HATE ETERNAL

Fury And Flames

I repent, I didn’t hold this band in high esteem up to excellent “Fury & Flames” release. Their stiff mechanical death metal, even if damn strong technically, until recently seemed to me to be gradually blurring the boundaries between music and usual noise. This highly subjective point of view can’t shade the objective issue- during the recent years HATE ETERNAL have became one of the most important bands on the American death metal scene. You must be blind not to perceive the range of destruction caused by the HATE ETERNAL attacks or the iron consistency in which Erik Rutan scorches along. Few weeks ago the album appeared in stores and with pleasure I talked about it with the band’s master. By the way, did you know that “Rutan” means “Satan” in Czech?

- Erik, you’re said to be obsessive perfectionist. I’m wondering now what it’s like with albums that you record. Do you distance yourself from them in the course of time or contradictory, you start to look for some mistakes again and again and after some time you come to a conclusion that this album should’ve never come out?
(laugh) It depends. Personally I’m proud of everything we’ve created together and I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of. I am getting older and it’s easier for me to get used to many things naturally being far from perfection. It makes me focus more on the future, not looking back. However, in fact the mistakes I make piss me off and only I know what it’s like (laugh). There’s always something to pick at, something that you could do better. The biggest knowledge you have, the easier it is to notice some things.

-So tell me how it is with your newest album „Fury & Flames”?
As a whole I’m extremely satisfied with this album, seriously. Actually, it’s exactly what I wanted it to be, apart from a few little things that started to irritate me (laugh). But to be honest, yes, that’s good album and it doesn’t lack anything. I was working on it for a long time and when I felt that it’s high time to release it I just did it. I must strongly highlight the work that everyone directly involved in creating this album did. Starting with people taking part in its recording, production, the guy responsible for the art design and ending with promoting staff. All of them did they best. It all makes me glad.

- New album is labeled by Metal Blade. This decision probably disappointed your former principal who was trying to do almost everything to keep HATE ETERNAL…
Indeed, Earache did a lot of good work for us, especially in the context of our latest album. But there came time for changes. We needed the fresh point of view on some matters, e.g. the band’s promotion. Joining Metal Blade was something natural for me, this label has become kind of my second family in recent years. We were in a constant contact as I produced much of the staff they lately released. When Brian Slagel offered me a deal I agreed without stopping to think. It was clear for me that I put HATE ETERNAL in good hands and I’m extremely satisfied with our cooperation so far. It’s an honour to be the part of the label which brought up so many metal giants.

- Let’s talk about the album’s contents. On the previous release “I, monarch” you managed to reach, not very common in metal, stage of intensiveness and technical complexity. How would you compare “Fury & Flames” to its predecessor?
It’s heavier than “I, monarch”. Definitely darker, very epic and emotional in my opinion. It’s one of the features that make me especially proud – this massive, sinister, epic, full of emotions atmosphere. Besides, there are lots more melodies here, solo parts, brutal and aggressive moments sometimes even more intensive than in the past. The new musicians who joined HATE ETERNAL some time ago contributed to this album very much. Our new drummer Jade Simonetto did his best, we were all working like maniacs and he was trying his best for the rhythm section to be like never before in HATE ETERNAL. And we know that the standards were set high. I think we managed to do that no only if it comes to drums but we also made a big step forward in guitars. However, the album was created very spontaneously, we just let it flow…

- It’s hard to believe when listening to “Fury & Flames”. Although in fact there are several more clear fragments, the nature of your music is still far from playing three riffs and it’s all. “Fury & Flames” is damn really dense and complex album!
Of course you’re right but as you’ve said, it’s our music’s nature. It’s just like that. There are no forced ideas, things which we did only to prove that we can intensify our expression. Of course we could do that, load tracks with numerous solo parts, stuck it in countless riffs, vocals or, let’s say, keyboards. No problem! The point is that although we were many times accused of too ambitious attitude towards music, HATE ETERNAL never had or wanted to prove anything anybody. You know, I was always engaged and passionate about music. I try to create intentionally and I want my albums to be called classical. Other thing is that the band set the standards very high from the very beginning and I try to higher it with every other production. This time I wasn’t looking for any revolutionary solutions, like those on the previous album. I mean all those tribal beats or more harmonically advanced guitar parts. I think that every HATE ETERNAL album should be unique and repeating of some ideas that were distinctive for a certain album would undermine my theory. In death metal niche there is still much place for experiments and I won’t waste my time for repeating myself.

-You’ve touched on the important question in that what you’ve said. Do you suffer agony if you have to constantly answer questions like – will you be able to play faster, heavier, more intensive, more technical? I get the impression that for many people this became the main determinant for your quality.

Yes, I know about that. People were asking me those questions just after we released our first album. (laugh) Sometimes I just don’t know what to answer. I keep HATE ETERNAL going for 10 years or so and every successive album that I record is more extreme. So as you can see it’s possible (laugh) I’ll put it this way, HATE ETERNAL is definitely not the most technical band in the history of death metal. Personally, I know many other bands playing definitely more complex and technically advanced music. HATE ETERNAL is undoubtedly intensive and brutal, but also on this field I could find a few bands outshining us in this case. Our music is what it is because I think that those features are essential in the style of the music we play – death metal. But if somebody thinks we’re too death metal then I don’t understand fucking anything. (laugh) Death metal is an extreme sort of music, it’s not for wimps. It has to be furious, aggressive, brutal. There are of course many dimensions of this extremism cause despite MORBID ANGEL, NILE or CANNIBAL CORPSE playing extreme death metal, they all do it in their own way. The same is with HATE ETERNAL. We’ve managed to work out our own style and we try to develop it. No one will of course deny our evolution, it’s obvious. You can say we’re the band demanding a bit more attention and I agree with that. But if somebody states that our music is one never-ending blast, and I meet such opinions very often on the Net, he might have never listened to HATE ETERNAL. By the way it’s probably the most unjust stereotype about us. I don’t give a shit. If you really love brutal death metal I don’t see a point in not loving HATE ETERNAL.

- Have you ever wondered how far you are from the boundaries of physical abilities, of course if we assume that such boundaries exist…?

No, I don’t bother at all. Everything changes, taking into consideration still bigger technical possibilities connected with sound engineering and recipients’ perception alike. 20 years ago or so such album as “Reign In Blood” was considered to destroy any rules, while today many of us will regard it as a completely common material (laugh). It’s the best evidence for uselessness of creating artificial boundaries. I don’t give a shit if we’re able to record something faster, more intensive or brutal in the future. I just want to record good material and usually the best staff is created when there’s no calculating and high-flying. I’m much better musician and composer than I was a few years ago and I still try to develop my work. I’m not concerned about all those speculations if the new album will outshine the previous one. Thinking about it is an unnecessary rubbishing your mind.