"And Then You'll Beg" was the first the album was totally written with you as the vocalist/lyricist. What difference do you bring to the vocals and lyrics as opposed to Lord Worm, with the exception of the fact that you can actually understand what you're saying sometimes?

We're definitely two different writers. The song content in general is different. We both write different style of lyrics. He's an excellent writer. I admire his work, I admire what he's done and I love playing the songs of his as well, but I also worked very hard on these songs. I consider myself to be a decent writer. It's still very much a strong point for Cryptopsy as far as lyrical content is concerned. It's definitely different subjects and ideas, but in the same sense, I still like to think it's still a bit mystifying and not your common storytelling. I like trying to break stereotypes a little bit, in the token as he did. Sometimes you read his lyrics and it's very enigmatic and I like to try to throw in the same as well. I make it so that people can relate to it but I also want to make them think about it and not told what the song is about.

I noticed a lot of people slag your vocals saying that you don't compare to Lord Worm. But on the otherhand, there are some people, like myself, that love your atypical style for death metal. Do you both arguments and which side do you hear most often? And does it bug you to be constantly compared to Lord Worm?

I knew when first coming in that I had some shoes to fill but the funny thing is, and people don't realize this, that Lord Worm and I and the rest of the band are all friends. It's true, I hear some slags and some good things, but you can appease everyone. You're going to have your old school fans of Cryptopsy that were there from the start and it's quite a contrast in vocal styles. I can respect that. If people aren't into that, it's no skin off my balls. People that are into it...great. Then these two albums are going to be strong albums for them. But the people that can't get past that, they need to realize that this is Cryptopsy now and you either respect it or you don't...if you don't, that's ok. Ultimately, the bottom line is, we are all out here enjoying ourselves and having the time of our lives musically and really having a good time playing for people. That's the most important thing. You can't really get bogged down into what people are thinking...good or bad. You just have to go with what you feel and the new songs, as they are written, are how we feel and we stand behind all those songs.

Speaking of playing live, how did the recent tour with Origin, Poison the Well and labelmates Candiria go? Any wild tour stories for better or worse?

Not really anything out of the ordinary. You got 20 guys traveling around North America. Every night, showing up, playing...I'm talking showing up and kicking ass. It's such a diverse package which is what we wanted from the get go. We wanted to bring in quality bands from different genres of extreme music whether it's hardcore or brutal death metal or the technical prowess of Candiria. It's all based from one single component. You still see some people kinda weary of the whole crossover situation...if you're hardcore you're hardcore, if you're metal you're metal. If we can just get a few people to smarten up and understand that we're all in this together and there's no reason to keep these scene apart.

I definitely agree with that.

It used to be that way. What's the difference ten years later? We hoped to bring that together with the quality bands on that tour. It was a great package. These guys were all cool guys and every night the bands showed up and I think everyone walked out of there proud of themselves and we felt that we did something good and positive for the scene.

You mentioned that years ago hardcore and metal were one scene, I'd say the same hold true today, if not more true, with the way a lot of the hardcore bands these days are playing more of a metal style.

I agree with you. 100%.

I unfortunately missed that show when it came around because I was on a vacation from hell. Do you remember the Philadelphia show at all?

Yea, the Trocadero was awesome. It's one club that I've been very anxious to play. It was actually the first time the band has every played in Philadelphia. It was an anticipated show. There were close to 600 people. It was a great show.

I'm glad it went well but I wish I was there. Maybe next time.

You've got the scenes together. I'm from the East Coast and you hear all these things about the East Coast how the scenes don't mix and let me tell you...there were all kinds of different people at the show and there were no fights. It was a clean show, people had a good time.

How do you guys pick the songs you're going to play any given night or tour?

Well, we go through a process. There's one that are definitely going to be there. Then, we just choose a few others and see how it goes. We have a lot of songs to choose from. More often than not, we're going to be playing the new stuff. That's what we're pushing, that's the new album. We have to play stuff from "Whisper Supremacy". But of course we're going to play songs from "None So Vile" and "Blasphemies Made Flesh" as well. It's a given. We have to do that.

Like "Phobophile".

"Phobophile" is a song that will probably never leave the list.

That song and "Benediction Convulsions" were the two first Cryptopsy songs I ever heard and I was hooked from then on.

Yea, that's a great song. During this tour, that was the song we did as an encore. It was crazy. Usually, when that song comes on, people know it's going to be the last one or close to last and people set it off at that point.

Well, now the North American half of "The Pain Cometh" tour is over and you're just relaxing. What's next? Aren't you doing the European festival circuit this Summer?

We just came back from the "Fuck the Commerce" festival in Neiden, Germany. And that was excellent. It was 30 bands in all. Skinless, Exhumed, The Yattering, Houwitser, Krisiun. And it was ten bands a day. There were about 3000 kids that came out to that. It was strictly a death metal event. And it was cool to be a participant. After that we're going to be playing the Wacken festival in August and we have a bunch of other things that are happening as well. We're trying to go to Japan and Australia as well. A European tour is shaping up. We still have work ahead of us to solidify things up, but everything seems to be falling into place.

