The Black Procession Tour - Hatebreed
We catch up for a natter with Hatebreed.
Portrait image for Rocklouder © Simon Keitch Photography
A siege of metal fans from the length and breadth of Devon and Cornwall have taken hold of the sleepy southwest city of Plymouth as the megalith of Machine Head’s 'The Black Procession Tour' rolls its mighty wheels into town. Bringing the excellent Bleeding Through and Hatebreed along for the ride, we thought the noisy package tour would be too good an opportunity to miss, so we sent Rocklouder's David Neal to have a chat with each of the bands in turn. Today: Hatebreed!
Previously — Bleeding Through / Machine Head
Frank Novinec (Lead Guitar) – Hatebreed
The new album's been released to positive reviews from media and fans alike. How is the new material going down on this European tour?
We’re doing three or four songs from the album but we have so much material we can’t do too much of it. We have only a 45 minute set on this tour but the crowd have been good.
Are you guys doing separate headlining shows?
Yeah, we played Moscow last night so we haven’t slept much but there were 800 odd people there.
What are the Russian metal fans like? I still have images of Pantera’s ‘Primal Concrete Sledge’ video with the riot police battering anyone trying to have too much fun!
There’s stage diving, no barricades. It was really good, a lot of energy, real awesome and we got to play forty odd songs.
And now you’re the support act. How’s that?
Well, we’ve played Download a couple times and done our own headline tours but this is an opportunity for us to open up for Machine Head who do very well over here and play in front of decent sized crowds. So this is really good for us and the fans have always been great to us but now we’re trying to expand into the UK more.
The word ‘diversity’ has been used a lot in reviews for the new album, something you’ve been criticized with lacking in the past. Was this a consideration when you recorded the album?
Well, here’s the thing. We change things up on each record and it just happened that we changed things up a little more on this record. It’s nothing that we set out to do; we just want to stay current. It’s more metal than the others but it still has it hardcore songs.
Is metal a direction you might continue with?
We’ll see. There are always metal parts. If you listen to ‘Supremacy’ it has its metal parts but at the end of the day it’s got to have that groove and it’s got to be Hatebreed.
Do you worry about image at all? Even though you regularly have top 40 records in the States you still retain the old hardcore image of yonder. Is that a conscious effort by the band?
It’s just natural for us. We come from that scene where it’s more of a personal thing than a rock star thing and a lot of people look up to us for that. We’re not on the radio and it is underground music at the end of the day. I mean the hard core crowd left after the first record, maybe being too hardcore for their own good I guess, and I think the fans that are still with us up to this point are not going to be let down.
You seem to have had the opposite career to Machine Head in which they conquered Europe before America. Do you prioritise the US over the UK?
Well, we prioritise anywhere where we’re lacking and we’re fortunate to be offered the chance to play over here where Machine Head do really well, so we want to focus on building the fanbase in the UK. I think they are way more into their metal over here and fortunately we are one of those bands that are in both scenes, but we’ll see.
Are you planning on coming back over anytime soon?
Maybe there will be a show at the end of the year and we’ve got a couple festivals in Europe, but we’re doing the Mayhem Fest in the States with Rob Zombie and Korn. Which means we’ll probably be playing the festivals over here next year, because it goes back and forth.
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