Music Feedback
New This WeekAround TownMusicFilmArtTheaterNews & FeaturesFood & DrinkAstrology
  HOME
NEW THIS WEEK
EDITORS' PICKS
LISTINGS
NEWS & FEATURES
MUSIC
FILM
ART
BOOKS
THEATER
DANCE
TELEVISION
FOOD & DRINK
ARCHIVES
LETTERS
PERSONALS
CLASSIFIEDS
ADULT
ASTROLOGY
PHOENIX FORUM DOWNLOAD MP3s



Crossover kings
Hatebreed bring hardcore to the mainstream
BY SEAN RICHARDSON

Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta is on the phone from a tour stop in Rochester, New York, and he’s talking about what it takes to keep his voice in shape on the road. East Coast hardcore’s most recognizable Cookie Monster is a little hoarse today, and no wonder: the Connecticut-based band have been on the road since the day after Christmas. The show, of course, must go on. "I just do what I do, man," he croaks. "It’s weird, there’s nothing special. Definitely sleep helps, but some days I won’t have a talking voice and I can still scream."

Unfortunately for his vocal cords, Jasta won’t be getting a break anytime soon. Hatebreed are taking a week off after the Rochester gig, but after that they’re off on another headlining jaunt that includes a show at the Middle East this Saturday. The big news is that for the first time in five years, they have a new album to support: Perseverance (Universal), their major-label debut and the most eagerly awaited hardcore disc to hit the streets in ages. Ever since their formation, in ’95, the band have been one of the top DIY hardcore acts in the country, particularly in New England and the rest of the Northeast. But it’s their recent alliance with the high-powered management firm No Name Music (home of Slipknot), which landed them spots on the MTV-friendly Tattoo the Earth and OzzFest tours, that has enabled the group to capture the attention of the mainstream metal audience — the most crucial (and elusive) element in taking a hardcore band to the next level.

"Everyone always says to us, ‘How do you guys do it? Vision of Disorder couldn’t do it, Earth Crisis couldn’t do it, Sick of It All couldn’t do it,’ " Jasta explains. "Growing up, watching a band like Biohazard, I always felt that they were able to gain metal fans but still do shows with hardcore bands. I’ve always tried to ride the line and be respectful to both fans — whether it’s a new kid who’s not in tune with hardcore and may just like Slipknot and Mudvayne, or whether it’s somebody who’s seen us since ’95. We don’t wanna turn people off, but at the same time, we don’t wanna limit ourselves. Which goes back to asking those questions: ‘What is the ceiling on a hardcore band?’ For us, it’s always been the sky is the limit."

Hatebreed’s ambition is fully realized on Perseverance, an unabashedly brutal album that puts them up there with the heaviest of the heavy: Slayer, Pantera, and Slipknot. At the same time, it shows the kind of punk-rock roots that were never apparent on, say, Pantera’s Vulgar Display of Power (Atlantic): the band never make an issue of their technical proficiency, and there’s a moral centeredness behind Jasta’s rage. And the gritty thrash of the group’s classic debut, Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire (Victory), has been taken to a new level of ugliness by producer Matt Hyde, who also worked on the new Slayer album.

"We had a real budget for this record," Jasta points out. "We wanted a ferocious record. By doing so, we definitely achieved a more metal sound. ‘Proven’ and ‘A Call for Blood’ are like straight-up thrash riffs. But then you have ‘Unloved’ and ‘We Still Fight’ and ‘Hollow Ground,’ which are more hardcore but [with the guitars and bass] tuned down to C. But it’s cool, because we did the Sepultura tour, we just played with Slayer — we have a lot of metal fans. Even when it comes down to the music, we try to do both."

The disc was recorded at the renowned Western Massachusetts studio Long View Farm — an almost unheard-of luxury in the low-rent world of hardcore. "It was a great experience," says Jasta. "It wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be. It was really calm and relaxed. It was weird because we’ve always worked under the gun. It definitely helped the vocals, because I felt like I was able to have more versatility as far as, like, the range of the screams. I was able to heal everyday and go back in and get that consistency over the whole record. On Satisfaction, we had to fly in a lot of stuff because I had nothing left."

