Rob Arnold: The response has been awesome, everybody has been talking about how much they love it. We are totally stoked and grateful for the fans. We are really proud of it and we are really happy with it.

SO: Have you heard any dissention from among the old school fans?

RA: We haven’t heard anything negative about it. Actually a couple of days ago I heard one dude, since it came out, that liked Pass Out [Of Existence] better.

SO: In terms of the subject matter, Rob did the writing. With topics like rejection and revenge, the songs are rather fierce. As a band, do you look at him and say we believe in what you are saying, or man you are a little screwed up … how do you respond?

RA: You take it with a grain of salt, every lead singer is a singer because of something, you know, they are expressing themselves in that way, something happened to them or they are feeling something that makes them sing about that stuff. I could never do it. I am just a happy-go-lucky suburban kid. Whatever fuckin’ happens I just go with it. But yeah, he has some pent up anger and stuff like that and he does his thing and I’m like whatever. Yeah he is a weird dude, but so is every lead singer.

SO: What was the thought process while you were in the studio recording?

RA: Honestly the writing process--we had been on the road for like two years promoting Pass Out of Existence and we had a three-month break where we had to write a new record. It’s time to write a new record, the touring cycle was done and stuff and it was just a good time. Everything was just super focused, and we just had a lot of experience playing together over the two years and seeing how professional bands work and everything like that. And our musicianship has really gone up. It just flowed. Everything on Impossibility just flowed every day in the practice space. I would go home writing riffs, come to the space and we would put it all together.

SO: You make it sound easy …

RA: It was a lot of hard work. Some times were harder than others, like the instrumental--that’s the song I am the most proud of. That took us like, a year to write that, and it took the longest to record. Most songs take a couple of days, but the instrumental took a week.

SO: Can fans expect to ever see the instrumental done live?

RA: We definitely plan to do it live because Mark plays guitar as well, so we are going to wait for a headlining tour with that. Maybe come out and open with it. Mark will do all of the third part harmonies and stuff on the guitars, but it will take a lot of work to go back and practice and play it again. We haven’t played it as a band since when we were writing it. Since we recorded it we haven’t even played it. That song is a lot of hard work and definitely the one I’m most proud of.

SO: You can see a lot of Metallica in it. The rest of the cd you can hear a lot of Slayer. You toured with them, what did you get from seeing them every night?

RA: It’s everything. First of all, we were super stoked just getting the tour and hearing that we were going to go on with Slayer. We were all shitting out pants and stuff. And not only getting to play with them, but watch them every night, hang out with them every night and see how they work. It goes back to the professionalism thing. Their camp is just the most pro deal you can imagine. And yeah, I’d sit there every day and watch Kerry play and go ‘What makes Reign In Blood, Reign In Blood? What makes Seasons In The Abyss … like, how did they write these songs? What is it about them?’ I think that it’s the riffage and the song structure, and we have to build on that and we have to try to do that to. Certainly we are not to their caliber, by any means, but we tried our best.

SO: They are going to do the Jagermeister tour, are you going to join them?

RA: We were asked to, and we were blown away that we even got the offer. But we are going to be in Europe on the Roadrage tour with Ill Nino and Spineshank during the whole thing.

SO: Are you doing the stateside swing?

RA: it’s not a Roadrage tour, it’s Ill Nino/Spineshank co-headlining. But the Europe portion of it is actually a Roadrage tour. They were going to do an American Roadrage but I heard its not on any more. Maybe after the European one is over but I heard its not on anymore.

SO: Speaking of tours, how has Ozzfest been treating you?

RA: Absolutely incredible, we are so happy to be on it We wanted to do it for three years, and we finally got the opportunity. The shows have been unbelievable. We have been tearing it up every day. It’s just a ton of fun. Just hanging out--it’s awesome.

SO: Have you discovered new bands?

RA: I was looking forward to seeing Killswitch [Engage] and Sworn Enemy. We played with them three years ago at some small show. It was just a guitar player, drummer and singer and they were trying to find members. So I didn’t really know too much what they sound like any more. I’m stoked to see them. They are awesome. I am most excited that E Town [Concrete] got added. We are big fans of them. We warm up to “Mandibles” all of the time, and they are great guys, so I’m stoked they are on the tour.

SO: It is a shame that they were up first (on this date, Aug. 18th) …

RA: It was still a huge crowd though.

SO: E Town put on a great set. But back to you guys, do you see another big change going into the third album?

RA: We definitely have a new direction to go with now from The Impossibility but yeah, the next one will be … I don’t know yet … we have been dabbling a little bit in it, in riff and stuff but we cant really say. We’ve never said this to anybody yet, its kind of a thing we’ve talked about amongst ourselves. So you will be the first to hear it, I don’t know how important it is or not, but we kind of say we want to have the technicality of … And Justice For All with the vigor and fury that the first Slipknot record had. That’s kind of something that we are going for but who knows, it will all come down to when we get off the road. It’s hard to think about it and we think, this is the time to write a record.

SO: No masks though …

RA: Definitely not! (laughing)

SO: With what you have learned now, what do you see the next five months, then the next five years?

RA: Well, the next five months we will definitely be touring. The plan now is to tour all the way through next summer on Impossibility Of Reason and doing some writing on the road here and there. Maybe next fall we’ll start writing the new record and record next November or something--maybe have a Feb. 2005 release. But all of that is up in the air, and we take it how it comes.

SO: I end all of my interviews with this question, how much fun are you having?

RA: The time of my life. Just the fact that I get to play guitar for a living, meet tons of new people, visit new cities every day, eat at new restaurants every day and fuckin’ just have fun. It’s incredible. It’s a dream I’ve had since I was eight years old looking at posters of James Hetfield and shit like that--even seeing him play ESP guitars and now I’m endorsed by ESP guitars and shit like that. Everything is just mind-boggling and we are all so grateful and totally enthused.

SO: If it all ended tomorrow, any regrets?

RA: I’d regret that it ended but I would have a new band going next week, doing the same thing