Zoltan Bathory talks all things ‘AfterLife’, DMX collaboration and more in this exclusive interview with Australia’s Heavy Magazine.
In this interview with Australia’s Heavy Magazine, Zoltan talks about his excitement about getting the deluxe version of ‘AfterLife’ out. He also shares the story behind the bands collaboration with DMX and his thoughts on how ‘This Is The Way ft. DMX’ completes the album musically.
Also covered are how the band broke down the acoustic versions of songs featured on the ‘AfterLife’ Deluxe edition and the meaning behind ‘Judgement Day’, parallels between heavy metal and hip hop as well as touring plans and more.
Speaking on the bands DMX collaboration, Zoltan said, “This has been a long time in… we worked on it for a long, long time. This deluxe edition of the record is coming out because at the time when we originally released this album we had this track which is the collaboration with DMX everybody is talking about and the song was meant to be on this record. However, because DMX passed, and we had to have the approval of every single person that was involved – the estate to the producers and publishers – we realised that it might take longer. “
“And it did take a bit over a year to complete everything, and we didn’t wanna wait, so we released the album without this track. But this track was always meant to be on this album. Every record you assemble, every song has a reason to be there and every song has a reason to be in that specific spot in the sequence. And so, one of my favourite records we did – Afterlife – was still missing this song and this song is important and was important to be on this record. Basically now with the deluxe edition coming out I feel like we completed the record.”
The deluxe version of ‘AfterLife’ is out now and includes the original 12 tracks recorded with the band’s longtime producer Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne) in addition to four bonus tracks in the form of acoustic versions of the album’s songs ‘The End’, ‘Judgement Day’ and, ‘Thanks For Asking’. The deluxe digital edition also includes a brand new song (with accompanying music video) called ‘This Is The Way’ featuring the legendary late rapper DMX. Fans can listen to ‘AfterLife Deluxe’ via https://5fdp.ffm.to/afterlifedeluxe.