Interview with Warrant

Metal Invader is honored to present an interview with Warrant, the German speed metal veterans gearing up for their first-ever performance in Athens at the Athens Extreme Festival. With a career spanning over four decades, marked by pioneering moments in speed and heavy metal, Warrant returns to the stage with renewed energy and their latest album, The Speed of Metal. In this in-depth conversation, Elpida Chokmetidou speaks with Mr. Juraschek about the band’s origins, the impact of their hiatus, their recent comeback, and what fans can expect from their landmark festival appearance—an electrifying full live performance of the classic album “The Enforcer”. Despite recent losses, the band is more determined than ever to honor their legacy and push forward, bringing their authentic speed metal sound to a new generation of fans.

Hello, my name’s Elpida and I am welcoming you to Metal Invader! It’s great pleasure to have you with us and exchange a few words! Since you’ll be performing at Athens Extreme Festival, I thought this is a good chance to know you better! First of all, is everyone alright? Are you getting ready for the Greek crowd?

Hello Elpida.

We are really excited – absolutely and totally – to be able to play in Greece, in Athens, for the very first time in our career. We honestly have no idea what to expect, but one thing is certain: we are ready for whatever comes our way.

We’ve already rehearsed, and we’ll rehearse one more time to finalize the last two missing songs from the The Enforcer album, because we will be performing the entire album in full. The other songs are already a regular part of our live set anyway, so those are well rehearsed.

Aside from that, we’re doing fine health-wise. But something very sad has happened: today we were at the funeral of our friend Thomas Klein, the co-founder of Warrant back in 1983. It was extremely emotional and heartbreaking. Thomas was not only a founding member, but also my close friend since our school days. His passing came completely out of the blue, and it has hit us all very hard.

He accompanied us at several of our recent shows in Germany and Belgium, which meant a lot to me. We will carry on in his spirit. And let me put it this way: we will play the show in Athens for him. Especially one particular song from The Enforcer that he was heavily involved in writing. Despite all this, we are very much looking forward to being with you in Athens – and we can’t wait to finally meet you all.

Warrant have been around practically since 1983, despite the almost 15-year hiatus. First of all, what would you say has changed and what has remained the same since the band’s first steps?

This question could easily go beyond the scope of the interview – I could talk about it for three or four pages. But let me put it this way: our line-up has changed three times over the years. I’m the only original member who has been there from the very beginning. The years from ’83 to, let’s say, ’86 – with Thomas, and then with our second guitarist Oliver – were our original peak years. Back then we were signed to Noise Records together with bands like Helloween, Grave Digger, Running Wild.

At some point we stopped abruptly with that sound – in fact, we stopped making music altogether for a while. But around ’99 we started playing a few shows again, mainly because of the fans, and basically with the original line-up, unfortunately without Thomas.

Time passed again, and after about 25 years we recorded Metal Bridge, which was eleven years ago now. And today we have The Speed of Metal, with a line-up whose members have also been with us for quite a while. We’re practically making decade jumps here.

And the feeling we have in the band right now is almost exactly like it was back then – from ’83 to ’86 or ’87. Honestly, it’s fantastic. We have two guitarists again, and it’s an absolute blast. I can only say: the feeling is just like in the old days.

I’m also incredibly happy that we’re playing live more and more. As I said, we were just on tour through Germany and Belgium. Next year we’ll be touring Europe again together with Knife. It’s going to be a great thing.

So yes, a lot has happened. Our first steps back in the day were, of course, a bit rough – we were enthusiastic, we were total metal fans, which we still are today. But we were limited on our instruments back then, which has obviously changed by now. So we’re in a really good place and looking forward to everything that’s coming.

Also, speaking about Warran’t hiatus, you decided to hit the pause button in 1985, right after releasing the legendary “The Enforcer”. First of all, what led you to this decision especially right after releasing your first full length?

What made us stop?

Well, looking back, that’s actually a very valid question. We didn’t quit immediately; we still tried a few things. We changed our sound a bit, but it didn’t work out. After The Enforcer, where we played with two guitars, we suddenly went back to just one guitar, and the sound simply changed. Oliver brought in a different style, and somehow it just didn’t fit anymore. We kind of got lost in that.

We also didn’t have proper management at the time. Basically, we should have just continued exactly where we had left off. Your next question goes in that direction too, but you don’t always see these things right away. We thought we needed to add something different to our sound, but it wasn’t what we truly felt inside musically.

A part of us is speed metal — we helped create that style. We should have simply kept going. I’ve said this many times since then, because I’ve always felt that this is my music. At one point I also wanted to just sing and not play bass anymore, which in hindsight was another mistake.

