HAIL OF BULLETS - Ed Warby
\r\nVassilis Mazaris of Metalzone.gr recently\r\nconducted an interview with Hail Of Bullets drummer Ed Warby. No further\r\ncomments needed. Just note this: "Put your helmet on and take cover from the\r\nHail Of Bullets that’s about to tear your carcass to shreds!" and get ready for\r\nthe new war machine coming out on Metal Blade Records and it is called ...Of Frost\r\nAnd War!!!
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\r\nMetalzone:First of all let’s start from the\r\ndebut album of Hail Of Bullets called Of Frost And War. We can see at first\r\nglance the album is about war- in every way. What inspired you to write about\r\nsuch a theme? Do you feel war is a subject that fits the metal genre?
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\r\nEd: When the first songs were written we all\r\nagreed that they sounded like tanks thundering across a battlefield, and Martin\r\nespecially responded to that by coming up with his long planned but never\r\nrealized Eastern Front idea. I think it fits the music perfectly, in fact it’s\r\nalmost like we made the soundtrack to this war.
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\r\nMetalzone: There are many who say the\r\nband sounds like Bolt Thrower and they actually compare you to them. Do you\r\nthink you have much in common? Didn’t you fear of the comparison? \r\n
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\r\nEd: Not at all, Bolt Thrower are definitely an\r\ninfluence, but just one of many. We’re just as much influenced by bands like\r\nAutopsy, Entombed, Massacre, Death etc. We don’t pretend we’re bringing\r\nsomething new and original, but I don’t think we sound like one classic death\r\nmetal band in particular. We’re more going for a "best of" old school death\r\nmetal sound, combining the things we like best about all these great bands.\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: The music compositions in Of Frost And War are\r\nvery mid tempo, with a few exceptions. Would you say Hail of Bullets are a\r\ntypical death metal band? What makes you different? \r\n
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\r\nEd: It’s funny that what used to be considered\r\nfast is now called "mid tempo". Just because we don’t blast along at 270 bpm\r\ndoesn’t mean it’s mid tempo... but yes, I have a strong preference for groovy mid\r\ntempo stuff. It’s impossible to groove at high tempo’s, and to me groove is as\r\nessential to death metal as brutality. We didn’t set out to be "different", but\r\nthe style of metal we play has all but disappeared in favour of modern,\r\novercomplicated, way too fast "brutal" death metal. So by returning to the\r\nroots I guess we stand out among the current crop of dm bands. As for typical\r\ndeath metal: I’d like Hail Of Bullets to be the kind of band that if you look\r\nup "old school death metal" in the dictionary it says "see Hail Of Bullets". So\r\nin that sense I’d say we see ourselves as a typical death metal band, but in\r\nthe old-fashioned sense of the term.
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\r\nMetalzone: Some say the vocals are similar to Lemmy-\r\nMotorhead- actually I’ve seen reviews that say Hail Of Bullets are "Bolt\r\nThrower with Lemmy on The vocals". What do you respond to that?
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\r\nEd: Bolt Thrower are awesome and Lemmy is God, so\r\nthe comparison is an honourable one. Silly, but honourable. I personally don’t\r\nthink Martin sounds anything like Lemmy, nor would most Motörhead fans. Then\r\nagain, it’s a description that gets the job done I guess.
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\r\nMetalzone: Give us the insider story on your recording of\r\nthe album and the making of. Is it the result of team work ?
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\r\nEd: The songs are usually written by one or two\r\nbullets at home, the rest give their opinion and consequently changes are made\r\nuntil everybody’s happy. Because we don’t live close to each other we worked in\r\nshifts during the recording sessions, so we were not always together at the same\r\ntime. But in general it’s a team effort in that we all contributed to the end\r\nresult of course. No member is more or less important than the other, it’s\r\ndefinitely the equation of the 5 of us that makes this work.
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\r\nMetalzone: About the lyrics, we can see war themes. What\r\nis the message you are trying to get through? What taste do you want the\r\nlistener to have once he listens to your album? \r\n
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\r\nEd: The message is quite obviously an anti-war\r\none. Martin wanted to describe the horror and human suffering as vividly as possible,\r\nso the listener gets the feeling of actually being there, freezing to death or\r\ngetting ripped apart by bullets. It’s a brutal theme, but we make brutal music!\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: What inspired you the title of the album?\r\n
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\r\nEd: We had a few possible titles, but this one fit\r\nthe concept the most. It sounds like a classic book or something, and it sums\r\nup exactly what the theme is.
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\r\nMetalzone: What are your future plans and expectations\r\nfrom now on ? \r\n
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\r\nEd: For now we’ll be doing some selected festival-\r\nand club shows, and hopefully sell a shitload of albums! We hope to get the\r\nchance to do a cool tour or festival package later this year, so we’re on the\r\nlookout for that right now.
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\r\nMetalzone: Are Hail of Bullets a project or a full time\r\nband? We really don’t know what to believe...\r\n
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\r\nEd: Believe this: Hail Of Bullets is a full time\r\nband. Even if the members don’t always have full time to give, haha! It’s most\r\ncertainly not a vanity project of 5 rockstars making a one off album.
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\r\nMetalzone: Thank you for the interview\r\nand I hope you will come to Greece soon even though I am sure we’ll meet in Party\r\nSan. Send a message to those who are about to listen to
\r\nOf Frost And War!
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\r\nEd: Put your helmet on and take cover from the\r\nHail Of Bullets that’s about to tear your carcass to shreds!\r\n
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\r\nVassilis Mazaris \r\n
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