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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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DEATH METAL FROM ITALY.
1. Hello! Question n°1, please do an introduction to HATEFUL! Tell us about the whole band, what kind of release you have and did, your current goals...
Hi everyone!
The band was formed by myself (Daniele Lupidi-Guitar, Bass and Vocals)
in late 1997. I was the bass player and the line-up was rounded
up by other four guys. After many line up changes we were ready
to enter the studio in 2000 with me on bass, Matteo Manfredini on
vocals, Marcello Malagoli on drums and the two guitar players Marcello
Magoni and Luca Fortini. Unfortunately Malagoli and Magoni left
the band before starting the recording session and we’ve been forced
to work with a session drummer. The result was a mcd entitled “After
The Last Breath” .The mcd has been well-received by the underground
scene but I think it could have been much better with Marcello behind
the drums. The stuff was heavily influenced by Doom and Swedish
Death metal.
During the following years I tried a lot of drummers
but I was never satisfied. I finally re-contacted Marcello in 2003
and he immediately agreed to be a part of Hateful again. In 2004
we dismissed Fortini and Matteo Manfredini left the band due to
a lack of time. I took over guitar duties and shared vocals with
Marcello. We started to play more brutal and technical songs and
now here we are.
My current goal is to find a good label to record
and put forth a full length later this year.
2. When I listen to HATEFUL, remembrances if FLESHTIZED, old MORBID ANGEL and early HATE ETERNAL are popping in my mind. I guess you'll confirm these 3 influences, but tell us more about the other formations that were influential for your music, in a way being obvious or not. (For example, the quite complex structures of your songs weren't necessarily influenced by brutal death metal...).
Thank you very much for mentioning these three great bands! Yeah the first Hate Eternal album is one of my favorite Extreme albums and I grew up listening Morbid Angel. I’d like to mention also Suffocation and Malevolent Creation but also European bands like Spawn of Possession and old names like Napalm Death, Carcass, Pestilence and At The Gates. The complexity of the song structures is something that comes out naturally. It’s very difficult for me to describe our sound, we only try to compose as best as we can without caring too much about the other bands. Don’t get me wrong, I listen tons of Death Metal and Grindcore, I’m never annoyed by this music, but when we write our songs we are concentrated only on the result , and we don’t think about people reactions. Every music we listen could be a source of inspiration.
3. Since your previous demo released in 2001, your music has changed a lot! It's more efficient, extreme, complex and faster! This change might not only be the effect of increasing your technical skills; or firing some musicians... some things might have occurred in your life. (More stress? More troubles?). Tell us about it.
We grew up as musician and listeners and now I can say we are playing what I always wanted to play. In the beginning my creativity was locked by too many schemes and I didn’t wanted to compose what I couldn’t perform perfectly. Now we compose with the mind, not with fingers and that’s why we spend so much time arranging the ideas on the guitar. When a song is ready, we have to play it every day at home, because our ideas often surpass our technical skills.
4. Your riffs are worked enough, and I guess a part of it doesn't come totally naturally, as you might spend some time working it again and again. What kind of "delays" are there in general between the first take of a riff; and its final incarnation?
As I stated
before, our songwriting is a natural process. This doesn’t mean
that we do not spend a lot of time working on the music. I generally
record the first ideas singing notes and rhythms and recording them
on a cassette recorder.
During this phase I pay a lot of attention
to the song structure, working only with the mind on something
that could be interesting from the beginning to the end. That’s
why our songs contain a lot of crescendos and tensions before the
main riffs and I think this is why we sound different from many
American bands. Then I arrange the music with the guitar and try
to find the best notes and harmonies. This is the longest process
of the entire song creation, it can take me weeks or even months
(you have to consider that I work on a lot of different songs contemporarily).
It’s the same with the tracks written mainly by Marcello, I
just add some Ideas an harmonies in order to make them sound more
Hateful.
The last stages are the drum line creation (with Marcello
working on the rhythm solutions) and the vocal patterns.
5. Your lyrics are quite interesting. For example "Built on nothingness" deals with the sterile identities some peoples build to show off and to play an imaginary important role in society.... Tell us more about your lyrics. Does the inspiration come during very particular conditions or in special places?
It’s great to hear that you perfectly understood what I wrote. Lyrics are very important to me as I don’t simply want to fill spaces. I take inspiration from concepts I always been fascinated by. I start to reflect on them and then some images start to pop up inside my mind and that’s the right moment to paint this visions putting them on paper in word form. That’s why I tend to fill the original concept (and meaning) with sensation and dark images, like a painting, trying not to use the same old metal stereotypes. The artist and writers I take inspiration from are many, but some of my favorite are E.A.Poe, Ernst Fuchs, G. Maupassant, F. Goya, HR Giger, H. Bosch, H.Selby Jr, E.T.A. Hoffmann, A.Kubin and many more….
