Par Ale – Le 01 Novemre 2026
Priest is back with their new album: “Altered State Police”. It’s their fifth in under ten years, but also a chance to turn the page and close one chapter to better start the next. An album that goes further into the sounds explored on “Chaos”, while digging out the ones from “Cyberhead”. The result is a record with 2-3 punchy, danceable tracks, but also a big dose of sensitivity and delicacy. We caught up with Mercury, two years after “Dark Pulse”, to talk about this transitional album for the trio.
Cult Of Metal : First of all congratulations on the release of “Altered State Police” ! This one felt quite different compared to the transition from “Body Machine” to “Dark Pulse”… If anything, half the songs reminded me of the often overlooked “Cyberhead” ! You mentioned in a previous interview we did together that you felt people “didn’t get” that album, but it would grow over time. Do you still believe so? Is it why a good chunk of “ASP” sounds more fragile, vulnerable… “Cyberhead-coded” so to speak ?
Mercury : I definitely think there’s a connection between the two albums. Today I hear many fans say that “Cyberhead” actually is their favorite album, so I guess I was right in a sense. The big difference might be that “Altered State Police” has less processed vocals and more breakbeats. I can see the similarity in the lyric themes as well.
From that same interview, I remember you said you were treating all three albums (Body Machine/Dark Pulse/Altered State Police) as a trilogy. Yet, as mentioned in the previous question, “Altered State Police” feels quite different. Did you still conceive your last three offerings as one single package, or did you have a change of heart in-between ?
Hmm, I would say that “Body Machine”, “Dark Pulse” and “Chaos” EP is the trilogy – All three has ”Mercury 3” as the vocalist/frontman and ’Trie Prima 3’, that ends the EP is supposed to close that chapter. Although a bit late, we just presented Mercury 4 along with “ASP”, so I guess we’re on new grounds now..
Of course, “ASP” isn’t just “Cyberhead” 2.0… I’m glad the « big beat » and 90s-flavoured electro influences have been expanded upon, after the bombastic « World On A Wire » from Chaos ! That’s part of what makes your music so interesting each time: Always very clearly Priest, but pulling from many different darker styles. « Jeopardize » and « Minions » have that energy in my opinion. How do you select which genres to reinvent with the « Priest touch »? Especially when your sound has been quite « 80s-coded » thus far ?
Thank you very much, you get the point. We don’t want to stagnate into a mold and then turn into nostalgia.. We want to develop and learn new things as well, but so far Priest is basically just a blend of what I grew up on Synthpop, Industrial along with the 90’s UK rave scene. If you listen closely to “Populist” from our first album “New Flesh” you can hear a wink to Chemical Brothers “Hey Boy, Hey Girl”, so for me it’s been there all the time. It’s just more prominent now. In the future we will try to be more experimental and use newer technology and maybe a bit more complex synthesis.
Going back to softer songs, much like the self-titled track or the aptly-named « Sentimental »… It feels like the singing is overall much more fragile, vulnerable even this time around. There are a few more explosive choruses, but Mercury doesn’t sound as unhinged, angry or powerful as previous outings. It just seems overall more… delicate ! We’ve had more sensitive songs in the past, but only Cyberhead rivals the more peaceful and crystalline vibes of « Finally Here Comes The Light » or « Savior’s Blade ». Have you guys found peace ? Were you in a more emotive state of mind while making ASP ?
Yeah, the singing is more diverse for sure and I’m trying to explore what I can do with this instrument. I think I will continue to see what my voice can do as I learn and get better. And yes, even though songs like “The Savior’s Blade” and “Here Comes the Light” have pretty dark lyrics, it was needed to dump some ballast from the last decade, ideas that were unfinished etc … In order to move on. I think moving into the next record will be more peaceful and without a feeling that we have to prove anything to anybody. We will just do what we feel like.
“Dehumanized” was just released as (I assume?) the final single, or at least the last one before the release. I do wonder if you purposefully went with the heavier stuff first, leaving the more mellow and poetic tracks for the fans to discover on release day … I guess it joins the first question somewhat, but were you maybe afraid to release a more laid-back single? Do you believe it’s important to get people on the dancefloor first and foremost ?
Yeah, we wanna announce the new album with a bang! I think 100% of our fans love the more energetic tracks while 80% like the softer ones as well.. We also felt like “Python” & “Minions” represents the album thematically. Better have those out before diving deeper.
I discovered Priest waaay back in the day, upon “New Flesh”’s release, and I would assume many other fans did too. I know the backstory regarding the change of lineup, so I would understand if the topic was a bit touchy… but would you ever explore some of the themes or genres you toyed around with in your very first album ?
No touchy subject at all ! But to be honest, I can’t really hear what’s so different with “New Flesh”, except for the singer obviously. The 3 albums after were crafted by the exact same people : Me and Simon Söderberg who practically programmed and recorded everything on almost the same set of synths (except from “Cyberhead” where we used more vintage). But yeah, maybe you hear more 80s sounds on there, so to answer your question maybe we’re a bit tired of all the endless synthwave-sounding bands that’s piling up.. We will keep the spirit but we also want to go in another direction!
Kind of a trivial observation, but the artwork seems… almost out-of-place ! It’s the first time we don’t get to see Mercury on the album cover. If anything, that glossy scorpion looks almost lonely compared to the bright colors of “Body Machine” and the detailed background of “Dark Pulse”. How come that artwork came to be ? Why is it so different from the others ?
