Hurtlocker pour l'album "Fear In A Handful Of Dust"

1. First, could you please introduce your band to our readers, your main influences and the style which could best define your music?

Hurtlocker is Grant Belcher on vocal, Time Moe on guitars , Dan Manzella on basse , and dan Ditella on drums . Music Wise Hurtlocker ‘s main influence comes from old school thrash, like testament and Exodus , mixed with malevolent creation and demolition hammer, Grant’s vocal influences are Ozzy and slipknot and stuff like that. Our sound is described as metalcore but we think we have more to offer than that. We feel we have something for everyone who listens to metal. I don’t think we have a one style that would best describe us.


2. What can we expect from this first album?

Fear in a handful of dust is straight and to the point. It is here to kick your ass. We didn’t want to play 5 minute songs and have all kinds of breakdown parts, we wanted people to listen to the album and say, wow these guys are angry. The album itself is something that the more you listen to it the more you start to see where we are coming from, as things that didn’t pop out at you in the first listen are more noticeable.


3. How spent the writing process and how long did it last?

The bulk of the album was written over the last year, we had recorded 4 demos over the last 16 months and 6 of the songs on the album are from past demo’s , we wrote the other 4 songs within a 2 week period. Writing has never been a problem, it has been keeping a solid linup together to write with. We write separate with myself coming up with the music and working our the structure and I will take that to Grant and he will start writing lyrics and he may come back and say can you make this part longer or play this here again but for the most part it’s very quick.


4. Was it hard to lead this first album to an end? How spent the collaboration with Napalm Records?

We were a little stressed working on this album, and that was from working with a new studio and new engineer, and we were going to Planet Z to mix , which Napalm recommended, but this was all different for us. The album is 10 songs and we would have done more but we were having all kinds of trouble with our drummer and even tried to replace him before the recording , but nothing we did seemed to work so we pushed through and recoded with him. Napalm has been nothing but supportive of us, we are very happy to be working with them.


5. Is there a tour planed to promote your new album?

Yes we are going to be touring Europe in late January and February with Cryptopsy, which we are looking forward to, it will be the bands first time out of the States and we can’t wait. The album doesn’t come out here for another month or so and we are going to do some shows here to promote before we head over to Europe.


6. What do you do for a living apart from the band?

I work for a moving company, so all day long I carry other peoples furniture, Grant works as a booking agent. Dan Manzella is a plummer and Ditella is a dead beat without a job. I don’t think one of us likes our jobs very much but something has go to pay the bills. Plus we all have enough freedom to take a month or two off to hit the road and support the album.


7. What are you listening to these days? Any good metal (or not metal) albums to recommend?

I am listening to Exodus, shovel headed kill machine, I think it is a great album,I would recommend that to anyone. I really only listen to metal, Grant is the open minded person in the band that will listen to just about anything.


8. What is your opinion concerning the metal webzines? Are you a reader of them? How do you evaluate the impact of such magazines, compared to “real” magazines?

I think the webzines offer more than some of the big magazines, a lot of times the big magazines wont run articles on smaller bands and there is no mention of these bands, the webzines do a good job of informing the metal scene of what is out and happening even if they aren’t huge bands. I read anything containing metal, and sometimes the only place you hear about certain bands is on a webzine.


9.Thanx for the interview. The last words are yours!

Thanks for the interview and if you get a chance go pick up Fear in a handful of dust and give it a few listens. If you like what you hear pass it on and come see us on tour, thanks.