The metalcore giants from HATEBREED start the year as busy as it gets. At the end of January, they’re releasing their latest record „The Divinity Of Purpose”, and after that they’ll consult the map to see where their tour will take them.
Maximum Rock Magazine tracked Chris Beattie (bass) down and spoke to him about the band’s newest material, and also about the problems that the guys have been facing because of those corporate news motherfu…sorry, manufacturers from CNN.
Read more in the interview below.
You’re new album is due in January and, in a previous interview, you said that it is going to be: „All pit, no shit”. What exactly did you mean by that?
We meant that there aren’t going to be any crap songs on the album; no bullshit, just straight up good tunes, and awesome sing-alongs.
„The Divinity Of Purpose” is only 38 minutes long. Why so short?
It’s to the point. There’s no reason to overdo stuff and it gets the point across pretty well. Our first album was only 26 minutes long, so 38 minutes is quite a lot for us (laughs). That’s more than enough of Hatebreed, and the new songs are awesome; they’re definitely sing-alongs. I can’t wait to play them live!
Let’s talk a bit about the CNN incident, and how you got accused of being a white supremacist band. Why do you think the media demonize you, despite the fact that your message was never racist?
The people who are doing the press, and especially the person who wrote the article on CNN’s website are not educated about bands and the underground music scene. He just typed into Google Search „hate bands” and probably our name came up. It is just horrible journalism – it’s not even thought out. Why would you even mention bands without searching each name individually? It’s just poor journalism, trying to sell and get people to log on to the site.
The people from CNN apologized to you after they saw that they had made a mistake. However, some harm had already been done to your reputation. Are apologies enough in such a situation?
To me it was all a bunch of bullshit. If we were saying something like that about them, then we’d have a lawsuit, we’d be in court, and so on. But they were like „oh sorry oops!” – it was just crap! I know we are not like that, and the fans know we’re not like that, so, from this perspective, they can say whatever they like. Everyone stepped up and supported us, which shows just the kind of people we and the fans are. It was good, in a way, because it unified everyone.
Your previous release, the self-titled „Hatebreed” seemed to follow a different musical recipe, with more metal touches, and a more flamboyant style. It definitely marked a change in your song writing. Why didn’t you go in the same direction with „The Divinity Of Purpose”?
I’m not afraid of metal but the last record was a bit more experimental; we were trying out some new stuff. With this record we just wanted to make something that we loved. We accomplished it and everyone is proud of the record. We got many positive reviews. Usually, wee don’t sit around thinking: „hey, maybe we should write something more metal”. Some ideas are old, some new, but we just go with the gut most times.
You are a band that has always relied on minimalism. What do you think about this trend embraced by some bands who overproduce their stuff and write extra-long albums? Nightwish is a good example in this sense.
That’s up to the artist. It’s all about the freedom to create whatever they want. If they’re feeling that, then go for it. There’s people who are into it. Whatever people are feeling, what moves them creatively, just go for it. Nightwish are a different world from us. I respect everyone out there making a living out of music.
Your genre has always been very incorporative, but is there something that you’d never-ever put into your music?
Electronic crap. That’s horrible! Like dubstep, for instance (laughs). Ah, well, it’s not bad, but it would never fit into our music.
How did the tour with Lamb Of God and In Flames go?
We had a good time and it was cool. Everyone was very good. We’ve known the guys from LoG for a long time. We never toured with In Flames before but we got to know them and it was great. Even Sylosis were awesome.
Did you express your support for Randy Blythe (lead-singer for LoG), seeing as he is going through some tough times right now, with the trial and all? Did you feel any tension whatsoever because of this issue?
Not really, no. We didn’t feel any tension. He has a good outlook on everything. I’ve seen people not being able to deal with such situations. He seemed pretty solid. It is a horrible predicament and I definitely wouldn’t want to be in his shoes, but he’s got it well together.
Any plans to come back to Romania?
Of course, at some point in time. We will do some new stuff and we’ll be back in Europe in January. Everything has been great in Romania, so we may be back there even possibly this year!
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