An Interview With Hell

Oregon has long established itself as a cradle for doom metal, to the point where you’re not really surprised anymore to find out that the new band you’ve discovered turns out to be from Portland. Yet there’s still much gold to be found when you scratch the surface and venture beyond the YOBs and Red Fangs of the world. In short, there’s more to the Beaver State than meets the eye.

Likewise, the Salem-based HELL mastermind MSW would generally not stand out in your typical Roadburn crowd, where long hair, beards, and a ragged denim jacket are standard fare. You might notice the weary eyes and Lucky Strike tattoo on second glance, but you probably wouldn’t know that you’re standing next to one of the most gifted songwriters doom has currently on offer. Which I am thankful for, as we were forced to do interview in a lobby on account of the press room being unexpectedly closed – aside from one person asking for a picture with him, nobody seemed to recognize him.

I was nervous and starstruck in my own way, on account of finally meeting the other half of what I’d like to call the “Oregon Circle” that brought us bands like Hell, Merkstave, Urzeit, Elu of the Nine, et al, having already interviewed the first half, MSW’s frequent collaborator ALN (of Mizmor fame) the day prior. However, he broke the ice immediately by complementing my Primitive Man shirt and informing me that he’d release a split with them next year (which was incredibly hard to keep my mouth shut about, but turned out great, unsurprisingly).

What follows is our conversation on the third day of the 2018 edition of Roadburn, presented here at the one-year anniversary of Hell’s appearance to the storied Dutch festival.

Let’s talk about the new record. Were you surprised about the reception of it? I personally loved it, and it was one of my favorite records of 2017.

Yeah, it was better than I thought it would be.

I felt that the new record leaned more towards the doom metal side, as opposed to the previous material, which was a bit more routed in black metal and had more quiet moments. Was that a deliberate choice?

We, being me and the people I play live with, had been playing the material for a long time and I just wanted to write something that is fun to play live, too. Less slow, quiet moments, more mid-tempo, more fun on the road.

Which I thought was so great about the record. It’s all punishment until the mid-section of Victus, when that one quiet section hits like a freight train.

Yeah, that’s just how I write things. I wanted a little something like Hell III so I put that in there. Little bit of quiet, little bit of loud.

What can we expect from upcoming Hell releases?

Just more of the same.

Not a full blown black metal record?

No. As far as my own songwriting goes, I’m not a huge fan of blast beats. I prefer that groove, you know. Incorporating various influences – stoner metal, death metal.

Just as with Mizmor (whose own A.L.N. provides live drums and vocals for Hell) I think I’m hearing a lot of atypical sounds in Hell’s music, things you wouldn’t normally find in metal. So, for example, what inspired songs like “Foetorem Timere”?

Oh, I worked on that song for three years. Had it on my recorder forever, but classical – that’s my influence. I grew up with it. My ma, my grandma, and my grandpa, my whole maternal side of the family, were all music majors. My grandpa was the music professor at Western Oregon University. I grew up with classical music constantly blasting in the house. I hated it at first, wanted to listen to Nirvana, you know? Eventually, there were some songs like the romantic adagios that really got me hooked on it, with the way the harmonies would work together.

What first got you into metal?

Like most people, Black Sabbath. I started hanging out with the Burial Grounds Crew. They’d have me play bass in really crazy heavy bands and I wasn’t even really into metal. And eventually they’d show me these bands from a genre called doom metal that I had never heard of. I was around 15 at that time and I was like: “What the fuck is this shit? It’s pretty cool. I like this! I can probably write shit like this.” And they were like: “Oh dude, you totally should try.” So, I went home and wrote “Brutus” (which would eventually end up on Hell I). I went back to them, asked them if this worked, and they thought it was rad, that I should write more. And within three months, I had written the rest of the songs.

And you were 15 at when you wrote these songs?

No, no, I was 15 when I started hanging out with those guys and smoking weed. I was 17 when I wrote these songs.