So there were a few small building blocks that ultimately led to the band no longer being the band we knew from the First Strike EP and the Enforcer album.

Secondly, that era was the golden age of thrash, speed and heavy metal. Didn’t this continuous release of albums and the creation of multiple bands make you think that you should have stayed active?

Yes, you’re absolutely right. We should have just continued. That’s completely clear today. When it comes to Warrant as a band — not our personal lives — we definitely made a mistake. I kept making music, and that was always great, but Warrant disappeared from the scene because we changed things that we shouldn’t have changed. We simply should have kept going.

We had everything we needed: a fantastic label that wanted us exactly the way we were. They really believed in us. And honestly, there isn’t much more to say — it was wrong to just stop.

We did play a few shows back then, including some with Helloween and Destruction, and those were great. I can’t even tell you why it all happened the way it did. It was a bit naïve, I guess. We didn’t have anyone who pushed us, not even management. We simply didn’t understand the situation. We were very young — two, three, four years younger than the guys from Helloween, for example. They were already a bit more mature. Maybe we would have needed someone at that time to give us a kick and say: “Hey guys, you’ve created something special. You need to keep going. What you’re doing is great.”

Do you ever regret putting the band into hiatus? Are there any thing you would have handled differently?

Sure, as I mentioned earlier, there are definitely things I would have done differently in hindsight. But there’s no point philosophizing about it now — we simply didn’t do it. In my opinion, we were two or three years too young, and we didn’t have proper management that could have shown us where things could go.

We also didn’t play live as much anymore. I hung up my bass for a while, later picked it up again, and eventually returned to handling both bass and vocals. And yes, we absolutely should have recorded more albums after The Enforcer, in the style that was truly ours. That’s completely obvious today.

I once talked to Kai Hansen from Helloween about this. He told me he always thought what we did back then was fantastic — but then suddenly it stopped. I played him one of the new songs from the upcoming record, Demons, and he said he loved it. He told me: “This is exactly what I always wanted to hear from you — the sound and the style you had back then.”

Well… what can you do.

What made you come back together in 1999, after so many years apart?

 Yes, it was the fans.

In particular one fan who actually traveled all the way to Düsseldorf just to offer us a one-off reunion show in the Eifel, at the city hall in Prüm. We were sitting together at my place, talking about the old days. He was a huge Warrant fan — Arno Hoffmann — and somehow it really touched me. It made me realize that we had indeed left our mark on the metal scene.

So I called our original drummer and I called Oliver, and we said: “You know what? We’re always playing together in different bands anyway — let’s rehearse some Warrant songs again.” And that’s what we did.

The show was absolutely fantastic. And right after that we immediately got the next offer — to play at Wacken. Of course we said yes. And that’s how it all started again: first single shows, year after year, and little by little it became more and more.

Flashing forward to today, Warrant have just released their third album “The Speed of Metal” reminding people that the beast is back. Congratulations! How do you feel about releasing new material in late 2025?

Yes, I have to correct you a little there. It’s actually not our third album — it’s our fourth. And that already shows how much of it has flown under the radar. In 2014 we released our third album, Metal Bridge. And from then until now, another eleven years have passed. So The Speed of Metal is actually our fourth album — just as a little side note.

Metal Bridge came out on a very small label, Pure Steel Records. We received very good reviews for it, but unfortunately we lost some time again after that. There was another small line-up change — as it unfortunately happens — and also some personal matters that needed to be taken care of. And that’s why it took another eleven years until The Speed of Metal.

Thank you very much — I can sense that you probably like the new album. Or at least I hope so. We are extremely happy with the new material. And you have to imagine: it is incredibly difficult to reconnect to that old feeling from ’83 to ’86 or ’87 after such a long time. It’s unbelievably hard.

But I think we’ve managed to do it very, very well.

The song “It’s Up to You” was written originally in 1988, but re-recorded for this album. Why revisit that track?

Yes, that song comes from a phase when we hadn’t fully closed the chapter on Warrant yet. As I mentioned, we continued Warrant for a while with me as the sole vocalist — which of course wasn’t the original Warrant anymore — and again with just one guitar. But this song, in my opinion… we were always a band that also had mid-tempo numbers, and this track simply fit. Back then it worked really well, and it’s a great song — I liked it then, and I like it even more today.

So it just had to be included on the album. I was actually looking for a new mid-tempo track and was already composing, but at some point I thought: you know what? It’s Up to You — that’s the one. It fits perfectly, it brings variety to the album, so you don’t just have speed attacks all the way through but also mid-tempo songs. And that’s why I thought: yes, this song, in a modern soundscape — that’s exactly what it needs to be.

Also, I loved the cover of “Windy City” by The Sweet! What made you choose that song?

