HAIL OF BULLETS (Eng)

Multifaceted Ed Warby could be considered habitual in Queens of Steel in fact, here’s a third chat with him but, this time, regarding a quite young band but with a deluxe line-up and, as it’s natural after hearing their albums, has always gotten amazing reviews.I’m not talking about other band that death metallers HAIL OF BULLETS, that in less than 10 years will release their second album, «On Divine Winds»; a record that, for logical reasons, has gotten once more an awesome feedback. Next to the band’s drummer, Ed Warby, we chack their history and the details which compose this brand new full-length by the Dutchmen that revive the Death Metal’s golden are in their country.

– Hi Ed and thanks for dedicating the time for third time in less than two years. So for not changing the tradition; as always: what are you currently up to?
Hi Tania, and so we meet again! I’m currently enjoying some time off, which is a rarity in my life! To keep myself busy I’ve agreed to record and mix a Thanatos (Steph and Paul’s other band) song for an upcoming split single with Asphyx.

– Before getting into the upcoming HAIL OF BULLETS’ album I would like to start with a little background story of the band. How did HOB come together?
Steph had the idea for HoB already as early as 2004 but as soon as he asked me Gorefest got back together so it never happened. A few years later the plan came up again and this time we did go through with it. I knew Paul already, but Theo I’d only seen once and Martin was a complete stranger to me so we decided to get together first to see if we liked each other. This happened in Theo’s hometown Amersfoort, he took us to a few bars and we got unbelievably drunk, had loads of fun together and the next morning we dragged our hung-over corpses into Theo’s garden to make our first band photos. The rest, as they say, is history…

– And how did you come up with the band name? Though it’s obvious it fits perfectly with your themes.
We had a hard time coming up with a good name, I think we had a list of 300 names but none of them was “the one”. We wanted something war-related, I remember we almost settled for Warkult until I stumbled upon Hail Of Bullets somehow, and that was it!

– There are not so many bands “reanimating” this music style that good. Was there a concrete reason you wanted to play this kind of music?
Absolutely. We all feel that death metal these days is not what it used to be, so the idea was to start a band that played the kind of death metal we like hearing ourselves. Simple, straightforward, catchy, groovy and HEAVY! Most bands these days are only concerned with speed and couldn’t write a decent song if their life depended on it, it may sound brutal at first but I just get bored after a few minutes. Give me the old masters like Entombed, Bolt Thrower or Autopsy anytime.

– All your lyrics are about war; did you already have this idea when forming the band? Because I think Martin is the perfect guy for that kind of lyrics.
After our drunken get-together we started discussing the musical direction for the band, I made some demos of songs I had and as soon as Martin heard them he decided he’d found the perfect vehicle for his long dreamed of Eastern Front concept. It all fit together perfectly and within a few months the HoB style and concept were fully developed, pretty amazing when you think about it..

– With your previous “…Of Frost and War” you were signed to Metalblade Records, how did you hook up with them? I bet a few more labels were interested in signing you…
Yeah, we sent +/- 10 promos to different labels and most of them were interested so we had the luxury of choice. Metal Blade is a label that means a lot to us old bastards because of their role in metal history so they already had an advantage over the rest, but as soon as we started dealing with them we knew this was our label. The passion for metal was obvious from the start and they really, really like the band. Our A&R guy still comes to as many shows as
possible and the relationship we have with them is fantastic. A few weeks ago we actually met Brian Slagel, who is a legend as far as we’re concerned, and we were blown away when he said he was such a fan of our music!

– Metalblade is such a big label that I think their promotion of the band has been just awesome…
When we signed they promised we’d get good promotion, but we never expected to be such a priority act for them. I was pleasantly surprised to see huge ads in all major magazines when our first album came out, and this time they’re going to do even more for us. Another sign we’re in good hands.

– “On Divine Winds” will be your second full length album. It isn’t out yet, but I guess you have already heard some comments about it so; what are your expectations for it and how have been the critics for it so far?
The first reviews are insane: 9,5/10 and album of the month in Rock Hard, 95/100 and 10x Metal Of Honor in Aardschok, 6/7 in Metal Hammer DE, 15/15 in Legacy, etc. And almost all critics feel that this album is much better than the first one, which is more than we even hoped for. When you have such an acclaimed debut it’s there’s always the fear of not being able to live up to it, let alone surpassing it…

– I think being a (named) “super-band” is a two-bladed knife; some people will prise your music just for being you but expectations regarding anything from you must be really big so, I guess, you’d like to fulfil your fans’ expectations…
Of course, when we signed with Metal Blade there were some people that felt we were only using our names to get ahead, but names don’t mean shit if the music isn’t good. We know very well that expectations are high, higher than if this was “just another band”, so we work even harder than we normally would to do the best we can. On the other hand, we do this first and foremost for ourselves, we’re our own biggest fans and we only play stuff that we really dig. Since we all love old school death metal we have a good sense of what’s good and what isn’t when it comes to our own material.

– Was this time, due to this, harder the creation process than in your debut?
A bit, yeah. Writing took longer and we were more critical this time, Martin even had a case of writer’s block at some point. When you do a first album you’re still fresh, bursting with ideas, there’s less pressure because you don’t know how it’ll be perceived yet. The second album is always notoriously difficult since you have to live up to the standard you set before, and many bands fail. In the end it all turned out well though, I decided to just keep writing the best stuff I could come up with, and the other guys really pushed me to make the songs even better so I was still changing riffs and arrangements right before we started recording.