That’s impressive. I love that section in “Brutus” where you just start rocking out, it’s so unexpected.

Yeah, it’s fun.

I’m not sure how much truth there is behind this, but I read somewhere that Hell was supposed to call it quits after ‘III.’ Is that true?

Yeah, I say all sorts of shit. I will get tired. My voice is gone, my throat is sore, I drink too much. The lifestyle of a musician, the touring, it gets to you – but I like playing. Sheene, who plays guitars with me in the band, is my old best friend, and we’re together in a rock and roll/blues band called The Fools. And that’s what I really love to do. Hell represents different phases of my life. Those that were really hard, like when my dad and grandparents died in the span of two years. I wrote all this music in the buildup to and the aftermath of that. Now I’m just not that bummed out anymore. And I’m not going to fake it. I see a lot of people doing – or rather faking – that sound, but I’m not feeling it. And I’m not going to produce music, if I’m not feeling that way.

So if you got the idea for a riff, you just stash it away for later?

If I have an idea I’ll record, but I only get ideas when I’m going through bad times. Or when I’m really high.

But what made you come back then?

Well, I already play live drums in Mizmor for however many shows Liam (ALN) wants me to, and he plays drums for me. I’ve got a lot of traveling anxiety, so I told him that if I go over to Roadburn, we might as well bring along all the other solo projects we are in. And I was really into the whole idea, as long as I’d be home for my birthday to be with my family, but as it turned out Hell is playing on my birthday. But yeah, the traveling anxiety, me not liking big crowds and so on, that led me to saying I’d end Hell, but I’m still here and having a good time.

Is there any new music besides Hell that you’re working on? I discovered Merkstave just a week ago and I totally fell in love with it.

Oh, Merkstave is an old one. That was started by Paul Riedl and Kyle Watson in 2007. They asked me to play guitar and then we wrote Spawn of a Lower Star. Then I played bass in a punk band called Midnight Persuasion and guitar in Teenage Handmodels, which was one of those dirty, sleazy rock and roll bands. And then of course the aforementioned Fools.

And what records have you been listening to a lot recently?

Superfly by Curtis Mayfield. Lots of Leonard Cohen, The War on Drugs, Spectral Voice. Paul is a good friend of mine. He was in Merkstave and he got me doing metal in the first place.

That new Spectral Voice record was great.

Yeah, I just love Paul and their shit is just rad to me. It’s some of my favorite death metal.

What are some sets you’re going to catch here at Roadburn?

I really wanna see Earthless – ideally, each of their sets. And Godspeed. And I wanna catch the Mizmor set. I don’t really know that many of the bands that are playing, so I’ll just walk around and try to catch a little bit of everything. And support them, buy some merch.

Defining records in your life?

The Wall. Paranoid and Master of Reality. And Peasant by Thou. Really funny people, too. Electric Wizard’s Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone.

I find it kind of funny, as I’ve seen people refer to Hell as 'Dopethrone’ being recorded by a black metal band.

People say that. I’m not really hearing it. To me, Windhand and Cough got that EW sound.

How would you describe Hell to someone?

I don’t really know. I mean, there’s blackened doom or however the terminology for that may be – there’s so many different names. It’s hard to describe. It’s a lot of different things, but I can tell you what I like. A heavy tone, low tuning, a good rumble, thumpy bass, tight snare, and a punchy, huge kick drum. Echo on the vocals, so it sounds like you’re in a trance.

Oh, I loved the bass sound on the new record, it’s absolutely rotten.

Yeah, I recorded that one with a guitar amp. Been using the same Fender combo for all my recordings since Hell I. I don’t even know what it is, but it sounds cool.

Last question: What five objects would one have to lay into a Pentagram to summon you?

Oh, Liam already warned me about this question. A blackface Big Muff. A pack of Lucky Strikes. A bottle of gin. An Epiphone SG. Not a Gibson, the new ones are terrible. And a pulled pork sandwich.