1. For those who still don't know Criminal, would you be nice enough to introduce your band with a short history ?
The band was formed by Rodrigo and myself in the early nineties. We started more or less as a thrash band, but soon incorporated stuff from other styles, making a sound a bit more similar to that of Sepultura or Pantera. We were lucky enough to get to open for Kreator at our very first show, and from there everything went really quick. We signed with BMG, recorded our debut album and started touring and playing festivals, including opening for bands like Slayer, Sepultura and Motörhead. A couple of albums later we ended our working relationship with BMG, and after recording "Cancer", Rod and myself decided to move to Europe.

2. Your line-up has known a few changes in the past/recently. What were the reasons behind these problems?
It wasn’t really problems that caused this. It was that half the band decided to make the move to Europe and the other half decided to stay in Chile. So when we got here we started looking for musicians and were lucky enough to find Zac, Mark and Rob.

3. "No gods no master" is your newest stuff. I'm curious about it style: how different is this one than the previous?
I would say it’s more extreme, but not only because it’s faster… I think the whole approach to writing was so free, we just did whatever we wanted. You can really find loads of different influences and sounds on it. So I would say the main different from our previous albums is that back then we were more confined to one style, as opposed to now, where we’ve really opened up our spectrum of influences.

4.      What means the cover art of your last release ?
It doesn’t have an exact meaning, I would like everybody to look at it and draw their own conclusions. There is a definete relation to the lyrical content of the album, about not letting someone else rule your life or limit what you can be. We talked a lot with Claudio, the artist, while he was doing it, and I think he fed off these ideas a lot.

5. What are the things you wanted to improve between your previous cds and the new one ? What are the main differences between this new cd and he others ?
Don’t get me wrong, I really like the other albums, but on this one I just wanted to be free to experiment with new things, you know, like new rhythms, harmonies, new types of solos, etc. I think it has a lot to do with growing up as a band, and we have sort of reached that point where you don’t look up to a certain band anymore, you just take stuff as if it was yours. As I said, there’s elements of various different styles on this new album, but we just made them our own.

6. Let's talk about the lyrics. What kind of topic did you write about ? Are the lyrics important for you or not really ?
They are important. I mean, to me it would be very sad to write a really cool album and then have some bullshit sung on top. It would just ruin the intensity for me. So, the topics are always stuff that affects me somehow. It ranges from very political stuff like "Consumed" which is about consumerism, globalization and the differences between the first and the third world, to stuff that is just very personal, for example a song like "Idol", which is about someone’s relationship with their father. You see, it’s all very reality oriented, but maybe that’s just because I don’t have a whole lot of fantasy to work with.

7. How was the progression of your style during the years ? What are your objectives in the future ?
If anything, it’s got more extreme over the years. And that’s cool with me, because it’s the exact opposite of what most bands do, who try and get more accessible and shit. But I don’t think we’ve set any objectives for the future, we just want to keep playing music that is heavy, creative and fun to play. We play for ourselves first and foremost. It’s hard for me to imagine planning what an album should sound like. Probably the only way that could happen is if this album was a complete flop, hahaha…

8. Who would you classify as your band 's influences, both musically and lyrically? I suppose, these are not death metal acts only?
Well, I always say there’s stuff from all sorts of styles and periods of time that we like, from Sabbath, Maiden and Priest to Metallica, Slayer, etc. so it’s hard to say. Nowadays I try to listen to stuff that gives me something, you know, bands who are trying to do something different rather than following the norm. I mean bands like Meshuggah, Opeth, Strapping Young Lad, even Tool, just interesting stuff.

9. Metal blade is your Label, What you can say more about this factory, co-operation with them & about their support?
I honestly feel honored to be on this label. It’s been around for over 20 years now, and it has had a major role in how the scene has evolved. And the support is great, I mean you can tell the people who work there are true metal fans and not just some business people.

10. What is, in your opinion, the best metal album released in 2003 ?
Dunno, one of my favorites is probably the last Strapping Young Lad one, even though "City" was better. It wasn’t "St. Anger", that’s for sure, hahaha…

11. You will tour throught Europe soon ? What are you thinking about lasts FLESHCRAWL's and 6FEET UNDER's cds ?
It’s great stuff, man. I mean, they just do what they want to do. In a different way than we do it, but that’s cool, if all bands sounded the same the world would be a very boring place.