Hatred pour l'album "Madhouse Symphonies"

Hi Frank ! And thank you very much for answering my questions. First, can you present your band to our readers ?

Hi Thomas, for sure. Let's go ! We are a Thrash-Metal band from Germany more precisely from a region called Franconia. Our passion is to play fast, loud and hard in front of some crazy moshers ! :)


As you play some kind of positive, very enjoyable thrash metal, I'm surprised you choosed the name HATRED. Can you explain it to us ? Any problems with the death thrash band from netherlands who picked up the same name ?

No, problems aren't existing as far as I know. The guys from the netherlands contacted us over Myspace some time ago and said thereabout “every country has it´s own HATRED”. So they took the words right out of our mouth. We're accepting each other and that's it! :)
I have to admit, that our name isn't very fancy. There are more than 17 or 18 bands called HATRED all over the world. But on the other hand the word HATRED is easy to remember and you can scream it even if you're drunk like hell. And because of that useful attributes we choosed to be called the way you know. There is no connection to our sound at last.


Sounds like thrash metal is finally back from the dead after several years of disappearance. Any new band you'd like to recommand or do you stuck to the old classics like «Rust In Peace», «The Years Of Decay» and «Never, Neverland» ?

First of all I'm totally into the old heroes of thrash of course. Cause they're the reason my bandmembers and me writing songs the way we do. Funny to note, that you instanced records which are not really my favourites at least of these bands. :)
If there is a thrash-revival? I don't know. Sure, there are lots of young bands coming out from nowhere like a supernova and make me bang my head. I listen to EVILE mostly. But I have to mention that all these bands don't bring that much facets into their songs. So I'm feared of a huge implosion too, if the metalheads are bored to listen that often to the same sound. For me the so called thrash-revival is a good thing at all, cause the media put my passion into the spotlight after years of the huge death-metal-domination. And maybe HATRED can join the wave somehow, though we're not from England or the U.S.


You're from Germany but when I listened to «Madhouse Symphonies», I never thought KREATOR, DESTRUCTION or SODOM. You play on the US bay area territory but in a far better way than youngsters like WARBRINGER or BONDED BY BLOOD. How does it feel to beat american bands at their own game ?

I never thought about such things. But first: Our sound is mostly influenced by the old METALLICA. Because of that we will never sound like German guys. Your question concerning WARBRINGER or BONDED BY BLOOD I can't respond in a clear way. I think that these bands sound more the oldschool way, back to the very early roots of thrash. Our songs settled down the years after, when METALLICA invented the melodic thrash with records like «Master of Puppets» or «...and Justice for all» without comparing us to these genius masterpieces of course.


I think most of new thrash metal bands suffer a severe lack of personality and charisma, for they don't provide successors to mainmen like Steve Souza, Chuck Billy or Bobby Blitz Ellsworth. But with a great singer like Bacchus, HATRED seems to have found the perfect man …

Bacchus will be honoured. Thanks man. Surely we found our perfect man. He is an animal on stage and fires the people like no other. But you have to mention that we're thrashing for round about ten years now. The new bands have an average age about twenty years or less and being on stage for two or three years. So they have enough time left to built up personalities in their rows. And if the thrash-revival continues you soon will hear of the mainmen of EVILE, BONDED BY BLOOD or FUELED BY FIRE for sure.


Usually, I'm not a big heavy metal fan but Bacchus screams, which reminds me Schmier from DESTRUCTION, are really efficients and impressives. He's also very skilled for the more aggressive and melodic parts. With so versatile vocals, it must be easier for the other band members to propose a more diverse material ?

Yeah, you're right :)
But most of the time it is our job to remind Bacchus not singing like Warrel Dane. No, just kidding! ;)
Bacchus' abilities are a huge gift. We're feeling free to write songs with melodic guitars in it, with passages of clean singing or death-metal-growls. That all based on thrash-metal makes us creating our own sound. I think so at least. ;)


In the promotion stuff, you refer to the legendary canadian heavy thrash band ANNIHILATOR. As I'm a big fan of Jeff Waters, I really appreciated the melodic content of «Madhouse Symphonies», with a lot of great guitar solos. On the «Explosions» song, sounds like METALLICA's «Creeping Death» meets Waters's typical songwriting …

In this case you hit the bull's-eye! As I thought about a first idea of «Explosions» to be able to bring a whole song to the next rehearsal I listened to «Set the world on fire» and «Double Live Annihilation» at home. Jeff Waters style of playing riffs inspired me to the intro and the chorus of that song. The middle part of «Explosions» is based on the melodic songs of METALLICA. But more from the records «Master of Puppets» and «...and Justice for all».


