Hey brutal fukken bangers,
soon you'll read this nice interview to the Austrian groove/thrashers Hellavista, that, this year, released a debut album enthusiastically reviewed by me some months ago. This interview was born in a way a bit different than the usual because it was Ivan Magdalena, the boss of their label Art Gates Records, that asked me to interview Hellavista. So, here you a chat full of more or less original questions to Hellavista, that, at a certain point, becomes the...interviewers! But no spoiler, so...
ENJOY THIS INTERVIEW!!!
Hey men, how are you? Do you want to start this interview by telling a story of Hellavista? What were your aims when you founded them?
Hellavista is in a way the successor to the band Freund Hein in which Glaso (Git), Harry (Voc) and Hias (Drums) already achieved nationwide success and released several albums. On the other hand, Hellavista is a band of its own and its main goal is to kick ass and spread the glory of Satan. And of course, to be fun and good times for us and our fans.
Speaking about Freund Hein, how has been important the experience in that band for Hellavista? For you, are there some similarities between these two acts in terms of sound, attitude etc.?
Of course, Freund Hein is still deep in our DNA as a band. I think that the similarities in sound are obvious as half of the band was in Freund Hein, but Hellavista is more than an updated version of its predecessor. The network and experience from the times of Freund Hein are of course a great starting point for Hellavista to step on the scene and build up a fanbase of its own.
What is the real name of the band: Hellavista or Hellavista Asocial Club? And why did you chose a name of this kind?
We use “Hellavista” most of the time, still in written form it is dubbed “Asocial Club”. Kind of as a tribute to Buena Vista Social Club.
As you read on my review, I appreciated veeeery much your debut album “Robolution”. Maybe, what impressed me mostly is its variety since every song is different from the other ones but, at the same time, your sound is always recognizable, also thanks to the aggressive but catchy vocals of D. Harry. Are you agree with me? What was the most challenging song during the recordings? Is there something now that you would like to fix about the album?First of all, thank you very much for the great review, we always appreciate it when people take the time to listen to our music and we are very proud of having our signature sound without sticking to genre clichés too much. None of our songs are really easy to nail perfectly in the studio, but the more challenging ones are probably “Hellevator” and “Rest in Pain”. To be honest, we are rather satisfied with our album, the only thing we would like to fix is to bring it to the attention of a wider audience. But we are eagerly working on that.
Who are the composers of the album? If they are two or more, what is the style of every composer? For example, who is the one that prefer to write the most aggressive songs?
The songs on "Robolution" are mainly written by Glaso, with the lyrics being the work of Harry. The arrangement was completed with Hias' input and drumming, so what you hear is mostly put together by the same team.
Maybe, the most special tracks of the album are “Attack of the Demon” and “Screwdriving Away” because of their strong rockish tunes à la Deep Purple also due to the keyboards of Hombre. Why do they sound so rockish if compared with the other songs? And how was possible the participation of Hombre?
I think the rock-vibe definitely comes from the organ, played through a trusty Marshall JCM 800 in combination with some more classic rock inspired lines, mainly on “Screwdriving Away”. Hombre has been in Freund Hein as well and is a longtime friend and associate for most of the band members. He only quit Hellavista in early 2017 so most of the songs already had a keyboard arrangement written for them. There is in fact a very limited version of "Robolution" called “Hombre the Bulgarian Edition” with all songs featuring Hombre, which is only available at our concerts.
In according to Metal-Archives, you have a line-up with six elements, included the same Hombre but, also through your words, you are definitely a quintet without any keyboarder. So, doesn't Hombre anymore belongs to the current line-up?We are currently a quintet with dual guitars, but as I said Hombre is a good friend of the band and he is still sometimes featured at our Vienna live shows.
Please tell us about the lyrics of every song. What are your main influences (movies, books, etc.) in writing the lyrics?
Most of the songs on "Robolution" tell a story about how people built robots to serve them but were enslaved by their creation and had to ask for help from below to fight back against their mechanized overlords. But to be quite frank with you, the way I know our singer they might have very well been influenced by lots and lots of alcohol as well.
“Robolution” lasts only 30 minutes per 8 songs. Why is it so short and with relatively so few tracks?
We tried to mostly focus on quality rather than quantity. Also, it was very important to us to keep listeners entertained and thrilled through the entirety of the record. And as with most thrash metal bands you get the same amount of notes in a 30 minute LP as a rock band would put on a 60 minute album.
