HAIL OF BULLETS

We are not glorifying war

If you are interested in some quality oldschool death metal, you should definitely check that band out. Highly recommended, the more so because „...Of Frost And War” is undoubtedly the strongest debut album of 2008. Not one of the strongest- the strongest one! Period. Pretty good reason to interview the band, isn't it? Thanx to Metal Blade promo dept. I had a nice conversation with bald axeman Stephan Gebedi.

-Hello Stephan! Welcome to Metal Portal! How are things at your military camp?
We’re doing fine, preparing for more shows in Europe and getting ready to work on new songs...

-So you mean... Does this band still exist? Don't get offended with this question, I don't mean to be rude. Just curious... Did you form HAIL OF BULLETS to dominate the world, or maybe it was more like a „let's play some fucking metal in a good company” and nothing more?
??????? Has Poland been disconnected from the outside world recently??!!! Another attack from the German Panzer Divisions maybe?! If you would check out our website, our MySpace page, the internet in general or the international magazines you would know that we’re all over the place playing festivals, doing interviews and generally yes, dominating the world, hehe. So yes, this is band, not a project and we’re totally going for it... strange you haven’t noticed this...

-Better late than never! By the way, how many times people have already asked you about an idea of founding this band? I guess it's not your favorite part of interviews concerning HAIL OF BULLETS?
Everybody I guess, so anybody reading magazines and webzines should know by now...

-OK, so I will try no to bore you to death, although I would like to know what's the idea behind band's name and what other names did you consider? Heh... Ok, that is a joke-question but if you want to answer to, feel free...
It took us quite some time to find a good name cause most cool and short names were already taken. Since we were already thinking about the war concept, HAIL OF BULLETS seemed a cool and fitting name to us

-Some time ago you have unleashed your debut album, so that question is justified. What the response for "...Of Frost And War" has been so far? OK, it's actually sort of a rhetorical question. You know, for example all those famous electronics manufacturers don't have to advertise their products to sell them. And it seems HAIL OF BULLETS also doesn't need any publicity to promote „...Of Frost And War” in metal world, van Drunnen, Baayens, Gebedi, Eekelen, Warby- those names speak for themselves. Does it work that way for you?
Not exactly I think. I think our names generated quite a bit of attention at first, I won’t deny that, but in the end the music has to do the talking; so when the album came out, people had to judge the music, not the names of the band members and of course there were also quiet a few sceptical people, but I must say that the overall response has been great so far. Most of the reviews were VERY positive, the crowd reactions at the shows were great and a lot of people have bought the album so far and they absolutely seem to love it. So we’re very happy about all the reactions

-Yeah, you're right. Fortunately, HAIL OF BULLETS is not only about famous names in the line up. Your debut album „...Of Frost And War” deserves the highest respect also in my opinion. Of course, it doesn't bring anything new to table, but... who the fuck really cares?
Thank you! Well we for sure don’t care about being original, although I think we don’t sound like a copy of any other band. Sure, the influences from bands like AUTOPSY, DEATH, MASSACRE and CELTIC FROST are very clear, but I think we managed to create our own sound and interpretation of old school death metal. But let’s face it, we’d rather play good unoriginal death metal than bad original death metal.

-Has everything in that music genre already been said? Do you think is there still a room in doom/ death metal genre to evolve?
I guess most has been said in this genre, but obviously there’s still room to write cool songs and create a brutal sound within the borders of death metal; look at the first 2 BLOODBATH albums, DEATH BREATH and HAIL OF BULLETS.

-I must admit you guys have a real gift for writing great songs in the vein of oldschool death doom metal and that strength and certainty can be heard in every single track. But I'd rather compare that stuff to bands like ... ASPHYX, PESTILENCE, THANATOS and GOREFEST...
Hmmz, it was our goal to write great songs in the old school tradition but we also tried to stay away from our other bands; if a riff sounded too much like GOREFEST, ASPHYX or THANATOS we threw it away, cause it would be stupid if HOB sounded like any of our other bands. I’m pretty confident that HOB doesn’t sound like the bands you mentioned... I hear more similarities to AUTOPSY, DEATH, BOLT THROWER and CELTIC FROST actually.

-OK, so could you tell me some more about writing system in HAIL OF BULLETS? Who is the one mainly responsible for riffs, melodies, arrangements and so on? How do you divide up the division of labour in HAIL OF BULLETS?
Basically we all write riffs and songs but for this first album Ed (our drummer) came up with 75 % of the riffs and songs; he was very productive and simply unstoppable! Martin wrote all the lyrics and of course everyone was involved with arranging the songs, adding solos etc...

-How difficult is it to run this band as a functioning unit? What points of views are accepted by all band's members? What do you argue about most with your bandfellows?
We don’t live close to eachother, so we hardly rehearse. Music and ideas are exchanged via Email and since we’re all playing in various bands we need to plan our shows carefully. We have a big bandplanning which involves HOB, ASPHYX, GOREFEST, THANATOS, MELECHESH and PENTACLE in order to avoid double bookings and up till now it works fine. Since I take care of business things most I get the most stress when there are arguments about playing a certain show or not.. We have some arguments every now and then, but no big fights so far; we seem to control our egos pretty well....

-The weirdest feeling you’ve had listening to HAIL OF BULLETS music, or performing it on live?
Despite all our experience with other bands we were very nervous for our very first show in June. We played in a sold out club in Arnhem, Holland; the club was packed and it was incredibly hot. The crowd loved us and we had a great time but when we got off stage we felt like we had run a marathon or something; we were simply fucking dead!