Veteran drummer Gene Hoglan (TESTAMENT, DARK ANGEL, DEATH, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, DETHKLOK) recently spoke with Andrew McKaysmith of the "Scars And Guitars" podcast. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On DARK ANGEL's reunion: Gene: "It's more for the love of metal, and the love of my guys in DARK ANGEL. There is an interest in the band... after DARK ANGEL went by the wayside back in the early '90s, I kept on with my career and doing my stuff, and I know the rest of my guys, they got involved in their lives. Now, if Australia or New Zealand or South America or somewhere wants to reach out and say, 'Hey, we're interested in having you guys come down here,' of course we're going to do it... DARK ANGEL is fun. It's just fun, getting together with the bros, having a good time doing this. When we went by the wayside in the mid'90s, it wasn't because we all hated each other. It's come around full circle, where I get to play some of my super-good bros, my best pals. I've known all these guys since I was a teenager... I can just relax and have some fun." On STRAPPING YOUNG LAD: Gene: "For me, it's like I willed this band to come completely out of the mist. 'City' was so exciting for me. I was moving away from DEATH at the time. 'Symbolic' was going to be my final record for them, I was feeling toward the end. I was looking for a project like STRAPPING, and along came Dev [Townsend]. We had a great chemistry, and I was so behind the music. For me, 'City' was so awesome... just so much attitude, and we backed it up with destroying music. It came along at a perfect time for me, where I really felt I just got out of a project that really likes to look backwards throughout history for its influence, and I've always liked being a part of the next level. That's what STRAPPING was... There was no boundaries with STRAPPING. You've got the drummer that can play anything; you've got the singer that can sing anything; and all the crazy bells and whistles that went on around it, that's kick-ass to me." On Townsend, and whether he thinks they'll ever play together again: Gene: "I love Dev and love his music. I will flat-out admit [that] I don't pay as close attention to Dev's music as I used to. I'm just running, doing my own thing a lot. But I always get excited when I see Devin doing exciting things for himself. That's always awesome. I love Devin, and you never say never to the future. You never know. Now, I see he's going off and doing some STRAPPING stuff on the new tour. Good on ya. Just because the band no longer exists, you're the guy that helped create the music there, Dev. You play whatever the heck you want on stage. I'm sure he's going to find somebody that's going to do it justice. I'm sure whoever he gets to play drums for him is going to be super-killer. Dev works with a lot of killer musicians. He's got Mike Keneally playing with him now. That's a great mixture there. I played with Mike in DETHKLOK. Mike's a next-level musician. He's going to be great working with Dev. They're very similar — very studious, very erudite gentlemen. That's a good pairing. I'm glad those guys are together." On whether he considers one particular project to be his musical "high water mark": Gene: "In the past, I'd go right to STRAPPING. 'City', 'Alien', those are awesome. Obviously, the DEATH stuff, that's a good water mark for a lot of folks. I didn't want to stop at that. As my career went on a little further, there's albums that are very, very underground records that I've put out, like from THE ALMIGHTY PUNCHDRUNK. That's a really fun, killer record... A little after that, there was MECHANISM... that was probably the craziest drumming I've done to date in terms of a whole lot of crazy beats, crazy time signatures, crazy countings and things like that... Then there's DETHKLOK. I love playing with DETHKLOK. That's one of my all-time faves. I love working with Brendon [Small] and love doing DETHKLOK stuff. DETHKLOK is kind of eyeing the future. We'll see what happens, but there's a spark of life involved in DETHKLOK that there wasn't not that long ago. That's fun. We'll see where that goes. I'm hoping for the best there." On TESTAMENT's 1997 album "Demonic": Gene: "That's my favorite TESTAMENT album. We'll see if we ever play any songs from that live. I've been playing with TESTAMENT for eight years, and we have not played one song off 'Demonic', ever. But we play the piss out of 'The Gathering' and play songs off 'The Ritual', all that sort of stuff. I'm all for playing 'Demonic'. I'd come out and play any song off that." For more information on Hoglan's various projects, visit www.hoglanindustries.com.
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