Yes, I’ve always loved that song — and so many others by The Sweet. You have to know: The Sweet were the very first band I ever had in my record collection as a teenager. The album was Desolation Boulevard. And this particular song is from Off the Record. There were three Sweet albums from their hard-rock phase, where they wrote their own songs, and I absolutely loved that band. I absorbed them completely — skin and bone.

And this song has such a killer riff. Since, as I mentioned earlier, we always include mid-tempo tracks here and there — and since we also dared to tackle a seven-and-a-half-minute track on the new album to create more variety — I thought: this is the moment to fulfill a dream. Because it’s just a fantastic piece. A mega riff, a mega song. I can handle it vocally and on bass, and it fits us perfectly.

So I thought: why not? Let’s do it. We’ve never done a cover song before, and The Sweet are my beginnings — my roots. So it simply had to be done.

How was the recording process for this album (studio, production, mixing)? I saw you worked with Martin Buchwalter.

Working with Martin was incredibly relaxed. We’ve known each other for quite a while. He played for years — and I think he still does — in Perzonal War, a band basically from our neighborhood. And the fact that he has his own studio is fantastic. He’s a really great guy. He knows exactly what he’s doing, he’s got a clear vision, and his studio is excellent — you can even stay overnight there. Everything is super relaxed and easygoing. It was a lot of fun working with him.

We had already recorded parts of Metal Bridge with him, but this time we did the entire album with him from start to finish. And of course he has worked with many other bands as well, including Tankard. Just an absolutely great guy. Very calm, very focused — he knows exactly what matters. And I love the sound he gets. I always enjoy working with him. Apparently you know Martin too — otherwise you wouldn’t be asking. Smile!

From what I understand, you want to give a new push to the band. What are your ambitions from this point forward? What are the things you want to achieve with Warrant?

What I want — or rather, what we want, because we are a band — is simply this: even though I’m the only remaining original member, we’ve grown into a real unit. Michael Dietz on guitar, Adrian Weiss on guitar, Marius Lamm on drums, and myself. And that’s why we want to play as many shows as possible. Preferably throughout Europe, although we’ve also had inquiries from South

America — so we’ll see what happens.

And we definitely won’t wait as long ft he next album. In 2026 we will start writing new material again. I’m not getting any younger — that’s just how time works — so we want to keep things moving, play some great shows, and of course write more killer Warrant songs together as a band. That’s really our main goal.

We also want to reclaim a bit ft he time we lost back then, because we stopped way too early. This year we’ve already played a lot of shows, but in a way we’re now doing what we should have been doing back in the ’80s.

Are you planning a tour in support of The Speed of Metal? If yes, what regions are you focusing on?

Well, we’ve actually already done a tour to promote The Speed of Metal. Since mid-September we were on the road every weekend, and we just played our final show in Düsseldorf. But there will be another proper tour coming up — from the end of March to mid-April, or at least ten consecutive days — together with Knife. That tour will take us through many parts of Germany, including some shows in the east. That’s the plan.

And I also have to mention that for about a year and a half now we’ve been working with Husky from the We Live Agency as our booking agent. Husky is also the drummer of Asphyx, who, funnily enough, is playing at your place one day after us. We’re extremely happy with him. I’ve known him for 25 years — he’s an awesome guy and a great human being. I’m really glad he’s working with us and supporting us. It’s truly an excellent collaboration, and of course we’d love to continue working with him in the future.

What have you prepared for the Athens Extreme Festival? What should we expect from you?

Of course, we are really excited to play the entire Enforcer album for you. That alone is something special — we’ve only done it once in our whole career, or let’s say our “small career.” And yes, as I mentioned earlier, we still need one more rehearsal to get the songs we haven’t played — or haven’t played often — fresh into our heads again.

And of course we’re bringing our hangman with us, who we’ve also further developed for this show. You can definitely look forward to that. He will appear on stage in a special edition this time and put on his little show. It’s going to be fun. By now he’s practically our fifth band member.

So yes, it’s going to be a great time. We’re really looking forward to playing for you in Athens.

Absolutely amazing!

Alright! Thank you so much for your time and the discussion we had! It was an honour! See you soon! Last words are yours of coursel would you like to send a message to your Greek fans?

All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting us — and for still supporting Warrant from Germany, for still valuing this band within the metal cosmos. We are truly excited to play for you in Greece, in Athens, and we hope that together — you, the fans, and us — we will tear the place apart.

It would be absolutely awesome if we could celebrate a massive, killer Speed Heavy Metal party together. So, we’ll see you in two weeks. We’re really looking forward to it, and we’re going to hit the stage with full power.

Thank you Elpida!!!