Starting with "Whisper Supremacy" and even moreso with "And Then You'll Beg" the level of technicality musically has increased a hundred times over. What this a natural progression by just trying to do better than the last album or was a decision made to go in this direction?

I'd definitely say it was a natural progression. It's not something that we sat down and decided we had to put out the craziest album or anything. It happens. We write the songs and if we're happy with the end result then we're going to go with. We're thinking about how we're going to feel about the songs, not how everyone else will feel. It's a 5-piece unit creating material and putting all our efforts in together. It hasn't happened yet and I don't foresee it ever being a situation where we sit down and say we have to write one way or another.

How do you guys go about writing songs?

We do record the songs as we're writing them. For instance, Jon will come down with some riffs. Usually, it will be Jon and Flo working some stuff out and everyone else will throw in some ideas and everyone has their part in the writing process. The band is very acceptable with ideas. Lyrically, we'll record the songs on a simple 8-track and then I'll write the lyrics over the songs that way. We practice three days a week. We just keep playing songs to see if we can better them. As the songs are being written, they are always growing. We might have a song completely done, walk into the studio and change something right there.

How did Flo become the fastest drummer on the planet? Was he trained?

(loud laughter). A lot of practice. He's taking lessons and he's been playing for twelve or thirteen years. And when we're not there, he's still there playing as well.

Has he been on any other albums or had any side projects?

He jams with some people. He was, at one point, jamming with Miguel, the other guitarist on "Whisper Supremacy". He was playing on a sort of side project with him, just practicing, not recording. I think it was more of a Dillinger Escape Plan kind of feel from what I understood. A lot of different, crazy guitar arrangements. I know that he plays once in a while with a rock band up here. He's active in music, but Cryptopsy is definitely his main project.

What's your all-time favorite Cryptopsy song? And favorite song to play live?

(long pause). Ummmm...from all the Cryptopsy albums?

Doesn't matter. All of them or just the ones you've sung on.

Damn, I don't know. There's so many songs I like, that's a hard question.

You can give a few if you want.

I like playing "Slit Your Guts" or "Graves of the Fathers". From "Whisper Supremacy", I love "Emaciate". It's probably the hardest song to play live, for me but I love the song. I also like to play "Screams Go Unheard", "And Then It Passes" and "We Bleed".

Having lived in Boston and shared a name pronounced the same as the Boston Strangler's (Mike DiSalvo and Albert DeSalvo) were you ever linked by people to him?

(laughs). Just in the sense that I'd have school teachers calling me Albert.

(laughs). I ask because I was watching some TV show recently that was explaining how his family lineage still gets looked down upon in Boston.

I'm sure. I'm pretty positive about that. My grandparents still live in Boston and they live in Chelsey as well. They grew up there. It's weird and ironic that they both grew up in Chelsey, which is where Albert grew up too. That guy did some crazy shit.

The song "And Then It Passes" is about how much you despise the Winter season. So why did you move from Boston, which has bad winters, to Canada, which has even worse winters?

(laughs). For love. Which is the god honest truth. Or at least somebody's honest truth anyways. I moved up her to be with my woman and that's pretty much it. Boston is bad...you're from Philly, you know how it is. But it's true that the winters up here are fucking horrible, miserable, disgusting winters but you deal with it. Aside from that, Montreal is a great city. It's nice to be up here in the Summer. It's usually cooler anyway, but 8 months of the year it's winter.

Another question related to the cold. Boston and Montreal are both big hockey towns. Are you into hockey?

I'm a BIG hockey fan. I'm a big Bruins fan even though they suck.

Are you hoping that Ray Borque will win the Cup?

I'm psyched. I've been pushing for Colorado to win the whole year. I'll be honest, I said from the get go this year that it will be New Jersey against Colorado this year and that's how it ended up. But New Jersey is a tough team and it's the one team I didn't want to see Colorado play. Now it's 3-2 for Jersey and going back to Colorado. I don't know if Ray Borque is going to get.

I hope he does. Especially because I'm from Philly which means I naturally hate the New Jersey Devils.

I fucking HATE New Jersey. On record, I hate the fuckin team and all their players.

It's good to hear another "metalheads" into hockey. I always get made fun of, like you can't listen to music and be into sports at the same time. I love hockey. When it comes to the Flyers and hockey, I don't miss one game a season.

What the hell is the matter with them? (laughs). Goddamn. I remember growing up and being a "metalhead" and people are like "oh my god...you like hockey? that's not right" like it's some sort of code of honor. Cmon, break the barriers there.

If you could remove one thing from the Earth, who or what would it be and why?

(long pause). If I could, I'd probably wipe out disease. Clear that shit out and let people die normally.

We're getting towards the end of the questions here. Top 5 Albums of All-Time?

Metal?

They don't have to be. You can pick whatever.

Led Zeppelin - "Presence"
Pink Floyd - "Animals"
Entombed - "Clandestine"

(long pause). This is a hard question. I don't think I can narrow it down to five.

Don't worry about it. That's all I have though so any last comments?

Definitely want to promote cryptopsy.net. People should check that out. Let me think, I got two more records for you here. Black Sabbath - "Masters of Reality" and Radiohead "OK Computer".