HERMH

Vampires strike back

In just three weeks the whole metal world will have a chance to taste the fresh blood coming out from Poland. „Cold+Blood+Messiah” is fourth full-lenght effort of Białystok based crew, and first one which will be released by REGAIN RECORDS outside HERMH’s homeland. Quality melodic, atmospheric and furious black metal is the name of the game. Band’s leader told us about: the line-up changes, new album’s creating process and unconditional worship of Freddie Mercury. Ladies and gents here comes big Bart.

-Before we’ll start to talk about „Cold+Blood+Messiah” let’s go back to the previous release. With „After The Fire – Ashes” you’ve finished the Eden’s trilogy. How would you describe the feeling that accompany you when you look back at this chapter of your history?
The concept for this trilogy was born back in the days of “Angeldemon”. When I reactivated the band in 2004 I had a clear vision of how our comeback to the scene would look like. And that’s where the concept of the trilogy came to life, 2 EP’s and 1 LP. Looking at this trilogy makes me feel that we’ve created a solid material with our own musical personality, our own style. But when it was done we felt exhausted, and new direction had to be chosen. I’m glad that this trilogy was done, it’s a solid base to what we do now and for setting new goals. We are stronger than ever and our experience is far more superior now than it was before recording the trilogy.

-The EP was also released in limited version together with your first official DVD „The Spiritual Nation Born”. It’s great opportunity for those who may not know your band to see what HERMH is all about. If I had to complain I’d only ask why didn’t you film a pro shot full show?
The DVD was a result of months of work, all the material included were selected through all the band’s history. Yes, it’s something of a Hermh’s Encyclopedia, and also a form of dealing with the past. I remember our beginning, I know how bands start nowadays, and I wanted to make something like a souvenir for my buddies. So the DVD is maybe homemade amateur, but it represents the times that we also were so amateur, Ha ha… Because of that it’s also true (laugh) Why there is no pro shot full show? Well, why should we spoil an amateur DVD with professional live gig? Ha ha ha… Time will come also for this ;)

-In the time between „ATF” and „Cold Blood Messiah” you’ve gone through some line-up changes. You’ve parted your ways with your ex-drummer Icanraz and keyboard player Flumen – known also from ASGAARD. How would you describe the main reason of their departure from Clan of Mradu?
We’ve changed the drummer back on tour in 2006. After that we had a permanent replacement. As for the keyboards it was similar to Icanraz case. The keyboard player had very much work with different bands and just couldn’t focus much on Hermh during rehearsals and gigs. So lineup changes were necessary.

-How would you describe the influence of new musicians on the final shape of new album? Did they contribute to any new songs? Btw. how would you describe the writing process of new songs?
With full responsibility I can tell that they brought a lot of freshness to the new material. Also the second guitarist, Maar, with his more gentle and melodic approach gave Hermh’s music a new dimension. The new drummer plays different than Icanraz, so the new album is more motor than “Eden’s Fire”. As far as Mark goes, our session keyboard player, I’ve worked with him since the first Dominium album, so I consider him as an old timer …. (laugh)

-Once again you’ve entered HERTZ studio. It’s no surprise I must say ;) Did the last session differ in any way from previous ones? Did you try any new solutions or new equipment during the recordings? Btw didn’t you even think about trying something else and not working with Wieslawski Bros?
I can’t really imagine any other place than Hertz studio. It’s a great place to work for us. I know Wieslawski Bros from way back, they are my friends, and this relation let’s us work more strictly but also spontaneously in the studio. Some things that we’ve recorded were done automatically, others were simply acted on impulse. For me, in Poland, there is no better place than Hertz for recording an album. It’s so comfortable! Hertz studio is only a mile away from my house (laugh)

-How would you answer to those who may say that your music is nothing new. That it’s typical symphonic black metal player in the way that many has one before in mid 90s and later?
The answer is simple. They are right! We play typical symphonic black metal, ones will compared it to Dimmu Borgir, others to Emperor or Arcturus. It’s nothing new… But why the hell nobody asks me why we want to play this kind of music? The answer can be only that we simply love it! We don’t pay our bills with this music so we can play the type of music that we really enjoy, that can give us satisfaction and joy

-Without any doubts melody may be seen as a key word when we describe the new songs. Aren’t you affraid that those catchy elements may dissuade the orthodox black metal maniacs?
If we were interested in trends, or the so called target, we would be playing pop music. Yeah, it’s really nice to hear that someone likes what you do, but it’s also very vain. Orthodox black metal fans don’t listen to Hermh, so I don’t think that we should talk about it any more.

