Caliban are on their way over to America in a few weeks for their first American tour. How are you feeling about that? What are you anticipating? Is there anything you are dreading?

Yeah, we're coming to the States to tour with our pals from Bloodjinn from Sept. 1st to the 15th. We're all really looking forward to this trip. We're very happy to get the possiblity to tour in the States. But we don't know what to expect. I think there are tons of great bands in the US, so for us as a European band it will be hard to get heard. We'll see.

How has the reaction been to the new album "Vent"?

The reactions have been just great. We're getting lots of response for the album. I've seen no bad reviews, some people think that "Small Boy..." was better, but who cares? "Small Boy..." was a different album.

One thing I constantly hear people commenting on is the inclusion of operatic female vocals on "Vent"? Can you explain how the decision to try this came about? How do you think it turned out? And also, how will this be handled at shows in the live situation?

Hey, we just wanted to try shit out, and we all like female vocals. We knew Sarah as a friend of Marcīs girlfriend, and we knew she had a great voice. So we asked her to sing on the album. We're all very happy with it, due to Sarah's voice turned out so great. On the most shows Sarah is not singing. She was singing on one show this year, and it was awesome. But on most of the shows we're playing without her.

What's the scene like over in Germany and the rest of Europe? I understand you can't compare it to the US scene since you haven't been here yet, but is there a lot of kids, what types of bands are most common, etc.

Hmm, it differs from the regions you're going to shows. We've played big fuckin shows in Belgium, East Germany, Czech Republic, and Spain this year. At most of the shows there are 500 to 550 kids, so the shows are fun. There are some regions where the shows are smaller, but they're great too! The fests this year in Kortrijk, Plzen and Ieper have been totally awesome. There are kids who come from Spain to Belgium to appear at the fest. That is around 2000 kilometers to drive!!! And I think this is the hardest fact that is different to the us scene... the kids are driving longer to go to shows than US kids.

In the US, there are a ton of a metalcore bands, but actual metal bands are practically nonexistant, while in Europe, it seems that black/death/power metal take a front seat and hardcore is pushed into the background. Do you think this actually the case and if so, why?

Yeah, metal bands are pretty big in the European hardcore scene. Don't ask me why. There are so many bands coming up lately, like Self Conquest, Destiny, XmaroonX, Course of Action. I think that's really cool because European bands are mostly doing their own style and are not copying any US bands. That would suck.

Along the same lines, "Vent" and previous material seems to be heavily inspired by black metal and even moreso by the melodic Swedish metal like In Flames. Are these styles you consider influences and do you think that has anything to do with Caliban's location?

Yeah, we're inspired by metal bands, but these are not our only inspirations. You've got to see... I'm coming out of the hardcore scene, while Marc and Denis are metalheads. Andy is really emo, and Engin is the machine head. So we've lots of inspirations that flow into our music.

I've noticed that Caliban and Arkangel are the only two European hardcore bands that the US kids really rave about. Are there any groups from Europe that you would suggest US fans should make an effort to check out?

Yeah, as I said:

Destiny - Emo-metal with Poison the Well influences
XmaroonX - Vegan sXe fighters (on Catalyst now)
Course of Action - Crazy as fuck (on Goodlife)
Self Conquest - Emo-metal
Instill - Pitfather crew, awesome
Darwin - From The Netherlands, newest effort on Lifeforce

And the bigger bands like Length of Time, Born from Pain, and Liar.

What would you be doing if you weren't in a band?

I don't know, life would be boring then. Haha. No, I can't imagine that... sorry!

What would you like to see eliminated from the scene and/or Earth in general and why?

Hmm, the whole "seen and be seen" thing in the scene. I don't know if it's the same in the US, but in Europe it's sometimes hard at some shows with all that coool kids. There should be less intolerance in the world.

Top 5 All-Time Favorite Albums?

Biohazard - "Urban Discipline"
Sick of it all - "Just Look Around"
Hatebreed - "Satisfaciton is the Death of Desire"
At the Gates - all
Earth Crisis - "Destroy the Machines"

Any last words? Things to promote? Shoutouts? Putdowns? Etc.

Thanks to you, Dan, for this interview. Thanks to all kids that make us what we are today. You're great. Hope to meet you all on one of our shows in the US. See ya soon dudes!