HELLBRINGER (EN)

– First of all thank you so much for answering our interview. How is the band currently doing?
Great. Our new album is about to be released and we have been getting some great show offers!

– Before digging into your newest album, would you mind to tell us how did the band get together?
It started when Luke and I and our old guitarist were in school. We were all friends and liked the same style of music and we could all play instruments somewhat. So we decided to form a band playing in the style we all loved. We started on some covers and then began writing our own material and it went from there

 
– On 2011 you re-released the demo you did still under the FORGERY moniker, followed by your debut album on 2012. How has HELLBRINGER evolved during these last years?
The Forgery demo was released as an EP under the name Hellbringer by German label Iron Pegasus records I think the main thing that has «evolved» is the song writing and maturity. We are still playing similar stuff but we have gotten much more aggressive and better as song writers these days. We put a lot more thought into the music writing.

– Now that I’ve mentioned the name change, I think HELLBRINGERS fits your style way better. It’s straight froward sounding, with «spirit» so to speak.  Was this what you were looking for? To give a hint on what can we expect when we listen to your music?
From what I remember I think the main idea was that the Forgery EP was titled «Hellbringer» so when we decided to change the name we thought that was a good name to change to. I agree I think it suits the music well too and it is a better name than Forgery.

– Start to dig into your newest «Awakened from the Abyss», are you pleased with the way it turned out?
Very pleased. There are always something that could be changed but I think with this one they are very minor.

 
– Overall I could say it’s more intense and also more aggressive than «Dominion of Darkness». Was this a direction you were consciously heading to?
We did want this album to be much more aggressive but that’s also just how we play these days.  It was conscious but also a natural progression at the same time too I think. After touring and many rehearsals our aggression and intensity sort of naturally just started amping up compared to where we were at the time of Dominion so it’s not all purposefully.

 
– In fact this album contains just 7 songs. It’s short and straight to the point, like albums used to be back in the 80’s, and also a perfect length for vinyl I’d say. Could you say this has helped make the album feel more intense?
I think so and I think it’s a good length. I don’t think this style of music should have excessively long albums because it can become difficult to maintain the interest. We could have added more but we had 7 killer tracks written for it and didn’t feel the need to add another one for the sake of it.

 

– Anyway I think atmosphere helps in enhacing this intensity feeling. Atmosphere is something a lot of bands into the genre have seem to forgot about. What effect could you say the overall evil atmosphere has on «Awakened from the Abyss»?
Atmosphere is important too of course. I think the atmosphere on this album is effective in that it enhances the darkness and evil which we obviously wanted. The listener needs to «feel» something too. Look at all the classics that had perfect evil atmosphere. Without that those albums wouldn’t be nearly as good as they are. The atmosphere on those is completely spine chilling to me.
And I agree that a lot of thrash bands these days have no clue about it. There are some exceptions of course though!

 
– Composition has improved a lot since your previous album, with what feel like more thought out compositions, resulting in a more personal and varied album. How has the songwriting process been this time around?
Pretty much just like you said. This time around we had gotten much better as song writers and had more ideas. A lot more thought was put into the process and we thought about what could be done better, more interesting and things like that.

– For instance there’s songs like «Coven of Darkness», with a lot of changes, surprising twitsts and quite Heavy Metal inspired parts. Is diversity something you strive for? And what could you comment on this specifical tune?
Diversity on an album is always good. Even on one such as this. On this album in particular we wanted to have songs like this one that were a longer length but with varied different sections. I always like songs like that on albums because if done well they keep things interesting.
With this song in particular we did have a number of different influences. I think the «heavy metal» parts you speak of were quite sort of Mercyful Fate influenced. Another band we all love.

– You are not reinveing the wheel at all, no there’s any need to, but manage to make Thrash Metal deadly, menacing and evil again. What do you thyink 80’s Thrash Metal had that lacks in the current «scene»?
Well I haven’t listened to any new thrash for a long time (apart from a select few of course). But if we’re going to compare to what a lot of the new ones these days are missing it would be the conviction, honesty and attitude. There are too many that have no heart or conviction behind it and it really shows with the boring, sterile and «safe» sound they have. Both production and performance wise. It’s supposed to be music where it feels and sounds like something is going to explode!  You need to feel the energy and adrenaline.
However, like I said I there are still some who get it right and do it very well.

 
– All this about «Awakened from the Abyss» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Fast, dark, intense. Which is pretty to the point!

 
– You are hailing from Australia, a country where the Thrash scene was never really huge but has a few outstanding ones such as  ARMOURED ANGEL, HOBBS ANGEL OF DEATH or DESTRÖYER 666 apart from younger ones as BASTARDIZER. But how’s the Aussie scene like nowadays? Is it easy to play Metal and gig over there being geographically isolated?
Well there isn’t really much of a scene here these days. The good bands rarely play gigs with good gigs few and far between.  The 3 main cities which are the main ones to play shows at are located a hefty distance from each other.  However, if it’s the right gig and a solid lineup people will travel for it. It’s easy to play gigs here, but we are quite selective about the shows we will play. We don’t play too often here these days.

 
– Anyway next year you’ll be in Europe playing at Hell over Hammaburg. Will that be followed by some club shows too?
Yes most likely.

 
– And finally, what are now your near-future plans?
To play outside of Australia as much as possible for the moment. We need to spread our darkness worldwide!

 
– That’s all from our side thank you so much for answering to our interview. If you now want to add some final words for our readers feel free to do it.
Thanks and look out for our new album Awakened from the Abyss out August 19th on High Roller Records!

Tania Giménez
tania@queensofsteel.com