6. The promo CDr you sent me is short (3 songs for approx. 5 minutes). Are there more songs in stock? Maybe you have enough material for a full-length? (If so, tell us a bit about the other songs).
Yeah, we have
11 songs completed (musically and lyrically) and we are rehearsing
hard in order to get ready for a possible full-length recording
session. There are many aspect of our sound you cannot fully understand
just listening our three track promo-cd but I can say that the stile
doesn’t differ from it too much.
It’s very hard to describe our
music, at least for me! I think you did a better description that
is valid for all the other tracks too!
7. Right now, there seems to be only 2 musicians in HATEFUL. Do you use the services of session musicians during gigs? Do you feel more convenient as a 2 pieces band? (Less disagreements and divergences of opinions, etc).
We are and probably we will be a two pieces band for a long time. As you correctly said, there are less minds and personalities to take care of and things couldn’t go better. We are preparing ourselves to hit the stages from the middle of 2006. We will probably add a session musician to complete the line up. I think it would be much more simple for to play bass and vocals, it’s not easy to play our guitar lines and sing on them! I’m doing it in the rehearsal room and I don’t have particular problem, but….I’ll decide during the next months!
8. How would you define HATEFUL in 4 words?
Hateful, Hateful, Hateful, Hateful!!!!!
9. How would you define HATEFUL's music in 4 words?
Ok, let’s try something different this time…….fast , schizoid, organic and hopeless (random words….)
10. The Italian scene isn't famous for its extreme or old school metal bands, but rather for all the melodic, atmospheric or "original" stuffs... Even if there are some Italian extreme or old school bands such as HATEWORK, WARMONGER, GENITAL GRINDER... These seem to be a minority. Tell us about your scene (Both present, and cult bands from the past)? Doesn't this lack of the extreme cause problems to play gigs? On one hand, some mellowdick, atmospheric whatever bands are known for not liking what's extreme or really metallic, on the other hand it might not be easy to set really extreme gigs with only extreme bands...
I would add
Hour Of Penance, Nefas and Bastard Saints to your list.
There
are some new bands with a lot of potential but the Italian scene
is far from being an important scene.
Yes, we find a lot of problems
organizing gigs, now things seem to improve but we still have to
face a cover-band invasion that seems never ending. Sometimes this
bands make me laugh…..but venues owner appreciate them much more
than a band with original songs because they think they will bring
more people to the venue.
I helped with the organization of some
great gigs like Vomit Remnants/Godless Truth, Disgorge(Mex), Prophecy
(Usa) and many more. We hope to bring here more important bands
in the future!
11. What do you know of France? We have a lot of underground brutal death in there, but I'm curious to know if peoples from other countries heard about them... We also have "originaaaal" bands that are almost force fed to us, underground metallers, while we don't give a fuck and would even not hear all this "milk in the beer of a melting"... Do you know the "marketing products" some bands like GOJIRA or MISANTHROPE (for example) are becoming?
I’ve been in
France when I was 11 and, for what I remember, Paris is an
awesome city!
Speaking of music, I must admit that I don’t know
many bands from France. I remember the bands that appeared in your
comp. “El Grinding Mafiozos” but apart from them, I’m very ignorant!
I’m
sure there are many great underground French bands that are about
to invade the world with their brutal music, I hope to hear something
great soon.
I heard Gojira thanks to some Listenable samples
and I think they are an interesting band…I don’t know if I would
be able to listen the entire album, maybe they become boring after
a while….I don’t like Misanthrope, too many keys.
Ah, I was
forgetting the mighty Loudblast (I guess they are French, aren’t
they?)!
12. Did
you already have to face the sexyness of Satan? If so, did you have
to face it with some kind of dildos or spiked strings?
Do you
think Satan is necessarily colored of a burning red? (Yes, that's
a totally crucial question... Ah Ah) If you give the smallest interest
to this matter, what color do you think the evilest lord of all
would be?
Ah ah, Satan
is not so interesting to me! :-)
I think he would be very elegant
in violet, but…..I don’t give the smallest interest to this matter,
to use your own words!
13. What color would suit the best HATEFUL in your opinion? (If you feel inspired enough, you can link several colors to various sides of the band, for example tell us the color of the atmosphere emerging from your music...).