– And what are your feelings about being considered an “all-star” band?
With all due respect for the other guys, but I don’t think we’re stars at all. Martin had a good run with Pestilence and Asphyx, and so have I with Gorefest and Ayreon/Star One, but I don’t feel like a star because of it. Paul, Steph and Theo have been around making metal for a long time, but Houwitser and Thanatos are pretty obscure bands so the term “all-star” doesn’t stick. When I think of “all-star” bands I see fat, jaded old guys throwing together a shit album to make some quick cash, we couldn’t be further removed from that.

– “…Of Frost and War” was a concept album based in the WWII, and this time the story’s about the Pacific War, which I think is an interesting part of the history but people don’t use to bring special attention to it. Why did you choose this matter this time? Explain us a bit about it.
After The Eastern Front we needed a subject that was just as brutal and dramatically interesting, and at first I didn’t think the Pacific was that subject. Martin was really enthusiastic about it though, and once he started reading more about
it and telling us stories we became convinced he was right. It was a gamble, because not many people in Europe know much about it apart from Pearl Harbor and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whereas everybody knows about Germany and Russia.

– Could you consider this album as a conceptual one as well?
Definitely. The album starts with the attack on Pearl Harbor, but then we go back in time to the origins of the conflict and work our way up to the Japanese surrender. So it’s not 100% chronological like the first one, but close enough.

– Martin has always seemed to be quite interested in the war stuff; are these time lyrics written by him too? How was the research of those themes?
Yes, every brilliant word is his. He read piles of books on the subject and he even paid a visit to the US fleet for additional inspiration. This part of the war isn’t as well documented as for instance the Eastern Front, so gathering enough information was a lot more difficult this time, but he delivered splendidly.

– The name of the album is strongly connected to the CD, but I guess some people don’t know that. Could you explain us the meaning of its title?
On Divine Winds is derived from the literal translation of the Japanese word Kamikaze: kami means god, and kaze stands for wind. It ties in with the cover artwork, and the song Kamikaze features the line “On divine winds they died”.

– You have produced the album yourself, how was that process? I think it might be extra work but, on the other hand, no one as a band member knows how do you want your music to sound like…
In reality I’ve been more or less “producing” Hail Of Bullets from the promo onwards, but this time I actually got credited for it. It was a lot of extra work for me because we decided to record the guitars and bass at my home studio, in all I’ve been working on this album for over 9 months. But like you say, I know better how we should sound than someone in a studio who’ll be recording a pop band next week, so I’m glad we did it this way, even if it meant lots of sleepless nights!

– The mixing was done by Dan Swäno (as your previous works), which you have worked with several times; how was everything? And how did the final result end up? Though nowadays, and knowing his abilities, it seems like a stupid question.
Dan was once again a pleasure to work with. He was doing testmixes early this year already to make sure we got the best possible sound, and we spent about a month on the final mix. The end result is amazing, it’s much better than we could’ve dreamed and it blows the first album away completely! There’s much more room for detail, and it sounds heavier but clearer at the same time, Dan did a truly wonderful job.

– Your music has always been truly old school Death Metal and Holland has always had a strong DM scene, bands as ASPHYX or PESTILENCE are good examples, though it seems the best period for it were the late 80’s/early 90’s, or maybe the better known. But, how’s the extreme Metal scene like in Holland nowadays?
Not the way it was, that’s for sure. Asphyx are still important, probably the best band we have these days. I like God Dethroned as well, and there’s some cool new bands like I Chaos and Bodyfarm, but that’s about it I guess. Pestilence are back and boring as ever, and Gorefest split up again last year.

– All of you grew up into the period of the music you’re currently playing in HOB; how do you manage to play that old school music and keep that vibe still updating your sound? Even your music is 100% old school it looks like you’re not afraid of using a few modern elements too and making it fit into the present.
The only modern element in our music is the sound and the way we work, everything else is totally and hopelessly old-fashioned. We’re mostly driven by the love for death metal of the late 80’s and early 90’s and it’s easy to write in that style because to me it’s not like a coat I wear, it comes straight from the heart. For me it’s still contemporary music, not something from the past. When we started working on our first promo we all agreed that we wouldn’t go for a retro, shitty-sounding production and fortunately Dan has found the perfect balance between old school brutality and modern audio fidelity.

– When we did the DEMIURG interview you told me 2010 was going to be a year dominated by HAIL OF BULLETS due to the big promotion you were going to do for it. What are those promotion plans? Will be a tour announced soon? Anything in Spain?
Hail Of Bullets isn’t really a touring band, the promotion for the album is found more in doing interviews and such. Of course we’ll be doing shows to promote it, but we’ll keep doing it the way we have before, so that means mostly festivals and one-off clubshows in foreign countries instead of a month long tour that only costs money. Spain will definitely be in the plans, we had a great time last year and can’t wait to return!

– Are there any other near-future plans for you?
I’ve decided to take the rest of the year off from recording, and then I’ll start working on the next 11th Hour album. I plan to take my time for that one, but I already have a few great songs written for it.

– And talking about Spain and gigs (and I know that’s, somehow, a bit off-topic), you will soon play at the Madrid is the Dark Fest with THE 11TH HOUR; what are your expectations?
The festival takes place at the end of October and I’m really looking forward to it though, Pim and Bram played there before with Officium Triste and they said it was unbelievable. Spain has been very kind to the 11th Hour with reviews as well, so I think it’s going to be a night to remember!

– That’s all, thank you once again and congratulations on your new alum. Now, as always, if you want to add any final words; last lines are yours.
Thanks again and I’ll be looking forward to our next interview! 😉