Hail Of Bullets
We Are Not A Political Band

27.12.2015

This Dutch band is a treat for oldschool death metal by the fact of its existence alone. How can one resist when we’re speaking about an alliance of musicians affiliated with such legendary acts as Asphyx, Gorefest, Pestilence and Thanatos? From the very first promo demo, released back in 2007, Hail of Bullets have been universally praised for their music; their lyrics, however, may get mixed responses. We addressed our questions to the band’s founding member, guitarist Stephan Gebedi. He is also the founder of Thanatos, Holland’s very first extreme metal band that came to life as early as 1984.  

Everybody seems to have heard the latest news from the Hail Of Bullets: you have parted ways with singer Martin van Drunen, Dave Ingram (ex-Benediction, Bolt Thrower) will sing with you for one show in May next year. Do you plan to hire a permanent signer in the future, or will you continue using session guys?

Well yes, the plan is to get a permanent singer next year. After the Maryland Deathfest (next year it will be held May 26-29 – ed.) we will decide if we continue to work with Dave or look for someone else. It really depends how it works out on a personal and musical level. We will see, we’re taking one step at the time, we don’t want to plan ahead too much right now.

How did Hail Of Bullets come together? Did you decide from the beginning that it would be a full-fledged band, or did you originally intend it to be a studio project only?

I already had the idea to form a band like Hail of Bullets years ago, but it never happened until the end of 2006. Thanatos played a show in the eastern part of Holland and the support act was a band called Death by Dawn which had Martin van Drunen on vocals. Of course I knew Martin from the old days when he was in Pestilence and Asphyx but I had not seen or heard from him for years; we drank a few beers and a few more that night and I told him about forming a band with him on vocals, me and Paul (also Thanatos) on guitars and Ed from Gorefest on drums. He liked the idea and we decided to meet up with the other guys at the end of that year. I asked Theo from Houwitser as a bassist and the rest is history. Initially it was our idea to release an album and do a few festival shows, but when the album was received in such an enthusiastic way, Hail of Bullets became a real band quite rapidly…

Whose idea was it to name the band Hail of Bullets?

I think it was Ed who came up with the name. We had a few other names in mind first like Warkult and Stalingrad, but we all liked Hail of Bullets better.

Hail Of Bullets is a union of true veterans of Dutch brutal music. Had you met or collaborated before Hail Of Bullets came to life?

Well Paul was with me in Thanatos already and Theo also played in Thanatos from 1999-2001 so we knew each other and I had known Ed for a long time even before he was in Gorefest, but we never played together before. We knew Martin of course but we never played with him before.

As everyone in the band has other commitments, what process do you have in place for rehearsing, writing new material, studio recordings? How do you manage to agree on tour dates? Don’t you ever have scheduling problems?

In the beginning Hail of Bullets had to fit in with the schedules of the other bands, but it did not take long before Hail of Bullets became the main band for most band members. We work with an online schedule for all bands now and we try to communicate about planned shows and options so we don’t get double bookings. Hail of Bullets and Asphyx have the same booking agent so that also works. We never rehearse with Hail of Bullets; I think we did 8 or 9 rehearsals in all those years; we simply learn the songs at home and then we go out and play them in front of an audience.

Is it now possible to announce the reason for ending your cooperation with Martin? Is any kind of his further involvement in the band possible (e.g. as a lyric writer or guest singer)?

Well yeah, there were some personal issues with Martin. We don’t want to go into details too much but there were too many small incidents in the course of time and especially lately and it was taking its toll on the chemistry in the band. The main reason to form this band was to play death metal and to have fun together and that started to get missing. We had some great times with Martin and he’s a great singer/frontman but it was better for the band to go on without him, otherwise I’m pretty sure Hail of Bullets would have stopped after the 2016 shows…

How did you get the idea to approach Dave Ingram? Did you consider any other candidates?

Well we did have a small list with some candidates and Dave was on that list as well. We had not approached anyone yet when Dave commented on a Facebook post about Martin leaving Hail of Bullets himself. He said he wanted to help us out if necessary, so that made things quite easy. I think we would have contacted him anyway a few weeks later as I think his voice is really fitting for Hail of Bullets.

I guess many record labels would be happy to have the “Dutch national death metal team” in their roster. How did Metal Blade manage to make you part of their family? As all of Hail of Bullets releases have been out on this label, you should be more than happy with this partnership – is that correct?

Yes, most big record companies wanted to sign us. Metal Blade offered us a really good deal and there was a good feeling with the label people from the start. We signed for 3 albums so at the moment we’re a “free band” but so far we’ve been really happy with Metal Blade so we’ll see what happens with the next album.

The rarest release in the Hail of Bullets discography (at least if we speak about CDs) is the “Warsaw Rising” EP. Are there any chances of it being reissued at some point?

I think the rarest releases are the very first 4-track promo EP (released on vinyl by Iron Pegasus) and the 7 inch split single with Legion of the Damned out on Cyclone Empire Records. Metal Blade re-released the “Warsaw Rising“ EP as a limited edition picture disc last year or the year before, but at the moment there are no plans for a re-release. And a limited edition should be a real limited edition, right?

