Joey B: Welcome metalheads and maniacs, i'm Joey B from themetal.com. I'm here in Denver, Colorado with hometown act Titan. Yesterday was the Colorado date of their "Devoured By Dark" tour with Mind Game. How's the tour going so far guys?

Jake: Oh, absolutely amazing. I mean, we've only had 4 dates so far, but I couldnt have asked for a better start.

Joey B: How have the crowds been reacting to you?

Ryan: Well, we are still unknown by most people, so when we first hit the stage, most people are like "who are these dudes?" But by the end of our set, we usually win over most of the crowd.

Joey B: Nice, nice. How have the guys in Mind Game been?

Jake: They've been great. They invited us on the tour with open arms, and we've been hanging out every night after the show. Ben can fucking drink us all under the table, no doubt. *Laughs* As far as their performance, they've been awesome. They bring their "A" game every night, so it's quite a challenge for us to keep up with them. If I am correct, they've been filming for their dvd, so of course they want to sound as tight as possible. I love watching them play.

Joey B: Yeah, they're a great band. Speaking of other bands, what are some bands that have been on your mp3 playlists lately?

Michael: For me, I have to say Hellspawn. In my opinion of the most underrated metal bands out there today. Their newest single, Condemned To Hell, is a kick in the fucking teeth for sure, man. I'm a thrash guy, and Hellspawn's mix of death and thrash definitely craves my hunger for some dirty, aggressive metal.

Ryan: I've been listening to Rëciful Thaed a lot lately. They're a newer band from Sweden. Their lyrics contain a lot of mythology themes, similar to us. You have to love Swedish Death Metal.

Isaiah: While it's not out yet, I am fucking stoked for Mind's acoustic album. Those guys are a huge influence on us. They definitely set the bar high for any progressive metal bands to come. As far something that strays away from metal, I really enjoy the new Suburban Sunrise album.

Jake: Infinite. Everything they touch turns to gold. I love everything those guys do. My band members actually got kind of pissed at me during the recording of "Devoured." You see - it was during the time that Infinite was releasing Midnight Skies song by song. So every day I was taking breaks to constantly check their site to see if a new tune had been posted. *laughs* Thats why we did a tribute to Greg Oldson. We respect everything that he, as well as the whole band, has done for the music scene.

Joey B: You guys seem to have very different music tastes.

Michael: True, but I think that helps us during the songwriting process. With each of us having a different musical background, we have a large pool of influences and techniques to draw from, ya know?

Joey B: Most definitely. So let's get talking about the new album. You guys titled it Suspended From The Frankincense Tree. Care to explain where the name came from?

Jake: Well, as most people know by now, we like to focus on Greek mythology. Following up on the "Devoured" single, the new album focuses on Zeus as an infant. Since his father, Cronus, was eating his children left and right, Zeus mother decided to hide him after he was born. The way they hide him, though, is very odd. They tie him up in ropes and dangle him from a tree. Now, Cronus was the ruler of the the earth, the sea, and the sky. By dangling the baby from the tree, Cronus could not find baby Zeus. You see, in today's world, we consider the air - the air between me and you, air up in the sky, the air around mountains, etc, etc - to be one entity. However, to the Greeks, the air that we breathe and the heavens - the sky- were two completely different things. So by having the baby hanging in "midair" he was out of Cronus reach. I've always thought this was an interesting concept, so I brought it to the band about 6 months ago to see if we could write any songs about it.

Ryan: So, we played around with the idea for a few days, when I got the idea. Zeus was probably hanging from this tree for a long time. Who knows how long. Weeks? Years? He was almost in another plane, another realm. So, we were thinking, what did Zeus experience during this time? I mean, this place where he is, is unreachable to even the gods. There had to be some pretty serious shit going on.

Jake: So, what we decided would make up this realm, the air around us, is all the thoughts of the human mind. Specifically, the evil thoughts. Why would a man steal another's hard earned fortune? Why would a husband kill a wife in cold blood? Why would a king give the order to execute entire nations for his own benefit? Zeus discovers, essentially, the root of all evil.

Joey B: That is a badass story, I must say. So how does the Frankincense Tree tie into everything?

Michael: We decided to add another twist on the traditional story. I mean, if we just made songs about the original myth, that would be kind of boring. We would be basically ripping off Greek myths and putting them into song version. We want to be songwriters, not storytellers. Anyway, The Frankincense Tree has its own story in Greek mythology. This Persian princess fell in love with the sun god, Helios. Her father wasnt too happy with that, so he buried her alive in the Persian desert. In his time of mourning, Helios turned his former lover into The Frankincense Tree. So we are kind of mixing the story of Zeus with this princess to make our own. The princess will sort of act as Zeus' guide through this unknown realm, as well as reveal her story to Zeus along the way.

Joey B: I cant wait guys, it sounds like you put a lot of effort into the new album. When can we expect it to come out?

Jake: Tuesday, September 28th. We're gonna finish up this tour with Mind Game, hopefully do a couple of promotional dates for the new record once it drops, and then we will be back on the road on a different tour.

Joey B: Excellent! You heard it, people. Check out Titan's debut album, in stores September 28th. I'm Joey B and you're watching themetal.com