SILENCE is certainly the last thing on offer at Portsmouth Pyramids Centre next week.

For British hard rock experts One Minute Silence include Portsmouth on only an eight-date UK tour.

The band released their second and latest album in April in the shape of Buy Now...Saved Later with their new single Fish Out Of Water released in January.

Recorded in the heart of the English countryside, Buy Now...Saved Later sees the band exploring more musical territory than their first outing .

"The new material goes places the last album didn't," says Yap.

"The first album was 13 hard-hitting tracks which were undoubtedly in your face, but these new songs travel to different areas, and the result is a record with infinitely more depth and dynamism."

The album was produced by metal guru Colin Richardson, who boasts the likes of Machine Head and Fear Factory on his CV.

"We were looking for someone to capture our live sound," remembers frontman Yap.

"Someone who has proven beyond a doubt that he can make a CD player bleed! Quite simply we chose Colin because he gets the most aggressive sound in the world."

The themes tackled by the band are just as hard-hitting as the sonic assault the record provides.

The lyrical content of the last record covers issues such as the bigotry of the church and the lies of politicians.

So is One Minute Silence trying to save the world?

"You have to remember that first and foremost we are entertainers. I don't want to be some big preacher. I know as much or as little as the next man does," explains Yap.

"But what I do want to do is to ask some of the most important questions.

And a big part of what this band is about is trying to get other people to demand answers instead of blindly accepting and believing what we are told by those in authority.

"The bottom line is that we are just looking for answers."

But it isn't all doom and gloom on the OMS tour bus. Yap points out: "Yeah, sure we talk politics, but we are all living our dreams, going around the world with our best friends, and so there is NO way we aren't going to take the time to enjoy it too! This is our life, it isn't a rehearsal!"

And the band have some toe curling tour stories and they take enormous pride in their childish sense of fun and humour.

Although they are hardly a household name in their native UK, the band are hugely popular in America where their style of music more mainstream.

"We have been annoying the hell out of our record company to get us back to the USA. It's our dream," says Yap.

Sure, we love the response we get in Europe and in Japan, but you know you have arrived when you are a success in the States.

"To get real musical recognition on this planet, you have to get recognition from America, so just give me the keys to a tour bus, book me a ten year long American tour, and I'll be delighted!"

* One Minute Silence are at Portsmouth Pyramids on December 18.