Pictures by Jo De Boeck from Liveacts Belgium except for the final photo.

BMS: Hello Mick and Alain! You’re wrapping up a European tour with Angelus Apatrida. How did it all go for you?

Mick: We’ve had an awesome time! We’ve been close friends with Angelus Apatrida since the successful tour we did with them in 2015 to promote our earlier album, Fearless Walk To Rise. So we once again played and hanged out together with Angelus all through Europe, a true bro trip!

BMS: I see why you guys get together so well. Both you and Angelus are very friendly people (I knew the latter from having met them several times in the past) and your styles of metal fit each other very well! Melodic death and melodic thrash! A perfect marriage!

Mick: And they’ll live happily ever after! Ha, ha, ha!

BMS: That being said, welcome to Black-Out Bash! I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here thus far.

Mick: We sure do! We’ve already played in Belgium several times and we love coming here every single time! Especially since you’re so generous with beer! We love drinking Duvel!
Alain: Oh yeah! Belgian beer on itself is already a good enough reason to come over here!

BMS: It sure is! So, this month you’ll be releasing your 10th studio album, The Curse Within, tell me something about it.

Alain: For this album we decided to add more melodic and progressive elements into our sound as well as some thrash metal. We also wanted the album’s atmosphere to be darker and more ambient than our previous work. Overall, we’re very happy with what we ended up with, a balanced album that showcases No Return’s typical aspects as well as treading new grounds.
Mick: And we once again went to Jacob Hansen from Hansen Studios in Denmark. The guy’s a true magician! He produced albums for artists like Doro, Amaranthe, Volbeat and Primal Fear and he knows how to make a band sound awesome no matter what rock or metal subgenre it is!

BMS: And I’m damn glad that you’ve already had copies of The Curse Within available for purchase tonight, almost two weeks ahead of the official release date! Now, what lies ahead for No Return?

Mick: In February we’ll be touring through Europe along with the Black Dahlia Murder and Cannibal Corpse and we can’t wait to go out on tour again! We love it! We head out, introduce people to our music, we have a good time with the fans and the other bands we’re touring with and we see the world! It’s awesome!

BMS: I can’t help but applaud such enthusiasm and passion for your work! Now, Alain, you’ve been in the band since the very beginning, how did the band evolve over the years?

Alain: I started No Return in 1989 as a young guy who wanted to put his love for heavy music into a band. However, I never thought that No Return would still be around to this day! It’s been 27 years since the first album (Psychological Torment) came out and the passion for what I do has remained exactly the same as it was on day one! And when you’re truly passionate about what you do, you can keep on doing it for a very long time!

BMS: What other things do you do in life aside from No Return?

Mick: I like to play soccer, both in videogame and in real life format. Aside from that, No Return takes up all my time and dedication.
Alain: Same from me. We practice every day although we don’t always physically meet up to discuss new material since we live in various parts of France, two of us live in the north, two of us live in Paris and Mick here lives in Lyon. We share and discuss our new ideas online and when we prep up for a tour we go to the studio owned by our drummer and bassist to rehearse thoroughly. And after that, we’re ready to head out and hit the stages all over Europe!

BMS: It’s great to see such friendship and partnership even on such long distances. Speaking of hitting stages, you played at Hellfest in 2015! Share with me how that day went.

Mick: We played on the main stage and the experience we’ve had was just breathtaking. We’ve played in front of over 15000 people, we’ve never had that big an audience before. And they all went fucking crazy!
Alain: It was a huge honor for us to play at our country’s biggest festival. But of course we’d like to play at GMM or Alcatraz Metal Fest as well.

BMS: Thus far you’ve played pretty much all over Europe. But are you also interested in playing in places like Japan or America?

Mick: At the moment we’ve got some negotiations going on to do some Japanese gigs and we also really hope to play in Canada, especially in the Quebec region, where they speak French. That will make it easy for us to communicate. Ha, ha!

BMS: I’m sure they’ll give you a warm welcome! So, is there anything else you wish to add to this shred?

Alain: I hope you’ll enjoy our new album.
Mick: We love your beer! Can you recommend some of your best beers aside from Duvel?

BMS: Sure thing, try out our trappist beers such as Orval, Westmalle, Rochefort, Chimay and La Trappe. And also have taste of Lachouffe, one of my favorites!

Mick: We sure will, thanks for shredding us!