Jasta formed Hatebreed as a back-to-basics response to the progressive hardcore that dominated the scene in the mid ’90s, and the band remain true to that original vision. "We’ve always tried to stick to simple song structures. It’s just like, ‘What is powerful? What sounds good?’ " The lyrics on the disc also address common Jasta ideas: revenge, despair, and — most important — strength through adversity. "You want to see me fail/You won’t get your chance," he yells on "Proven," the disc’s stampeding opener. By the time he gets to the closing "Remain Nameless" ("You try to judge me/Now I’m judging you"), he’s turned defiance into a new art form.

"You’re always gonna come across people that are gonna throw cold water on your dreams and your goals," he says, "because they limit themselves. I just think you’ve gotta work every day to get those influences out of your life. You’re never gonna live up to your potential if you have those sort of bad influences." It’s tempting to interpret the disc’s most vehement songs — "Judgement Strikes (Unbreakable)," "Remain Nameless" — as diatribes against the band’s old label, Victory; Jasta isn’t saying. (The two parties were involved in a bitter, well-publicized dispute that delayed the release of the album.) "Basically, the deal with Victory is, I can’t really talk about it anymore because the truth hurts. The guy [label president Tony Brummel] is really worried that his label is gonna look bad. Which they already do, so I’m trying to stay positive. I’m not gonna lie — the label’s awful, what they do is outright criminal. But what happened with us is in the past."

As a result of their label troubles, Hatebreed have been playing the showstoppers "I Will Be Heard" and "A Call for Blood" on the road for almost two years now. Heard back to back on the new disc, those two songs sound like the group’s most definitive work to date: mosh breakdowns and gang choruses compete for time with vicious speed bursts, and Jasta uneasily reconciles his righteous streak with unfettered hate. The band also have a few surprises up their sleeve: Slayer’s Kerry King plays the first-ever Hatebreed guitar solo on "Final Prayer," and they come as close as they’ll probably ever get to art metal on the feedback-laced dirge "Bloodsoaked Memories."

"We felt like the record was too bludgeoning up to that point," Jasta says of the latter. "I had those two riffs, and [drummer] Matt [Byrne] was down in pre-production jamming on this drumbeat — just sort of warming up. I thought, ‘Wow, that would be cool if I laid those two riffs over that drumbeat and it was just, like, a percussion interlude. But then I ended up having lyrics that fit over it. We wanted it to sound like this apocalyptic landscape, like Neurosis or Integrity. It just ended up being something cool."

Universal is handling distribution for Perseverance, but the logo of Jasta’s Stillborn label is also displayed prominently on the back cover of the album. "We did that because Universal has no creative or artistic control. And I still wanted a budget to be able to have my own street-team kids out there working the record and be able to take ads in the smaller fanzines that Universal will miss." Jasta also recently launched jameyjasta.com, an invaluable underground metal and hardcore news site.

Given Jasta’s impeccable DIY credentials, it may seem ironic that Hatebreed got their big break from a clown — Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan. "We had known Slipknot before their record really blew up," he explains. "They had come to a bunch of shows, and we had played Shawn the Clown’s bar in Des Moines. He was always a fan of the band. They saw how we really sorta lacked direction. We were being counterproductive because we couldn’t really get anybody behind us as far as management — you know, to keep track of everything and to make those power calls. I flew out and met with No Name and they were great. We’ve been with them now for almost two years."

As for Hatebreed’s happy co-existence in the oft-opposed worlds of hardcore and metal, Jasta suggests it’s something that’s just always come naturally to the band. "Early on, we played the Rat in Boston with Six Feet Under and people thought we were crazy. But we’ve always tried to gain metal fans. In ’95, when we started, Biohazard was still really groundbreaking, and bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit were ripping them off. Since then, Korn, Limp Bizkit, System of a Down, Deftones — all these bands have exploded. And it’s great, because it is what it is — it’s heavy music. People within the hardcore scene may not respect it or understand it, because they see kids in the mall or jocks that are into it. But for a band like us, we just wanna be afforded bigger and better opportunities. And if a band like Slipknot is gonna give it to us, great, because we know that we’re gonna be able to further hardcore, our lives, our friends’ bands, and everything else if we become successful."

Hatebreed were scheduled to perform this Saturday, March 30, at the Middle East, but this show has been cancelled. Check out the Middle East Web site for more details.

Issue Date: March 28 - April 4, 2002
Back to the Music table of contents.