According to my sensations, every song is clad in a different color,. They change from rusty red, rusty orange, steel-gray or blue, rotten green or poisoned violet. It depends mainly by the atmosphere and the images that my mind paints on the lyrics, but everyone could imagine different colors for these visions. It also depends by the listener’s state of mind and many other unknown factors.
14. Brutal death metal becomes faster, more technical, more complex... but since few years I didn't experience something really new, something that redefines the way of understanding brutal death, Something else than another new mix of two already existing musical styles. (The last high news might have been the last GORGUTS CD, and NILE's first album). Do you think the style will evolve a lot? Do you think it's possible to offer something totally innovative that remains totally brutal and extreme?
I really don’t
know…..for sure I don’t like the speed competitions we are experiencing
in the last years. Too many bands try only to play fast and technical
without caring about writing good songs and that’s really bad for
the entire scene. I feel more energy and brutality listening old
bands like Gorefest (first albums) Malevolent Creation or Terrorizer
than some other modern “Brutal bands”.
I don’t want express
judgments, everyone is free to play what he considers better for
himself, and I can assure you that there are a lot of ultra-fast
and technical brutal Death Metal bands that I adore (Decrepit Birth,
Origin, Odious Mortem and many more…), but I think that many other
should learn how to write a song first. Sorry for what I said, but
it’s my personal opinion.
15. In the middle deep underground, we can see a strong separation between the Death metal being old school, and the brutal death that gets it technical, superfast... (The "Death metal" injecting a lot of hardcore is often denied... That's right if you ask me, no real Death metal can be found there) How would you place HATEFUL on a scale balance between old school and "new school" Death? What do you think is old school in your music? What do you think is more modern?
I think there
are some modern elements in our music, for example the massive use
of weird chords and structures and a lot of blast beats. For me
our songs are written thinking forward and backwards, since I like
to write the structures and harmonies in a modern way, but riffs
often remind me the great old school Death Metal Bands.
As for
the vocals, people say that our screams are in the vein of Pestilence,
old Morbid Angel and Immolation (specially my vocals). We prefer
the old school vocalists, they are more powerful and expressive
and since I’d like to express dark emotions and sensations with
my lyrics, we would never sing ultra-low growls or pig squealing.
The
result would be a flattening of atmosphere.
16. I happen to read metallers denying blast beats, and claiming it's not old school, nor real death metal... Well they probably "forgot" some of the the very early underground death metal bands already had blasts! (Even before any death metal trends, while thrash metal was THE big thing almost every thrashers listened to... But there were bands with blastbeats, such as MORBID ANGEL or very early SEPULTURA, just to name the most famous.... I also heard about some really obscure bands that blasted as fuck... but were forgotten because didn't record an album...). What's your opinion about it?
Blast beats are a natural progression of extreme drumming. To be honest I really like this technique, but it should be not abused as many drummers do nowadays. Blasting all the times create the opposite effect, music tend to slow down, to be less effective. To me blast beats mean an explosion or rage and anger and should be used to add dynamism to the drum line.
17. If you're sober enough, please tell us in what lies the difference between blasting death and grindcore! In my opinion it's almost all about the riffs, and a part about the vocals; many "grindcore" bands play blasting death with screams... But since it's not everyone's opinion, let me ask yours.
Yeah, you’re
probably right about the riffing, grindcore has more hardcore influences
and a straight in the face attitude.
The two styles also differ
for the lyrical themes.
18. Just
for fun: do you like glam?
Do you think a kind of music entitled
"Glamcore" could be conceived? (Well, we aren't so far
from that with the homoposeur trend of emocore... Ah! Ah!)
I don’t like glam at all!
19. Did I forget to ask you something quite important? If so, use this space to tell us about it.
I think this has been a complete and very informative interview, I shouldn’t add anything else!
20. Allright! Tell us about your futures projects! It's time to conclude, so feel free to spit the last words, and do it an original way if possible (Keep that in mind: what peoples remind are the last couple of lines... so ask her to show us her tits! Lol) Thanx for the answers!
We are waiting
some label’s replies for a possible full-length in the future. We’ll
also start to work with a session musician in the next months, in
order to hit some stages during this year.
I really don’t know
how to conclude…you did put too many expectations on my last words…..look
at what you’ve done, everyone will think that I have nothing
to say! :-) I have to follow your suggestion then….Girls, send us
some photos of your tits (or everything else…)
Thank you very
much for this cool interview!
Website: http://www.hateful.info
