HATCHET - Marcus Kirchen

\r\nHelena Mihailidou of Metalzone.gr recently conducted\r\nan interview with Hatchet vocalist, Marcus Kirchen. Marcus talks about\r\neverything concerning the debut album of the band which is out on Metal Blade\r\nRecords and it is called Awaiting Evil, and also he gives some details about\r\nthe band. Enjoy!
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\r\nMetalzone: Let’s begin from 2005 when Hatchet\r\nwere formed. Tell us the story so far.\r\n

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\r\nMarcus: Hatchet was more of a concept from Julian\r\nRamos and David Wert, The founding members of Hatchet. At the time they were\r\nplaying in a Death Metal Band, and were listening to a lot of bay area thrash\r\nlike Forbidden, Vio-Lence, and Testament. They wanted to break away from the\r\nstagnant death metal scene and create a new take on playing Thrash Metal. At\r\nthe time in the bay area, there was no Thrash scene, and they had began posting\r\nads on Classifieds looking for like minded musicians. I came along in early\r\n2006 and sang the songs "into the pit" by Testament, and "Arise"\r\nby Sepultura. They had also found Sterling Bailey through a craigs list\r\nclassified ad. And we soon found our Bass player Dan Voigt not to much further\r\ndown the road. We recorded a demo, and circulated it around our area, and\r\nplayed as many different cities on the west coast as we could. Now we have an\r\nalbum out called "Awaiting Evil" it is our best work yet as a band, and it will\r\nmake you eat boulders and shit lightning!
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\r\nMetalzone: You come from the legendary Bay Area\r\nand your sound is what we could call old school. How would you describe it? Do\r\nyou feel you’re the ones to continue where old school thrash bands left of?
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\r\nMarcus:  I have\r\nheard a lot of people try to compare us to "Old school thrash" Though it is flattering, because yes I\r\nam influenced by all types of Heavy Metal,\r\nI still feel that Hatchet does have some qualities to offer you rather than\r\njust another "80s thrash band"  I don’t\r\nbelieve you can really compare Hatchet to Exodus or Testament, I feel that when\r\nyou hear our music it gives you something new. So perhaps yes we are continuing\r\nwhere The older bands left off. I\r\nfeel our music has some substance to it, we aren’t just writing about old\r\ntopics, or talking about what kind of clothes we wear. I write my songs about\r\nthe sort of struggles we go through every day as metal heads. Things like\r\nsociety and the government manipulating our destiny, always trying to get us to\r\nconform to be the standard citizen. I’m trying to say that we have a lot of\r\nviews and society tends to ignore us because we are different, either in the\r\nway we act or look. To us its not about the fashion and trying to dress "80’s"\r\nor act that way, but Heavy Metal is such a big part of our lives that we truly\r\nlive it and we are proud to keep up the fight for our cause!\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: How do you feel about the fact you\r\nsigned with Metal Blade shortly after you completed your line up? Other bands\r\nhave to struggle to get a deal like that.
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\r\nMarcus:  We have\r\nworked our asses off to get where we are today. There have been no handouts,\r\nand nothing is given to you.  Although\r\nHatchet has only existed for 2 years. We have made a lot of progress, and I\r\nfeel that we have proven that if you have drive than that’s all you need to\r\nmake shit happen. Bands that expect things to be given to them, or bands that\r\ndon’t have a hard work ethic just don’t survive. I believe metal blade sees the\r\nDrive in us, we have the will to survive and take it as far as we can. \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Awaiting Evil is your debut album.\r\nTell us a few things about it. Is it everything you expected it to be? Do you\r\nhave any regrets about it?
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\r\nMarcus: The album sounds great, In many ways the\r\nrecord exceeds my expectations. I just wish we could have recorded it with our\r\ncurrent Drummer Alex Perez. If we were able to go back and change something\r\nabout it, Other than that Im very happy with the Vocals, and the music is\r\nfucking heavy! \r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: What is the main concept behind\r\nAwaiting Evil?
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\r\nMarcus: There really isn’t much of a actual "concept"\r\nbut The album does focus mainly on  Post\r\nApocalyptic Matter, And I feel a lot of it is relevant because if we do not\r\nmake a change in how we are living today, than Armageddon will be here quickly.  The evil powers in the world seem to be\r\ntaking control, and if we as a nation don’t stand up and fight for our beliefs\r\nthan we are doomed. They want to seal our fate, and to them our lives are in\r\nthere hands. We must fight to prevent these people or we all soon will be\r\nawaiting evil!\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: How do you write your songs? Do you\r\nall brainstorm in ideas ?
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\r\nMarcus: Julz writes the main guitar riffs, and the\r\nstructure, after a song is brought to the table than we all add our parts. And\r\nwhen the music is finished that is when I write the lyrics.
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\r\nMetalzone: What themes inspire you to write?
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\r\nMarcus: The topics that most influence my writing come\r\nfrom every day living, and the horrors we face while following our life’s path.\r\nDeath, Destruction, War, Violence, destiny, and materialistic greed, all\r\ninfluence my writing.\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Are you planning on touring in\r\nsupport of your release? Tell us your upcoming dates.\r\n

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\r\nMarcus: We are touring the US starting on July 11th\r\nall the way til August 23rd Where we will be ending the tour in\r\nHollywood, playing a gig with RAVEN! And HIRAX!!!! This will be the highlight\r\nof the tour! We than Expect to be touring Europe\r\nin December with some bands like Heathen, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Onslaught to\r\nname a few!
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\r\nMetalzone: Are you going to be appearing in\r\nSummer Festivals?
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\r\nMarcus: We will be on tour all summer, there are no\r\nfestivals planned as of yet.\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: What feedback have you gotten from\r\nyour debut album? Media and Fans.
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\r\nMarcus : For the Most part we have gotten some great\r\nresponses. Everything I have heard about it has been great.
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\r\nMetalzone: What are your expectations from this\r\nrelease?
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\r\nMarcus: One day we will look back and say "That is\r\nwhere all the madness began"\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Do you already have ideas for your\r\nnext album?
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\r\nMarcus : We are in the process of working on it, and we\r\ncan only promise that it will be a step up from the Debut album.
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\r\nMetalzone: What is the key element you feel\r\nwill make you stand out in such a huge industry?
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\r\nMarcus: The fact that we don’t care about "The\r\nIndustry" We love and live for Heavy Metal, and if you aren’t with us on that\r\nthan fuck off! We could care less what the industry thinks of us, we know what\r\nwe are and that’s all that matters.\r\n

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\r\nMetalzone: Thank you very much for your time, and\r\nwe wish you all the best for your upcoming plans\r\n

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\r\nMarcus: Cheers!!! Thanks for the interview! Can’t wait\r\nto thrash with you soon!!!\r\n

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\r\nHelena Mihailidou\r\n

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