For over a decade, technical death metal veterans Pyscroptic have been considered among Australia’s greatest metal bands. Despite hailing from the remote and often overlooked state of Tasmania, the band has enjoyed significant international success and continues to grow in both popularity and stature. Their most recent album, 2012’s ‘The Inherited Repression,’ received worldwide acclaim upon its release and was herald by many as one of the freshest metal albums of recent times. Two years and a number of successful tours on, Psycroptic is now preparing to unleash their highly anticipated sixth studio album, which is scheduled for release sometime next year.

All Axess caught up with vocalist Jason Peppiatt following the band’s recent tour of New Zealand to find out what fans should expect from the new album, Psycroptic’s upcoming touring plans, how he thinks the Australian metal scene compares with the rest of the world and much more. Check it out below:

How was your recent tour of New Zealand?

The tour we just completed in New Zealand was incredible! It was by far the most successful run of dates we have done through that region so far. The people out there are amazing, we had a bit of trouble getting our gear from one island to the other due to bad weather and it wasn’t going to make it to the venue in time for the show but all the locals pitched in and helped out with getting all the instruments and equipment we needed and we managed to still put the show on!!

Did you play any new material on the tour? How was it received?

We have been opening with a new song on all our shows so far this year and the reaction to it has been great, fans seem to really be getting into the new direction that we are taking.

How’s the new album coming along?

The album is so close to being finished, all the tracking got finished last week and now the mixing just needs to be finished. The artwork and booklet is just about done so it should all be completed in the next few weeks with any luck.

Has the title and release date been finalized?

At this point in time we haven’t finalized a title, we have been throwing a few ideas around but nothing has been decided on yet, it’s always the last thing we figure out and it’s always the hardest thing for us to do as the title is kind of like the album’s identity so it has to be perfect!!! The release date hasn’t been set yet either but my guess would be that it will be out sometime early next year.

What can we expect from the album, is it in the same vein as ‘The Inherited Repression’?

It’s kind of in the same vein as Inherited but it’s another step forward is probably the best way to describe it. It’s still got a lot of groove but we’ve added bigger choruses and a lot of other different elements to the mix, it’s still very much a Psycroptic album and there’s no doubt about that, but we like to experiment and mix things up as we don’t want to be writing the same album over and over. We like to keep things fresh and interesting.

Who’s producing the album?

Our guitarist Joe Haley is handling the recording and producing yet again. We think as Joe writes so much of the material that he is the best person for the job and he obviously understands the Psycroptic sound better than any producer we could work with and he’s done such a great job with the last few albums that we decided to stick with the same formula.

Will there be a video?

We have already started work on a video for the album and we are talking about potentially doing 3 videos for the album, but that obviously depends on time and budgets, but at this stage that is the goal.

What are your touring plans once the album is released?

It’s only early days yet and the album won’t be out for a while so there are no tours booked as yet but you can be assured there will be extensive touring for the album. We are currently working out budgets and all the logistics for things and then we can start working on schedules and bookings.

How would you compare the Australian and New Zealand live scenes to the scenes in the US and Europe?

For us Australia is the best live scene in terms of crowds and the size of shows, the scene out here is definitely going from strength to strength and a lot of Aussie bands are starting to tour internationally and starting to do well, which is great to see.

Psycroptic have long been considered among the frontrunners of Australian metal, what would you consider to be the key to the band’s success?

I think the reason we have had the success that we have is because we spent a lot of years touring hard and also just working hard in general, we never let the fact that we are from a small island on the bottom of the world get in the way of what we were all so hungry for. We also made sure we kept to our unique blend of extreme metal. We are lucky as band that we are all on the same track with the musical direction we want to take and the goals that we want to achieve and that makes things easier in my opinion to keep things moving forward.