We wanted a cover you can remember after watching it for 0,5 seconds. We tried, believe you me, to make it more complex but it just fell flat. What was tried as cover art along the way, you’ll find on the inner sleeves of the vinyl or in the booklet of the CD. Simplicity won and maybe it also looks like the scorpion is preparing to fight back at the past that haunts and shapes your future. Maybe you need to confront old demons in order to free yourself completely?
The music video for “Python” reminded me a good deal of “My Lonely Heart” and “Burning Love”, mostly when it comes to the distorted/glitched SFX naturally. As far as I can tell though, the songs aren’t really related, or even that similar (either musically or thematically). Is there a reason why the glitched visuals are prevalent across multiple videos ? Or does it just look cool ?
It looks cool ! As a DIY band you often have too little time for everything, so we do our best to give you something interesting that goes along with what we’re trying to say. I will direct more in the future and we will take more time before announcing the next album. That will be the first time since “New Flesh” we actually can take 2 years only focusing on one release. I can’t wait to do it properly with a ready-made concept, photos and videos done before we start with the release campaign.. What a luxury.
All jokes aside, I guess it’s easier (and more interesting) to make parallels to major cyberpunk works, especially something like Videodrome (but also Psycho-Pass or Cyberpunk 2077, to name a few). Videodrome is just very obvious considering the amount of screens in the music video. I might be wrong, but I don’t feel like previous albums had been that overtly political ? Bouncy and energetic, poetic and emotional, sexy and aggressive at times… But it didn’t seem to be too critical of our society, despite how often synth is associated to cyberpunk these days. I might have been very oblivious to a few lyrics though…
I think we went lightweight politically with “Populist” maybe.. We are not interested to showcase the band members’ personal views at all, so if we go into that territory it’s because of the story or the context of the song etc. demands it. “Minions” for example, is of course not necessarily the view of the band and so forth.. But everything we see, do and breathe is politics, so It’s important to be aware of what you actually put your vote on and how that will affect your daily life. In addition to the big TV spectacles around elections etc. I think everyone would benefit from doing a voting barometer test, to see where your vote probably should be, according to your core values in your daily life.
Last question about Python’s music video, I promise ! You selected a good chunk of videos submitted by Priest fans to make the bulk of the videos we see. What were the criteria to be featured in the music video ? How did you choose which clip was worthy of being used or not ? After all, considering the subject matter, disturbing imagery would have been dreadfully befitting… But what were the limits ?
We tried to fit in most of the videos sent to us, but could not do them all partly because of schedule reasons. We said that it has to look like you’re not aware that you’re being filmed by your own phone, but you can do whatever. There’s a naked Swedish guy in one of the clips for example.
I remember that a music video was planned for “Dungeon Dance” at some point, with a whole choreography to boot ! What happened to that idea ? Did you get caught working on ASP a bit too fast ? Was the idea not solid enough ? Something else maybe ?
True! The choreography was created but we did not have time nor budget to make a video at that point in time.
Coming back to the other single that received a music video very recently: “Dehumanized” ! Maybe I’m too straightforward, but the music video makes it seem very sexual, very BDSM-coded. Nothing out of the ordinary for Claudio Marino after all… « Demon’s Call » and « Obey » aren’t exactly family-friendly either ! But I’ve read from the band itself that « The song is dedicated to all survivors out there, but also to the multitudes of victims that people with narcissistic personality disorders leave as a trail behind them… ». Don’t you fear that people might get the wrong message from the music video ?
Yeah, we desperately needed a video with short notice and Claudio was available and always does a great job and is easy to work with. We also needed to photograph the new masks/costumes that were barely ready before the video shoot. We had to lay a jigsaw puzzle with bits of time.. But yes, a big part of our fanbase is in the BDSM scene so why not indulge them? For others it might feel edgy, but we hope in a good way. It’s very Claudio and we like it! But I think people know that Priest is multifaceted and have a lot of depth. The concept works in many different contexts it seems.
Speaking of Claudio Marino, as I just pointed out, he’s been a regular collaborator for quite a few years now. He seems to be almost the hidden fourth member of Priest by that point, at least part of the family so to speak ! Is it some sort of « ritual » to have Claudio around when a new album is about to be released ? Do you guys still give some input to what you want to see in the music video, or do you give him free rein to come up with a compelling video for your songs ?
For “Dehumanized” Claudio got free reins to film a video concept from Scott Sommer, a friend that got some kind of vision when he heard the song for the first time. As I said, we like to work with our friends and I would stick to the people you trust, if there isn’t a very good reason to go in another direction.
Last but certainly not least: it seems like the end of an era for Priest. The trilogy is wrapped up, with a nice throwback to Cyberhead. You revealed the face behind the mask in another interview recently. And well… you managed to release five albums and two EPs (as well as a live album and a few extra singles) in under a decade ! A break would be well-deserved, or celebrating ten years since the first album’s release… but what’s next in the cards for Priest ?
Yes, or full circle maybe. I see “Altered State Police” as the last piece in a storyline starting with “New Flesh” now both ends of the circle meet and after we’re done touring, it’s time for brand new ideas in Lord knows what direction.. But with that said; we’re super stoked to finally release the new album for the masses ! Hope you will enjoy the ride as much as we’ve done!
Best of luck for the tour starting very very soon !
Thank you !
