song-structure-wise, in EB, it's a that is simple: savage blasting with savage breakdown riffs-and then story is over fast.

Regarding Mitch Harris: Yes, we have our "honorary member," Mitch Harris (ex-Napalm Death) in the lineup! Mitch's here in a unique, "when available," sort of way – and that's all just fucking great! I reached out to my pal, Mitch Harris to do some guest vocals for "Permanent Dawn" at first... for like one song. I always liked Mitch's high-pitched screams/vocals he did in Napalm Death and thought it would be cool to have him guest appear on a song. Well, when Mitch showed up to contribute in the studio vocal session for a song, he ended up having ideas for EVERY song! So, we just let him roll with it. His contributions and ideas were so good that we kept it. Since he's on every song, we were like, "Fucking, aye! Mitch! You're an honorary member of Earthburner now!".

Mitch is all over the album, initially he was only going to be on one or two songs, but came in with ideas for everything. It sounded so great we decided to have him in there as much as possible. We want Mitch to be on every Earthburner album. Mitch unfortunately has limited availability to play with us live, but sometimes he will if he can. No matter what, we want Mitch with us any way possible. He really helped "level up" our "Permanent Dawn" album.

So that all said, I look at Earthburner's "Permanent Dawn" and lineup being one part "fate", one part "meant to be", one part "things happen for a reason".

When I look back, I realize that this band wasn't supposed to happen in 2002 or 2011... it was meant to happen NOW. I wouldn't have had this powerful lineup that you mention if I'd have made this band a priority back in those former years as I had attempted. I wouldn't trade this lineup for anything.

- The guest vocals were planned early on – like as soon as I knew we're gonna do this album. Basically, when I wrote all the music for the Earthburner "Permanent Dawn" album and prepared to record it, I reached out to some friends of mine to invite them to be guest vocalists as I wanted to make our debut album extra special. I hit up Ross Dolan of Immolation – who I've been friends with since we were teenagers – and Ross immediately said, "Yes!" which made my day. Then I hit up my pal, Jake Cannavale – singer of the grindcore band, Vixen Maw, and he also signed right on. And as I mentioned before, I asked my longtime pal and hero – Mitch Harris of Napalm Death and Righteous Pigs, etc. – if he'd be down to contribute something to a song vocally and he was into doing it immediately and ended up being on the entire album.

Ross Dolan's style is what you would hope for – his brand of pure and unique death metal vox. Ross is on the song called "Necrodisiac". I was so very happy Ross came on board – he took it very seriously and delivered massive vox. Then Jake Cannavale appears on our cover of COC's "Positive Outlook" – and gave us a really, a really awesome and aggressive delivery when he came on board, and that also made me very happy. And Mitch Harris just killed it across the album.

Due to their schedules, Ross and Jake couldn't make it to Chicago to do their vocals at studios in New York at separate studios. We did the vocals at Hypercube Studios in Chicago with Sanford Parker. But Mitch came in when Devin came in. So, Devin's freaking out because he's a huge Napalm Death fan. And again, we thought Mitch was gonna sing on one song, but he said he had ideas for every song. So, we've got Devin and Mitch on every song and thanks to that, Mitch added a whole new dimension to the album that I didn't see coming.

As for the new Immolation, I love it! I've been friends with Ross from Immolation since we were teenagers... I loved Immolation's music from their demos to their new album. They're an amazing, legendary band.

- There's specific reasons why we chose those studios to record "Permanent Dawn". From the get-go, I knew that I wanted to record at Criteria Recording Studios... it's my favorite studio on the planet and close to my winter home in Miami Beach. Plus, they have very diverse rooms, state-of-the-art consoles and gear plus vintage gear – then there's the incredible history. I wanted the best production possible, so between the studios and the team I had on board, I got everything I wanted in terms of attaining that high-end production and quality.

