KROKUS - No Risk, No Gain Page 2
by Martin Popoff

After pegging the album a cross between Metal Rendezvous and Headhunter, Storace says Hellraiser "has nothing to do with the devil (laughs). The word hell raises some doubts. But no, it's just the usual... let's raise some hell, meaning let's have a good time; it's all positive. And that's what I tell the kids; well, in our case, it's also grandfathers and old dads like me, bald-headed guys, white hair. We don't care about the way people look. We care about the spirit, and the spirit is rock 'n' roll, and rock 'n' rollers like to raise hell, and that means have a good time, get your rocks off. Basically, this is what the album is all about, although we have some more serious subjects that we deal with, things like oppression. 'Hellraiser', 'Too Wired To Sleep', 'No Risk No Gain', 'Turnin' Inside Out'... they are typical Krokus, that party boogie get-down rock. And 'Hangman' is kind of new, melancholic. 'Angel Of My Dreams', some people already say, hey, the chorus... that's 'Screamin' In The Night'. OK, OK. 'Fight On' is our first ever down-tuned song in the whole Krokus repertoire, which is pretty modern for Krokus, pretty modern. And then 'So Long' is the ballad, and 'Spirit Of The Night', double bass drum... you can say that that's the new 'Headhunter' (laughs)." I asked Marc what Dennis Ward had done for this new album as a producer, that is different from dealing with all those legendary past producers Krokus had used in their heyday.

"Well sometimes you can produce better results when writing a song, for example, I'll bring you slowly to it. When you are writing a song, you can sometimes get better results if you leave out a few notes. Now with Dennis, he got the best results out of us by leaving out a few comments and words. Dennis is a guy who just works, gets his head down in there, and is fully listening to every detail. He didn't open his mouth unless he really had to. And for us, knowing that he's a bass player, and is also a singer, and he is active in a band helped greatly. He stands on stage and he faces an audience with Pink Cream 69."

"Plus, I should've started with this - we want to hear a twang in the voice. Whether it's Canadian or American, it's got to come from that continent, because that's what turns us on. Essentially, speaking for myself, eight years touring North America and Canada, year in, year out, for me, that was the heyday of Krokus, that's what made the band's status. We had an American management that wasn't too interested in touring Europe at the time, so that's the way it was. And rock 'n' roll came from the south of North America, from blacks, the slaves and everything. And Dennis is from somewhere close to Atlanta, North Carolina, and the accent, the attitude, the sense of humour... for me, a vocalist, even the other guys, it's very important, you know, this idea of who is talking to us on the headphones? You have this voice, and imagine if it's a nagging voice, it's going to be a really shitty album. So if it's someone with a charismatic voice plus the know-how... Dennis definitely knows about how to go about it, using Protools and everything. If you want to go into the whole thing, I could spend another half an hour talking about the whole process of the recording! (laughs)."

KROKUS - No Risk, No Gain Page 3