-You’ve used some extra elements like: choir and clean vocals („Who Can Be Against Us”) or acoustic parts – for example in the beginning of„Gnosis”. How important if for you to find a perfect balance between aggressive and atmospheric elements in your music?
I was always intrigued with greek-catholic music, those Gregorian chants. So I’ve decided to have them on our new album. And they sound great and fit to the concept. The whole material was done in the studio with many tryouts and spontaneous actions. But the concept was prepared earlier from A to Z. It was very multidimensional so the outcome was hard to foresee.

- When you enter the top speed your music reminds me a little of DIMMU BORGIR and CRADLE OF FILTH. What do you feel when you hear such a comparison. Is it an honour or rather something that you’d like to avoid?
As I’ve mentioned before we are almost always compared to those bands. And it’s not a problem for us. If you are compared to the best it’s a kind of a compliment. There is also a dangerous part, that we will be never considered original for what we do, and what we’ve done will be always seen as a copy of Dimmu or Cradle.

-It’d be a crime not to talk about the artwork. Everything is done with taking care of every little detail. The album is released as a luxury CD+DVD digipack with great booklet. Was it your aim to impress the listener with quality of layout and the whole package?
I’m a perfectionist if you consider the final “product”. For me the whole music, lyrics and the release must be solid as a monolith! It’s a kind of fetish that I have since way back. Every time I try to come up with something new. And that’s how it’s going to look like on our every new material. It’s a great feeling to take my band’s album released this way, and unwrap it! The first touch, the felling is just amazing, almost like orgasm! (laugh)



-Band pictures were taken by your wife. I guess it makes many things easier when you have such a support from your family?
You can say that we are a collective in the service of the Devil, Ha ha !!! I scream, my wife shots pictures and my son plays a possessed child in our videoclip, Ha ha. Aga has done some amazing pictures for us and I see her development, her progress. I have a dream of saying it one time: You know who shot our photos back in 2008? Ha ha. It’s all a part of our life and it’s connected with our family. We all go to gigs together, Aga is shooting professional photo sessions and it’s all a part of our existence. It’s a great hobby, and a touch of something unique in our plain existence. The support of the closest to you is very important when having such a “strange” hobby as I do…

-You’ve filmed the grim video clip to „Hairesis” at Bolkow Castle known from the biggest polish dark and gothic fest CASTLE PARTY. Is it true that it’s the most expensive clip in polish metal’s history? Are you satisfied with the final results? Btw it’d be rather hard to see it on any TV station. Did you prepare censored version, too? ;)
This clip was a great adventure for us, working with professionals on the set. The shot was done in two days, full professional. The final effect was very satisfying and it’s really great. We’ve knew from the start what we wanted to accomplish through this picture, there were no censored versions. We don’t give a fuck about that since nobody is ever going to show this in TV. Bigger budget than us had only Behemoth for the “At the left hand…”

-„CBM” is your first album released in Poland under the wings of MYSTIC PRODUCTIONS. It’s very easy to understand that choice, because it’s simply one of the best labels in our country. Was it hard to convince Michał – who recently releases so many non-metal albums – to invest in such an extreme band like HERMH?
No it was no problem for us to convince Michal into releasing this album. When I’ve sent him the first studio recording he was like: it’s very interesting, I want to hear the rest of the stuff. After that the decision was pretty fast. And so we our under the wings of Mystic. I hope that our collaboration is doing fine and will be developing.