Earthburner entered the legendary Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, Florida in April 2023 and recorded all of the music for "Permanent Dawn" there – 11 tracks total. We recorded digitally to a Pro Tools HDX System through a Discrete Class A Vintage Neve 8078 console. All of the main vocals were recorded at Hypercube Studios in Chicago, IL, because of the schedule of the vocalists and I was back in Chicagoland for summer by then.

Mixing was handled by mixing-god Scott Creekmore. The album was mastered by the legendary Mike Fuller of Fullersound in Davie, Florida. The entire process went amazingly well and fast. My co-producer, Tommy McWilliams was a godsend... he made the whole process go quite painlessly and I'm very grateful to him for all that. But that day is finally here... Earthburner has arrived!

Overall, I believe my goal of making a sonically superior album was achieved... sure, it's deathgrind/grindcore, but I believe no matter how extreme, what the genre is, make an album that stands the test of time and give listeners their money's worth.

I always aim for QUALITY. I'm talking about making sure that no music I write and record is "filler" on any level – only the best riffs and compositions. That high-quality goal is also in the production of any album I record – I want the best quality sonic assault for the fans who pick up anything I release, so I'll even dig into my own pockets to ensure that criteria is met at the end of the day. I never do anything "half assed", know what I mean? That all speaks for my ambitions: music, books, everything... always aiming high (and I encourage others to do the same).

- Thanks to the wisdom of my big-brother and genius, Trevor Fletcher – VP of Criteria Recording Studios – we were given the opportunity to mix down not only digitally, but also, we mixed down to analog tape as Trevor said they had a vintage tape machine on hand we could use. So Earthburner offers TWO versions of our debut album: the Digital version and Analog version were mixed through a Neve, but the Analog was mixed to a Quantegy GP9 on 1/2" analog tape.

The vinyl and cassette editions of "Permanent Dawn" are like the way Slayer originally did "Reign in Blood" in 1986, where you get the entire album on each side of the vinyl and cassette – except with "Permanent Dawn", Side A is the Digital version ("Digital Dawn") and Side B is the Analog version ("Analog Dawn").

Again, mixing was done by Scott Creekmore. The "Digital" version of the album was mastered by the legendary Mike Fuller of Fullersound in Davie, Florida while Scott Creekmore mastered the "Analog" version of the album at his Mercenary Digital Studios in Zion, Illinois.

As far as the impact of the sound, the Digital album overall is razor-sharp and kills at all volumes and the Analog version also slays and most people find that version to have a certain punch and warmth.

- I love Fabrice LaVollay's art. I had seen he'd done for Napalm Death and Brujeria and others and was always in awe of his work. He has a real grindcore visual style if you know what I mean. He captures the "vibe" that we're after. I got to meet Fabrice in Belgium when I was on tour there some years back – he's a great guy.

With the "Permanent Dawn" album, I basically told Fabrice that Earthburner wanted something that would encompass the visuals of a "bleak world" where we're faced with war, social media nightmares, the dark side of humanity – and to embrace that "vibe" of classic grindcore bands in a collage-type album cover. From there, Fabrice just went with it his own way and did an amazing job.

- When we turned the record label (M-Theory Audio), we were told to select radio singles, and also, to get visualizer videos made for each single. Thanks to Shaun Glass of Repentance (and ex-Broken Hope bassist), he turned me on to Andrea Mantelli who did the first 3 single videos. The video for "Like Dogs" was done by Tyler Affinito's film director friend – Christian Martinez – who did a great job. I also hired artist Daniella Batsheva to make individual artwork for each single that was also used in the video (like "Broken Head"). Aside from all that, all I did was give the video guys the lyrics and ideas and they just ran with it.

- Earthburner has done 4 shows to date and they've been fun, but now that the album is out, we really want to tour properly. So if things go well, we will tour everywhere possible, play festivals everywhere as much as possible – and just get out there. I'm already writing the next Earthburner album!

- Thank you for the interview, Kornel and Encomium magazine! I send all of my love to the Ukrainian metal fans and to the Ukrainian people – you are ALL in my heart! SLAVA UKRAINI!!!