Stereoboard Speak To Hell Following Their Triumphant Set At Bloodstock 2011 (Interview)
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Written by Ben Bland
Stereoboard spoke to Hell guitarist Kev Bower after the band’s triumphant slot at Bloodstock 2011. The band, having been forced to split in 1987 after the death of original frontman Dave Halliday, were revived in 2008 with the help of Sabbat man Andy Sneap. Their debut record, ‘Human Remains’, was finally released earlier this year with Sneap on guitar and Kev’s brother, Dave Bower, on lead vocals.
Hi Kev, great to be talking to you. How’s your Bloodstock been?
It’s been amazing. The compere said that it was the biggest crowd he’s ever seen for an opening band on a Sunday morning. It’s been a magical experience for us really; I can’t put it in to words. We’re just so grateful for everyone who turned up to see us.
Does it feel a bit like the icing on the cake so to speak, having finally managed to get 'Human Remains' released earlier this year?
It’s only just started really. We haven’t played as many shows this year as we’d like to have done. We’ve all got day jobs and Andy (Sneap) has a very busy schedule because he’s such a brilliant producer. Also because festivals tend to book their line-up a year in advance or so we’ve generally missed the boat a bit this time around, because 'Human Remains' didn’t come out until the middle of May. We’ve been lucky to be able to tag on a bit where other bands have dropped out of line-ups and stuff. We’ve got a shed load of stuff booked for next year, including full tours as well.
Is it a bit surreal suddenly being able to turn up and play the big stages like this one after your time away from the game?
It is. This is only the eighth gig we’ve played since we came back. Main stage at Bloodstock, you couldn’t make it up really. It’s very much a dream come true. There are very few things in life that make me speechless but, well, this is one of them. It’s just been unbelievable.
Looking back at the album now, how satisfied are you with how it turned out in the end?
I’m immensely proud. We owe such a debt of gratitude to Andy for everything he’s done to make this possible. He’s waited 24 years for this to happen, you know. He was a fan as a kid and felt we’d never got our break. Obviously with his production expertise and contacts he’s been able to open a lot of doors for us. We are very proud though.
If you’d never managed to get that album out, would it always have been something you’d have looked back upon and regretted?
Yeah. The best analogy I can imagine is that you’re 22 years old and you fall in love with the most beautiful, amazing woman...and then she dies. You draw a line in the sand and you move on and it becomes part of your history. Then 25 years later you find out that she didn’t actually die but just had amnesia and she comes walking back into your life, you know, it’s like that I suppose. It might sound like a freaky kind of analogy to draw but that is the best way I can describe it. All the feelings are still there and they all just come flooding back I suppose.
There’s a line in ‘The Quest’, I think it is that goes “If you truly believe in what you do, then one day your dreams will come true”. Is that pretty much the sentiment with you?
Exactly, yes. Spot on!
Your style is quite a bit darker than many of the other traditional heavy metal/NWOBHM bands. Why would you say that is?
We were always that way really. All the material was written, well, about 60% by me and 40% by Dave Halliday. I think you write about what you’re interested in and we were both really interested in the darker side of human nature and English history and the occult and things. So that’s what we wrote the songs about and it’s great because that makes a brilliant starting point to develop a show and set of theatrics around it as well. Now we’ve found Dave, my brother, it’s just great because he’s such a killer frontman. I mean it’s good and we’ve got enough material in the can for a second album as well along similar kind of lines I guess.
Well, my next question was going to be about the future of the band and what you plan to do next?
We really are in this for the long haul now. We’re all really, really committed to it. I mean, to given an impression of how committed Andy is to this...he turned down the production job on the latest Megadeth album to do this. He’s just about finished the latest Testament record and he’s only got the new Accept album as a commitment after that at the moment. I mean, he’s talking about taking six to twelve months off to focus on touring with us and recording the second album as well. We’ve got really grand plans. It won’t just be recordings of old material. It’ll be sort of fifty-fifty brand new and old material. By the time we get to the third album then it will all be new stuff. So it is very much a long-term thing.
One of the things I noticed listening to the album was how modern it sounded despite the fact that the songs were written in the eighties. Is that mainly down to Andy’s work on the production?
Very much so. It’s a love it or hate it thing really I think. I personally would always have loved to produce an album that sounded like this because I think it suits our ‘epic’ sound. There just wasn’t that technology available then of course. All we had were cassette recorders you know. It sounds exactly like a Hell album should sound though I think. Andy’s production skill is near untouchable as well. There are a minority though, who want everything to sound really old you know.
Like it was recorded in a garage?
Precisely. If they want that then that’s fine but that’s not what they’ll get from the Hell albums, although the bonus disc of the record does feature those old-style recordings.
You touched earlier on the theatricality of your live show. Is it very important to you to make your shows actual ‘shows’ rather than just five guys standing on stage and playing?
Anyone can just stand there and play but where’s the fun in that. You want to be entertained I think. Our subject matter and image I think lends itself to a big, theatrical show. At festivals it’s all a bit different because of the limited stage times and five minute line checks and stuff but at our own gigs there’s fire breathing and exploding Bibles and shed loads of Pyro and stuff. It’s really like an event rather than some guys standing there. You wouldn’t go and watch Judas Priest or Iron Maiden and expect them to just stand there and play. There are very few bands that seem to find it necessary to entertain an audience nowadays. Maybe it’s because we’re old school. Going to a show used to be like an event you know. That’s how we see it, anyway.
Some may say it’s been a bit of a barren time for British metal in recent years. What’s your take on that?
I think there’s probably a great deal of truth in that statement. I’ve been out of the scene for such a long time but I got back in to it about two or three years ago and listened to a lot of bands. There are so many bands doing the same growled vocals, swept arpeggios, blast beats, etc. What is technically great doesn’t necessarily make a song though. I think metal is in danger of becoming stale. Maybe we’re what the world needed. To remind people about the importance of melody and actual songwriting, not just something that pummels your head for three minutes and then stops.
Thanks very much Kev, great to be talking to you. I look forward to seeing you again in the future.
No problem, thanks for the interest.
‘Human Remains’ is out now on Nuclear Blast records.
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We really are in this for the long haul now. We’re all really, really committed to it. I mean, to given an impression of how committed Andy is to this...he turned down the production job on the latest Megadeth album to do this. He’s just about finished the latest Testament record and he’s only got the new Accept album as a commitment after that at the moment. I mean, he’s talking about taking six to twelve months off to focus on touring with us and recording the second album as well. We’ve got really grand plans. It won’t just be recordings of old material. It’ll be sort of fifty-fifty brand new and old material. By the time we get to the third album then it will all be new stuff. So it is very much a long-term thing. 
