Matt: Well, we have a lot of thrash influences so the fact that there is a thrash revival right now is very exciting!

Sal: There is a good set of bands out there like Evile and our friends Sworn Amongst are touring their asses off building it back up.

Joe: People who say thrash is dead can go fuck themselves!

Matt: Helpful input there Joe…

Do you have any plans to take The Institution experience to Europe? We’re certain you’d go down really well there.

Chow: Germany seems the place to be for metal bands. We’re trying to organise playing there over the summer, with a tour swap and maybe a headline tour.

Matt: There’s a reason Metallica basically live in Germany. That place is metal.

Joe, broke his knee at your gig last Halloween, give us the gory details.

Joe: It was our first song, alcohol was starting to take its toll on my brain, and in a heartbeat I stumbled, twisted my knee and hit the ground. I carried on singing anyway and had to finish the gig being propped up by some fans. I later found out that I split my patella and ripped all the cartilage out from below my kneecap. I now have 3 titanium pins in my knee, and a gnarly scar.

Chris: It was actually one of our most rock n roll gigs and we all enjoyed it thoroughly apart from Joe! What’s more metal than a lead singer dressed as Rambo ending the set by demanding: “someone get me an ambulance!”?

Following this injury you were writing your second album. How’s this going?

Chow: Already we know that the songs sound a million times better. I can tell we are progressing as musicians every day.

Matt: It comes down to song crafting rather than technical ability. This album is sounding heavier, more epic, faster AND slower all at once!

Sal: We’re taking more time over each song, to make sure that it sounds exactly how we want it, which is pure metal!

Do you have a title/release date?

Matt: We want to keep a few secrets so we’re not telling you the name of the album yet. But I can tell you it’s a concept album involving characters in a city called Lucedia, the last human city after the almost total annihilation of the human race by “The Ethereal”.

Chow: We’re trying to pull out all the stops for this album, and when we do announce the title, we’ll be putting it out with a whole new look. We’re looking to release it at the end of the year.

How did you meet and go on to form the band?

Joe: We started off as two bands in school. Me and Sal were in one called Motion Sickness where a guy called Nile would play drums on a keyboard. It makes me laugh hysterically to think of our song “Best Served Cold”

Matt: Me and Chow were in a three piece band called Deranged. We were influenced by Green Day and Blink 182. In case you couldn’t guess, we sucked. Eventually our two bands fused and The Institution was born around 2002.

Chris: I was in a band called the General Public who were getting quite a big following in Liverpool, and then a Funk-Rock fusion band called FLAW’d but I’ve always been playing metal songs with my brother Matt, so it was a natural move for me to join The Institution full time 2 years ago.

Matt: Once Chris joined, the line up was complete and things started moving for us, everything fell into place.

Other than the Testament gig, what’s been the highlight so far?

Matt: Playing with The Black Dahlia Murder was awesome. They’re such nice guys, talking to them was immense. To hear a band I respect so much be complimentary about our live show was incredible.

Chris: Topping that was the album launch. It was great for our headline show to be one of the most exciting gigs on the calendar.

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