Album of the year?
Black/speed metal band Hellripper released their third album Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags this February. It is a phenomenal album loaded with stellar tracks, built up by killer riffs. Pure class. Bara Metal reached out to sole member James McBain, living in Scotland, to get to know more about the album, the songs and Hellripper.
Such a great album! I suppose you are quite satisfied.
– Yes, I’m very pleased with how the album turned out!
But working alone could be deceiving, since you hear the songs so often that you could lose focus. Does anyone help you with fresh ears and response?
– Like you say, because I do everything alone, I probably hear each song hundreds or even thousands of times and it does often become difficult to make clear judgements on things. I often take quite lengthy breaks while recording an album because of this fact. I find that once I leave things for a little while, then I can come back with a little more focus. I often ask my partner and some friends for their opinions on tracks that are in progress just to see what they think, but ultimately if I like something then I will keep it.
These breaks. Could you explain them more into detail?
– Usually it’s just leaving the album alone for a while. I’ll try listening to different music and I’ll work on other things in the meantime and when I go back to the album, I’ll feel refreshed and inspired to get stuff done.
I think every intro to the songs on Warlocks… is absolutely superb. You grab the listener at once. How important is the intro part in your song writing? Does it get extra attention?
– Thank you very much! The intro of a song is very important to me, though when writing a song, I try to make sure that every part has its place and a purpose. The intro perhaps is one of the more important things to consider though since it can determine if the listener skips the track or not.
I’ve noticed that you did a lot of splits between 2015-2018, and then stopped. Why so many then, and why none of them now a days?
– I just decided to focus my efforts on full-length albums for the most part. It was great collaborating with other bands, and I’m really happy with what was done back then! Most of my split releases were released or planned before the first full-length came out, and I had no idea that I would ever release an album at that point. It felt like it may be a huge undertaking, and it was very enjoyable to work on a couple of songs at a time as opposed to the 8 needed for a full-length. I’ll probably be a part of more split releases at some point.
Through several interviews you have mentioned non metal influences on your song writing for this album: The Beatles, Oasis, Alice In Chains and Dire Straits. Could you please elaborate on this …what did this mean for the songwriting?
– I’m a big fan of a lot of non-metal music and up until now, it hasn’t really manifested itself in Hellripper’s music. With this album, I felt the need to try something a little bit different and perhaps bring some new elements into the sound. The core sound of Hellripper is still very much black/speed metal, but I think the other influences compliment the sound well without diluting the end result. I felt very inspired when writing this album and it was the most enjoyable experience that I’ve had so far while recording.
…and could you please even tell us where in the songs we can hear these influences?
– You can hear little bits everywhere, and some things may not be noticeable to the listener because it’s in things like the song structures and production.
– You can hear a little funk rhythm in the bridge of The Cursed Carrion Crown and a few of the songs have things going on in the background, usually additional guitars to add atmosphere or texture to the sound, which came from listening to a lot of 90’s rock.
– The idea for the way that Mester Stoor Worm ends comes from the John Frusciante track Central and the guitar work on Goat Vomit Nightmare is heavily influenced by the likes of Billy Strings, Joe Bonamassa, Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler and Brian Setzer. That’s just a few examples.
It is noticeable that you love playing the guitar through the whole album. But what about the other instruments, including singing and programming of the drums. Do you find them as equally fun, and do you think that you master them as good as guitar playing?
– Guitar is always the most fun part for me and it’s what I base the majority of my songs around. It’s definitely the instrument that I am best at too. I do enjoy the other aspects of recording, though in different ways. Recording vocals for example is a tough process because it is quite physically demanding, and it depends on how I am feeling at the time to get a good performance, however it’s also one of the most rewarding parts of the process because it is – or near enough – the final stage of recording for me. So when the vocals are laid down, you get to hear the track in a somewhat finished form for the first time.
Yngwie Malmsteen once said, quiet angrily, that ”less is not more. More is more”. Hearing your songs fully packed with rather complicated riffs, I guess you agree to this way of looking at songwriting? A lot of riffs, and no simple solutions?
– Not always! Some of the best riffs ever are based around only a few notes, and some of the best songs contain only a couple of parts. Take Black Sabbath for example, it’s one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time and for the most part, it consists of one simple riff!
– Each song requires its own approach – and that could be a simple two minute verse/chorus/verse/chorus track or it could be an eight minute track with a more linear structure. As long as a song is good, it doesn’t matter to me how complex or technical it is – both ends of the spectrum are equally valid as long as it’s done well.
Your older song Bastard of Hades came up autogenerated by Spotify as a suggestion to me throughout the whole year of 2022. Do you, the artist, pay Spotify for that, or did the song start living on its own – it is truly a great song!
– Yes, the streaming numbers for that track in particular are increasing all the time which is great to see! I didn’t pay for this to happen, it just seems to have been picked up by the Spotify algorithm on its own which is great, and I love that more people are being exposed to the band because of it.
Speaking of this, I played Hellripper for my friend and he got hooked immediately. He also pointed out that Bastard of Hades was like an early Metallica tribute because of ”similarities” as he said. Is he correct?
– Thank you very much for sharing the music with people. Much appreciated, and glad he likes it. But no, Bastard of Hades was actually written to be more of a Motörhead-sounding track and any similarities to Metallica were completely unintentional.
The lyrics about the Scottish folklore – have you always done that or did it come with the new album and your quiet new location I Scotland? And is there enough folklore stories for a whole long career of more and more albums?
– I’ve always been aware of a lot of these stories and have had an interest in them for some time, though I’ve never been an expert in the subject. When I moved to the Highlands a few years ago, I started to look into them in more detail and realised a lot of them would make for great song lyrics, and would fit Hellripper well.
– There are so many things to talk about relating to Scottish folklore, stories and history that I could write many more albums on them! The next album at least will also be based on these subjects.
About Scotland – and the bagpipes. How did that part come about?
– I can’t remember how the idea first came about whether to include bagpipes on the album. But once I had decided that the album’s lyrics would focus on Scotland, the idea became a bit more serious.
– Once I had written, or was in the process of writing the title track, I knew this would be the song to use them on since it’s a very Bathory-influenced track and more epic sounding than the rest of the album. I deliberated where I wanted to put them, and originally I had them planned for the more quieter section in the bridge along with the marching snare part, but it didn’t feel quite right. The outro of the track is very Iron Maiden-sounding and I thought the bagpipes would sound great there with that rhythm and as a good climax to the song.
Did you know the musician? Antonio Rodriguez?
– I found Antonio online offering his services as a session musician and got in touch with him, and I think the part was completed the very next day.
Actually, his bagpipe outro could have been much longer! It sounds great! Maybe do it longer live?
– It was fun to try something different there. We’ll see how it works out in a live setting, though I can’t see us extending that section. The track is already nearly 8 minutes long.
Oh, well. So… the success of Hellripper – will put Loch Howl and Lord Rot on hold for some years?
– It has put my other projects on hold for the moment, though I am still making progress on new material for various different projects very slowly. Quite a few things that I had written for other bands – Lord Rot especially – ended up being included in the latest Hellripper album too.
Bara Metal 