I have a few questions about your lyrics. The three albums and EP are all devoted to the events of World War II. Was Martin the only lyrics writer in the band? Do you plan to cover any other wars in your future songs?

Yes, Martin wrote the lyrics and Ed, Paul and me wrote most of the music. Hail of Bullets will remain a war themed band, but even with Martin still in the band we were thinking of moving away from actual concept albums after the 3rd one. So yeah there might be songs about other wars on the next album, no idea yet to be honest.

Your first album (“…Of Frost And War”, 2008) covered the events of the Soviet-German front, which was obviously the most important one in World War II. What made you address this topic? Do you know that Russia’s “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” (an official newspaper of the Russian Government with a circulation of 185,000 copies at the time) ran an article on this album back in 2008?

No, I did not know that, sounds interesting! Any chance you can send me a scan or a link to that article? When we started Hail of Bullets, Martin told us he already had this whole concept in mind about the eastern front for years which sounded great to us, so the music and lyrics almost came at the same time which resulted in this orgasmic debut album, haha!

The third album (“III: The Rommel Chronicles”, 2013) was a concept record covering the military career of Field Marshal Rommel, doubtlessly the Third Reich’s most talented commander. With such a topic, it must be easy to get some criticism for alleged “glorification of Nazism” – has that been the case with Hail of Bullets?

Yeah, definitely. And I remember Metal Blade not being too happy about this idea! Obviously we had to be careful with the lyrics and the artwork, but still we had a lot to explain in interviews. Obviously we are not glorifying Erwin Rommel, but he was a very interesting person from a military, historic and strategic point of view so that’s what we were trying to make clear. We’re not a political band; our lyrics are based on historical facts and not from one point of view. But you know, even after the first album we got accusations of being Nazis and of being Communists (for the song “Red Wolves of Stalin”). Anyway, fuck those people who are not able/willing to read the lyrics and only judge because of song titles etc…

In order to get the full picture of a confrontation, it is necessary to study documents and literature of both parties to it. Did you study Soviet materials, too?

Yes, I know Martin did study literature of both parties. As said before, we are not a political band so we wanted to tell the events from both points of view which can be quite difficult sometimes ‘cause the history lessons you get in school are always ‘coloured’ by the political views of the ones that won the war. It’s a good thing to study many sources otherwise you get some stupid propaganda story and that’s what we wanted to avoid.

Dan Swano has been mixing all of your releases since the first demo. Do you intend to maintain this cooperation in the future?

Dan has done a really good job so far, but we will see what happen on the next album. All options are open, so it can be Dan again or somebody else.

In your opinion, what is the reason for the existence of so many death and thrash metal bands in the Netherlands? What feeds this extremity, so to say?

Oh I really don’t know. Holland has always been a place where many metal bands have toured in the past and now as well, so I guess we were exposed to metal easily. On the other hand it was never played on the radio or TV. Holland has always been a wealthy country but also a bit boring, so maybe it was a lot of rebellion against that boring, Calvinistic, reserved mentality that has always been here. For me personally metal has always been a way of life and I would even say it’s deeper for me than anything else. I see it as the perfect outlet to channel my aggression. I know it sounds like a cliché but without metal I would be out on the streets killing people, haha…

It has been argued for a while that the Internet has killed the metal underground. Veteran musicians are divided over this topic. What is your opinion on this?

Things are different now of course than in the 1980s and 1990s. In those years real metal was born and things were far more exciting and new than now. Times were really adventurous and we were creating new styles of metal like thrash and death metal in our own little underground scene, which was fun. You had to work hard to make a decent demo tape and it was a struggle to get somewhere. But IF you got somewhere it felt as a big reward. Nowadays it’s really easy to record a song at home with good quality and upload it on the internet. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but because things are so easy these days it takes away some of the ‘magic’ and the special feeling we had back then....

Another very polarizing question is about the general quality of death metal bands of “then” and “now”. How would you comment?

We have to be honest and admit that there’s also a lot of good music being made nowadays. It’s not all empty rubbish, although there is also a lot of empty rubbish these days, haha. Not everything was better in the past, and of course it was easier to create something new and fresh back in those days than now… but when I look at bands like Behemoth, Black Breath, Misery Index, Triptykon etc I see it’s still possible to create great metal with a really distinctive sound.

When people speak about old school death metal sound, actually two schools come to mind, the U.S. one and the Swedish one. With the Netherlands having so many bands, why doesn’t anyone speak about the “Dutch death metal sound”?

The Netherlands definitely had a strong death metal scene in the 1990s and nowadays as well. I think that in contrary to the Swedish and Florida-style there is not a “definite Dutch sound” though; I mean bands like Pestilence, Thanatos, Asphyx, Sinister, God Dethroned, Hail of Bullets etc, they all sound different and all have their own sound. I really like that about the Dutch bands.

Thank you very much for your time Stephan! Could you now say a few final words to round up this interview?

We really hope to play Russia someday once we have a stable line up again, really looking forward to play there some day, and say Hi! To Mr. Putin from us, cheers!

Hail of Bullets on the Internet: http://www.hailofbullets.com/cms/

Magomed Gadzhiev
December 26, 2015
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