House of the Ward

[The Duke]

The owner of Century Media did not want us to release the "assault rifle" cover outside of The States. He felt that most of the European fans were "anti gun" and would be offended by it. So, they wanted to have us on the cover with guys holding guns. I didn't get it? But, I didn't want to argue with the label any more. He also thought that the "lesson in insensitivity" intro would also be seen as "offensive" by European fans. I thought the intro was funny, but the label thought that people would take us serious. I said, "You think people would actually accuse of advocating violence towards homeless people?" I guess you can't mix humor and the "less fortunate".

It's called sarcasm, get a frickin' sense of humor. It wasn't a song, it was a skit. I got the idea from the show South Park. They always take social issues and stretched the limits of political correctness to the furthest extremes, in order to make a statement in an irreverent way. That's all we were trying to do.

I don't care who you are, that shit was funny!

Then they felt that Hatebreed was too heavy to be the first track. I just said whatever and let them do what they wanted. Bonz and I hardly spoke to each other at that point and the band was all but over. To go to war with the label would not have benefitted anyone.

Reborn was added to the European version as a bonus track. I think that was a good idea. Give that point to Century Media.

I don't want to come off like I'm bagging on the label. They were just doing what they thought was best for the product and although I disagreed, having 2 versions was a resonable compromise. See, we can all get along!