New Jersey's very own bastions of Hardcore fused Stoner Doom , Solace are soon to return with their much anticipated new full lengther A.D. Ahead of time we caught up with the mighty Justin Daniels to see what lies in wait for the uninitiated. Only God can help them now!

Good man, just trying to survive the holidays. Enjoying some time with my girl and my daughter. The rest of the guys are doing the same. We've had a busy year together so it's actually cool to take a break from each other for a couple weeks. I am a kinda starting to miss my Solace brothers though.

Killer. Total awesomeness. It was the best possible ending to a great year for Solace. Packed house and what a great audience they were! We thrive off that shit, when an audience is just balls out into our set. It pushes us to the edge. Shit usually gets broken. A good show is always a blur when you look back. That show is a blur for me. Those Goblin boys are brothers to us now. We fucking love 'em and owe them many, many thanks. We could conquer the universe together.

That was some cool shit huh? I mean, I'm a fan of the dude! Our new bass player Duane Hutter is good friends with Ed. It turned out that Ed was going to be in London the same time we were so we asked him if he wanted to jam... Simple as that man. He played a guitar that some German luthier had just made for him, one of a kind. What a nice, humble guy he was. And a fuckin' smoking guitar player too.

Well there sure as hell are a lot more of 'em. It just seems like underground and indie metal is much bigger throughout Europe than it is here in the states. Other than that, a kid throwing the horns and banging his fucking head furiously is the same in Youngstown, Ohio as it is in Leuven, Belgium.

For any readers out there who have not yet picked up their copy of your new record "The Black Black" how do you describe the sound? Do you feel it as a continuation to "Hammerhead" or "13"?

It's all a continuation isn't it? I mean we grow and try different things and pick up new influences along the way, but it's all a continuation of the Solace sound. On The Black Black you hear us starting to push the dual guitar thing, taking advantage of the fact that we have two guitar wankers in the band. Jason is writing vocal melodies with more of a hook than on past records, and it works so well with the riffs. I couldn't get the chorus from "Destroy The Gift" out of my head for days. The album is heavy and thick with groove. I'm proud as hell of it man. You can hear how it's leading up to the material on A.D.

Money. Time. Cancer. Money again... Hey man listen, if we had the budget to record an album a year you'd have the 10 disc Solace boxed-set this Christmas! It's hard to juggle the whole rock band / day job thing. And there have been some bumps in the road for damn sure, our drummer getting cancer being just one of them. So we just push forward, it's our passion. Most bands could never shoulder the shit that the guys in this band have been through. They'd crumble, the'd die. We just get stronger.

Did all the trials and tribulations over the recent years help or hinder the writing of the new record? How did you all approach "The Black Black"?

The songs on "The Black Black" have been written for a long time... The basic tracks were recorded during sessions for "A.D.". We never planned "The Black Black", we just thought it necessary to release some material to coincide with our European tour. We have so many songs written that we figured that "A.D." won't suffer from losing those songs as long as we replace them with fresh ones. And we're so glad we did it because the new stuff we just recorded up at Mad Oak in Boston is crushing! A.D. is going to peel flesh from bone.

So what is the story with "A.D."? When can we expect to see it's release? What's the story with the delay?

The story is it's going to blow your mind apart. It's the best stuff Solace has ever done. And it'll be worth the wait. It'll be out in the spring of '08. We've just signed with Small Stone Records and those guys know what the fuck they are doing for sure. We have high hopes for 2008.

Underdogma are friends and great guys who helped us get "Hammerhead" and "The Black Black" out to the public because we as a band can't afford to have our records pressed and distributed. We paid for all that recording out of pocket, and that shit gets expensive for 5 working stiffs from Jersey. Small Stone can put us in the studio, so it was a logical, necessary step for us. We put out two great records with MeteorCity that we're all proud of and we thank them for that.

Early in 2006 you guys played the Roadburn festival, then in May 2007 you guys toured with the Goblin. How was the experience of playing such a prestegious festival as Roadburn vs. touring the rest of Europe?

Well thanks to Roadburn we became good friends with the Goblin guys. I don't think that those little Witchcraft boys were too keen on sharing a dressing room with us, so the Goblins shared instead and we all drank up and had a hell of a time together. Big Ben Ward sang "Forever My Queen" with us onstage and we threw rib bones at them during their set. So when they asked us to join them in the UK for their "Healing Through Fire" tour we said Hell Yes! The Roadburn fest was huge and packed and amazing, but nothing beats night after night drinking and playing and laughing with true brothers. I just hope we can do to the States what we did to Europe with those guys.

You know I could spout some shit about metaphors and social struggles and political activism but in all reality I stumbled across this film clip on the internet and loved the weird, surreal vibe it had. The clip was short so my girl Penelope asked me what our shortest song was... and that's it! We matched up the ending and the whole thing just fell into place like it was meant to be. All Hail Techno Viking!

Often described as 'stoner', do you feel comfortable with this terminology and the categorization of the band as a particular style?

We're a fucking metal band. It's not like we sit and do bong-loads and eat mushrooms constantly. I mean, none of us are saints in any way but the label does suck. It just sounds stupid. Cool, people who smoke pot dig our sound. People who don't probably would too, they just got to get around that label. Any label works against you. We'd really love to open the eyes of people who may not be into the typical 'stoner rock' thing. We'd prefer to just be called a metal band.

Sabbath are obviously hugely influential to the bands sound but what would you say are the less 'in your face' influences you all bring to the table?

Thin Lizzy comes to mind. And definitely the whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing. Hardcore bands like Discharge and Agnostic Front. Tommy and Kenny both came from Hardcore bands, and they brought that vibe and attitude with them. Jason and I are both huge Soundgarden fans. Jason is just as good as Chris Cornell to me, the kid has awe inspiring talent. We pull inspiration from everywhere... Tommy could list obscure bands for days and days. We've been compared to Soundgarden, Tool, Sabbath, early Metallica...In the end it's just the sound of Solace.

New Jersey boys through and through, other than Solace is there a local scene and are there any bands we should be looking out for?

Call The Paramedics are sick as fuck punk-metal hooligans. The cops show up at all their shows in riot gear. I love 'em. Magaeshira are a cool bunch of guys with some solid riffage going on. You should also check out some of Brian Mercer's artwork, he's a Jersey boy who's done a slew of killer show posters. I'm sure there's a ton of bands we've played with but my memory sucks. Sorry.

The release of A.D. and getting back to Europe. Touring the states to some extent. Writing some new material. Kicking ass. Drinking beer. Eating bacon. Worshipping Satan. World domination will soon follow.

I hope to see all you fuckers out banging your heads this year... and thanks so much for making 2007 such a great fucking year for Solace. We owe all of you a shot of Jager! Cheers!