How is born the collaboration between you and Art Gates Records? I think that this label is perfect to promote your kind of music!
Well, we played a few gigs with our friends from the Swiss metal band Exit, which you should definitely check out if you haven’t already and Art Gates made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. They have got a great roster of underground bands and we are very happy to be with them.
You made the promotional videos for the titletrack and “Hellevator”. Why did you shot the videos just for these songs? Are there some funny anecdotes about the making of these videos? Surely, the intro made for “Hellevator” is very funny and comical!
There actually is a third finished video to “Dark Redeemer” which was shot at our album release show in April soon to be released. When shooting "Hellevator" we used a proper stunt-bottle to knock Harry over the head. I think pieces of it still stick about everywhere in our rehearsal room. "Robolution" was shot in an old coffin factory, which we find to be a very metal fun fact.
I don’t follow very much the Austrian extreme metal scene, apart the usual Belphegor, Abigor and few more underground bands. So, how is the situation about the heavy metal music in your country?
Well, Austria has a very lively scene with lots of cool and sadly very underappreciated bands. One of the main issues is the lack of shows that would feature international acts alongside local underground bands. There are great venues and almost all important bands of metal play at least one gig in Austria on their tours, which are often sold out and very well visited. Pure underground shows on the other hand struggle to get the audience they would deserve, but I think many promoters really do their best to bring Austrian bands to a wider audience. Our metal scene, like in most countries, is very much like a family. Not very large but consistent and you really feel at home with them.
And what’s about the situation in your city, Vienna? What are the better places in Vienna where it’s possible to attend good metal live gigs? I have to say that I visited your city in the last year, and it impressed me a lot! Vienna is beautiful!
Thank you very much! I think the best places to be for live music are Arena, Szene Wien, the Viper Room and the Escape Metal Corner. Also, I’d like to point out the Battle Axe as a great place to meet other metalheads and drink beer. A lot. Feel free to write us when you visit Vienna the next time, maybe we can have a drink or eight. (Oh yeah, man! - ed.)I use to mosh a lot in the metal and HC shows, so is there some mosh pit during your live gigs? What your tracks provokes the moshing heads? I imagine that “Rest in Pain” is one of them, isn’it? Are you happy when your fans unleash all their moshing fury during your shows?
To be very honest with you, most of the times our shows are a little too small for a full blown mosh pit to form, but when it happens, "Rest in Pain" and "Dark Redeemer" are great songs to mosh to. As probably every band, we are always very happy to see our fans having a great time and a mosh pit or crowd surfing feels very much like a compliment to our playing.
How many live gigs are you used to play every year? When someone offer to you to play on stage, what are the factors that convince you to accept or not the gig?
At the moment we play about five gigs a year, not counting tours which might happen soon. We mainly play because we love to bring our music to the stage so we accept most gigs we are offered. However, we need a proper PA system and a significant amount of free beer, plus we like to have all of our expenses for the trip etc. covered.
Are you preparing a tour to promote your album? Soon or later, I hope that you will play in my city, Rome, so we can drink also some beer together!
We are working on setting up a European tour as soon as possible. Of course, I don’t know yet if Rome will be on our route but feel free to hook us up with any promoters that you know. We would love to play a show in Rome and we are definitely in for some beer! (Ok, I can suggest to you some promoters like MarcoMetalFabbro or the antifascist Metal Against Shit. - ed.)
Something unusual: is there a question that you would like to ask to…me? Now it’s your turn to be the interviewer…even though only for this moment haha!
What was the first band you interviewed, how did you get started? And what is your favourite song on “Robolution”?
Well, the first band I interviewed was an Italian black metal duo called Rovina ("Ruin" in Italian), in occasion of the first issue, released in August 2008, of Timpani allo Spiedo when it still was an e-mail zine (in fact, you have to know that, in the first times, after finishing to write an issue, I used to send it to my metal contacts through, indeed, e-mail). In addition, Rovina was the very first band that accepted to help me in order to start this adventure named Timpani allo Spiedo by sending their first demo to me. I remember I contacted them through MySpace that, back then, was used by many many bands, as you know. That's how I started.
...other future news for the band?
We are working on new material for our second album and hope to be playing a tour as soon as possible.
Ok men, this interview is ending its path. Thanks you very much to replying to all these questions, and now feel free to say what you want . See ya and 666!
Well people, thanks for reading, support your underground, drink beer and hail Satan! \m/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hellavista/
Art Gates Records: http://www.artgatesrecords.com/
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