Interview with Hellbringer

Australian thrashers Hellbringer recently released their debut album, Dominion of Darkness, under High Roller Records and we had the chance to catch up with them and find out a little bit more about what makes them tick.

Hi guys and thanks for taking the time to chat to us today.  Before anything else, for those readers of the site who maybe haven’t heard of you can you give us a bit of background about yourselves?

Well we started in 2007 originally under the name Forgery.  Me, my brother and a mate just wanted to start a band playing stuff that we worship. We started out playing covers by bands like Sodom, Slayer, Venom etc and then started writing our own stuff and recorded a self-released EP which Iron Pegasus later re-released with two new bonus tracks.  We changed our name to Hellbringer just before the release of our s/t EP by Iron Pegasus because there was already another band from Norway called Forgery.  We thought it would be best to avoid confusion plus I think Hellbringer is a better name anyway!

How would you describe the band? Where are you from? How long have you been together?

Fast, evil and heavy speed from Australia!  Well the band has been going for about 5 years all up but we have had slight member changes, the name change and all that since then.

This is your debut album, how did you approach the writing and recording of it?

The way we do it is usually write riffs and such at home and then show each other at rehearsals and think of more ideas/add on to it there. That’s generally how we do it and pretty much how we did it for the album. We all pitch in with ideas.

The album was recorded in about 2 weeks at a studio here in Canberra.

Where did the inspiration for the album come from?

From all the classic bands we like and to do this sort of music the right and honest way pretty much.

Can you give us a quick description of what each track is about?

All the songs are pretty much about evil and darkness. Our songs don’t have deep meanings we just write lyrics that we have interest in and which suit the music.

Who did you work with on the production and creation of the album and cover work?

Harris Johns produced it and Andrei Bouzikov did the cover art. They both did an excellent job!

Do you think it’s difficult for a metal band in your location to be seen and heard outwith your own country?

Not really with the internet these days. A band can be generally heard no matter where they are if they have an internet connection. And of course, labels make things much better too.

What are the plans for the rest of this year and moving into 2013?

We will be finishing this year off with a small tour of 3 cities promoting the album. Next year sometime we might start working on some new songs but there’s no huge rush. We haven’t even played most of the new album tracks live yet!

Are there any messages that you would like to pass on to the readers? 

Thanks for the interview. New album is available from High Roller Records.
Thrash with the Beast!

Hellbringer are:
Bass/Lead Vocals – Luke Bennett
Guitar/Backing Vocals – James Lewis
Drums – Josh Bennett

LINKS:
www.facebook.com/Hellbringeraus
www.myspace.com/hellbringeraus