The album presents some strong riffing qualities, between EXODUS (the beginning of «Surrender»), MEGADETH (the main part of «Walk Through The Fire») and OVERKILL. But HATRED never sounds like a clone and delivers the best, from the power ballad «Gates Of Hell» to the «Follow The Leader» up tempo …

Oh thanks for that compliment. We are proud of being perceived with our own style to play thrash metal. Sadly this comparison to the old thrash heroes sometimes goes hand in hand with a lack of interest in our music. A few fanzines noticed that HATRED doesn't invent a new style of music and reviewing our «Madhouse» just as a bow before the 80s. As you said: Our album is no clone! It is our idea of a thrash-metal-sound translated in a new century.


The album concludes in a more funny way with the exhilaring «We Are The Mosh Crew», the kind of song we can expect from bands like TANKARD or MUNICIPAL WASTE. Seems like you can play any kind of thrash metal with the same ability!

I hope so. :)
«We Are The Mosh Crew» is about thrashing your head to waste. And you're just able to do it with a song that sounds fast and raw. So we took riffs that can be placed in the times of «Bonded by Blood» and threw them together. At the end there was a funny song which could be placed on the record to leave the listeners with the main idea what's thrash metal all about. To mosh the fuck up! :)


Does the «Madhouse Symphonies» artwork refer to IRON MAIDEN's «Piece Of Mind» ? Or maybe the ANTHRAX song «Madhouse» ?

No. The artwork based on a picture our drummer Daniel found at the internet. He saw it and thought directly “Madhouse Symphonies, that would be a cool title for the new HATRED album.” So we sent the picture to our creative directors Jonathan and Christian, both are good friends of us and guitar-players in the German band CRIPPER. They made the cover which you can see at last. Nobody thought about IRON MAIDEN and ANTHRAX. That came just afterwards. But in a way it's a cool reminiscence to these great bands, isn't it?


You recently performed in Dubai for the Desert Rock Festival. What was it like?

Oh what a question! ;)
I just don't know where to start and where to end. It was just an amazing trip ! To play in front of 7.000 people, to hang around with Arch Enemy, Opeth and Motörhead made a dream come true! Aside it was just interesting to see the reaction of the Arabian metalfans. They were like Thrashmetal-kids in the 80s and showed a behaviour like them thirty years ago, when it was about to rebel with a new energetic music culture. In Dubai Metal is allowed since a few years and because of that the whole scene is young, restless and wild ! Just read the tourreport on our homepage www.hatredmetal.de or watch the video on Youtube we made concerning the Song «Explosions». Watching it still gives me the creeps !


Your album was mastered by Andy Classen. Any chance you collaborate again with him in the future ?

I don't know. We've got no further connection or any deeper friendship to Andy Classen. He just did a good work, and mastered our album like he masters a record of every band that assigns him.


So what's next for the band in 2009? Any plans for touring?

First of all we play a few bigger Open Airs like Metalcamp and Legacy-Fest and smaller ones like Dong Open Air or Zabbaduschder Open Air in Germany. Moreover we are working on the descendant of our current album and maybe we get the chance to play a tour in autumn. But nothing like that was offered to us until now. If somebody wants to contact us concerning that, feel free to do it! ;)


What do you know about the french metal scene?

To my shame I have to admit that I don't know anything about it. There are some Bands we know like “No Return”, “Gojira” or “Massacra” (RIP) and that´s it. But maybe we can come to France play some shows and drink some beers with French Metalheads :)


Well, thank you very much for your time, the last words are for you ...

Yeah ! Thanks Thomas for that interesting and awesome interview. Listen to our album «Madhouse Symphonies» and spread the Moshcrew all over France!