So, is this album also the grand finale for Killer and how you dreamt it?
Yes normaly this is the last studio album, but maybe there can follow a live album if we have a few good and useful recordings on the long tour with Anvil.
Credits put you on all lead guitars and Jan Anthonis on bass. Who actually played what?
I played all the lead and rhythm guitars and Jan the bass guitars. Vanne plays the drums.
On "What You See Is What You Get" the entire lead vocal goes to a guest singer from a Motörhead tribute act, on your final album. Is this how you wanted to end the album, a “tribute” to Motörhead?
The guest singer is Lloyd and he is the singer and bass player in the Motorhead tribute band Motorheadz of which Vanne and myself are also a part. Lloyd is the real re-incarnation of Lemmy in sound/looks and attitude. So it was only a small and logical step to ask him as guest. Killer has always been compared with Motorhead, especially in our early days. On the new album I would also go partialy back to our early days and to our roots and so we did a dedication to one of our heroes.
Everything here, music and lyrics, was written by one pair of hands. What changed in the rehearsal room compared with how a Killer album usually takes shape, and did anything get thrown out once the other two heard it?
I have always been the major songwriter for Killer but mostly in cooperation with the other guys. But this time it was different because we had a very narrow deadline to make a new record. The label gave us only a short time because otherwise the record could not have been released before the start of the tour. I had several leftover songs from my solo-album and from previous Killer albums so I reworked these songs and I also wrote a few new songs, I recorded all instruments, vocals and programmed drums in my primitive home studio. Afterwards we did the recording of the real drums, the bass, the mix and the production in the Secret Boulevard Studios of our drummer Vanne, because he has better equipment than I have.
The mix keeps the snare dry and the guitars right at the front, closer to an eighties setup than to anything current. What were you listening to as a reference while mixing at Secret Boulevard, and was there anything you and Ivan Opdebeeck disagreed on?
Yes, indeed the mix was intended to go rather to the more Old School metal sound. We were not listening to anything special to inspire us. Sometimes we had a little discussion about some details but we never had big disagreements. We know each other so long and we know what Killer stands for and what our perfect formula is.. We are no beginners anymore, but rather old and experienced musicians.
"I hope people would remember us as a honest, and a true metal band. What you see is what you get, we are no posers."
Fat Leo passed in February. Was he in to contribute on the album, to play on it?
No Leo could not play the drums anymore since many years; he was 80 years old and in bad health. But he was still our greatest fan and he followed everything we did. We were still good friends.
In 1985 you recorded a double live album at a sold-out Antwerp show with Dieter Dierks' mobile studio, and Mausoleum's legal situation buried it. Do those tapes still exist, and is there a reason they have never surfaced, even now?
No these tapes do not exist anymore. They were confiscated by order of the court due to the bankruptcy of Mausoleum Records our record label.
"Hellfire" came out through HNE; the last one goes to High Roller, a German label built on vinyl pressings and eighties reissue culture. What does that kind of label give a band in 2026 that a larger one wouldn't?
They gave us a good feeling; good conditions and they were interested in Killer. With HRR we are not only just a number in their catalogue. We fit with each other.
Will High Roller take the back catalogue as well and see some reissues remastered?
They showed interest in the back catalogue but they must agree first with HNE in UK because they have the rights and they released already some boxes with the old Killer albums a few years ago. But never say never.
In 1986 you were playing sold-out halls in Poland, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and the band was finished within a year. What did that tour show you about how Killer actually functioned as a working unit?
That tour showed us that Killer was famous in Poland while our records were not officially released there. I was very surprised that the audience sang the songs louder than we did and they knew all the words of the lyrics. There must have been a huge black market with bootlegs in Poland. Killer was a real well-oiled machine back then. We were ready for big stages.
You're out with Anvil in Europe after the release on an extended tour. If the studio chapter is closed, what is the live side now, and is there anything on the new album that a three-piece has to rearrange to play it on stage?
On the tour we will play mostly the old classic songs because that is what the fans are expecting. But we will do also two new songs to promote the album. Live, we always do songs which are playable as a three piece band, so rearranging songs is not necessary
How do you want fans to remember Killer after the lights go down once and for all?
I hope people would remember us as a honest, and a true metal band. What you see is what you get, we are no posers.
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