New Zealand thrash metal exponents Stalker have released their crushingly brutal second album Black Majik Terror, a brilliant journey into old school thrash that should solidify the bands growing reputation.


Guitarist Chris and bassist/vocalist Dave sat down with HEAVY a month out from the release to talk about the album and other things happening in the Stalker camp.


“It’s a collection of songs that we pretty much started after finishing our first album,” Dave explained of the album.


“Balls to the wall heavy metal mate,” Chris added.


“It’s fast, furious, not too long, a few hooks and a couple of solos…” cut in Dave.


“And it’s even got a bass solo,” Chris chimed in proudly.


The thrash metal genre has been pretty much played to death over the years – not that there’s anything wrong with that – but to come up with anything original takes a special effort.
With Black Majik Terror Stalker have found the right ingredients to not only pay homage to one of the best metal genres in the world but also to put enough of a spin on it so that it sends fresh and their own.


“I think we’ve got a pretty good grasp of it,” Dave agreed. “We’re not struggling for any ideas or direction. Everything is still pretty fresh and new for us even though we’re 24 songs deep.”


“It’s not hard at all man,” Chris added. You do wind up… we listen to the classics all day, every day.”


“Speed metal, thrash metal, whatever you wanna call it, but thrash has been beaten to death – there’s still some great thrash bands coming out – but we wanted to simplify things a bit and go for the more early 80’s sound rather than the mid to late where most of the thrash bands are. Hopefully, we put our own spin on it and it’s something different for new and old listeners.


In the full interview, Chris and Dave talk about their goals with the album, early goals for the band when they came out, finding your niche in thrash metal, the New Zealand metal community, touring Japan and more.