EMQ’s With Hatred Reigns
EMQ’s With Hatred Reigns
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Canadian Extreme Metaller, Hatred Reigns. Huge thanks to them for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
To the Hatred, I am Jeff, the guitarist and the founding member of Hatred Reigns back in the Summer of 2015. Our current line-up is a 4 piece, whereby each member contributed to our self-recorded 8 song concept LP entitled “Awaken the Ancients”, available December 1, 2023. The album was mixed and Mastered by Mitchi at Dark Moon Productions studio.
Hatred Reigns are:
Vocals = Mitchi Dimitriadis (Harvested, MIM, Insyte, Thalassophobia, ex-Misshapen)
Guitars = Jeff Calder (ex-Dichotic, ex-Deformatory)
Bass = Adam Semler (A Scar For The Wicked, Harvested, Misshapen)
Drums = Neil Grandy (ex-Dichotic, Deformatory).
How did you come up with your band name?
Determining a band name has proved to be quite a challenging endeavour. I had an album concept developed first in the Summer of 2015, and then one day at work while listening to Hate and happened to be looking at the artwork for Slayer’s “Reign In Blood”. Verifying the name was available solidified the band name.
I had criteria when creating a band name: Not another D-named band as I had previously played in two (Dichotic and Deformatory). I wished for three syllable names, as chanting da da da, da da da of a band name at concerts is quite common. Be available and not pre-existing. Lastly, I wanted a name that allows the listener to formulate their own interpretation of the band name. Hatred Reigns encompasses all of these criteria.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
Hatred Reigns hails from Canada’s Capital Region of Ottawa, Ontario. The city benefits from being close to Montreal, QC, and Toronto, ON which have a history of producing top-quality bands. Montreal of course is hailed as producing incredibly talented Technical Death Metal cities.
Ottawa has its own scene that has super-talented musicians. Some of the top Metal bands have garnered musicians from Ottawa: Annihilator, First Fragment, Soen, and Suffocation to name a few.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Awaken The Ancients is an 8-song concept LP album which is broken into 2 Realms. We wrote and recorded the album by ourselves here at my house; we were also fortunate to work with Dark Moon Productions to Mix & Master the album at their studio
Realm I: Affliction. The protagonist is fed up with the anguish of the leaders of this world and takes their life. Their journey continues as they fall into an abyss of darkness. A one point they go inwards and explore their mental state as they question their current circumstances in an ethereal realm.
Realm II: Affirmation. Alerted to the awareness of a new environment, the protagonist is forced to determine the course of their fate and embark on a treacherous journey towards a distant land. Throughout the course of their journey, they are challenged by demons above and below thwarting their course in hopes to entrap them or discourage them from continuing towards Necropia.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Hatred Reigns doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, instead, we blend our favourite old with new extreme Metal influences into the songs you hear on Awaken The Ancients album.
There are definitely homages and threads of Extreme technical bands such as Cryptopsy, Suffocation, and tastes of Archspire or Origin mixed with even degrees of Pantera, Carcass, Behemoth, and anything else we decided to throw into the blender and see what made the cut. This is how we approach writing songs.
Kirk Hammett once said “To imitate is to create” but add your own style and flavours to it, don’t flat-out steal or mimic the bands. There are plenty of songs that I would try and learn, and those riffs would inspire me to come up with a different variation than the starting point. Then add in the other instruments and the riff sounds nothing like the original riff idea. Which is fantastic as it gives our own style of how we compose Hatred Reigns music.
What first got you into music?
My roots in Metal start with Iron Maiden’s 1986 release Somewhere In Time even though my brother and neighbour BMX group would ride with Alice Cooper, RATT, Ozzy, and such playing. Yet, it wasn’t until April 1989 that my brother went to see the “And Justice For All concert”, but refused to take me as I was 13 or 14 at the time so not old enough to attend the concert. The next morning, I woke up to see the Lady Justice shirt and more specifically the Hammer Justice image on the back of the ‘Harvester of Sorrow’ shirt with the members’ faces that got me truly excited to discover who this band with such killer shirts were. In so many ways, my brother is responsible for introducing me to metal music. And as much as I do love the double harmony axes of Iron Maiden guitars, it was the release of Metallica’s ‘One’ video that came out around the same time on Much Music’s Power Hour that was constantly being played. That song epitomized my passion for metal and became the anthem that inspired me to play Metal. Which quickly had me discover Canada’s Sacrifice as they were the soundtrack used for the Power Hour. Which also introduced me to Slayer, Sepultura, Megadeth, Exodus, etc! I was hooked and took up playing the guitar Spring of 1989 as well. Got my first Kramer guitar that summer of grade 9. Never looked back and still love playing Metal music.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Oh man, this is a loaded question. If I were to develop a prog rock band as I do love that genre I would wish to play with John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Shawn Reinart and Shawn Malone (RIP) of Cynic, with Geoff Tate as the vocalist. But of course, I would have John Petrucci perform all the solos cause he rips.
If it were an Extreme Metal band, I am torn as there are so many to choose from. Chuck is legendary but have to admit learning about his bouts of touring seems to tarnish his image. Though the man created such incredible music. But I would love to have Frank Mullen as the vocalist, Flo Mounier as the drummer, guitars wise Hobbs is a genius but again Chuck was in his own right. And yet, Origin / Archspire / Obscura / Septycal Gorge all are phenomenal, yet I have to say that Hobbs or Jon Levasseur are the 2 icons that I hold as my top favourite composers in this genre. Not to discount Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide or other such founding musicians.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Can we play the Moscow festival from 1991? Anything in Prague would be incredible. Hellfest always looks amazing. 1000 Tonne Cruise would be a splash or even the more recent Mediterranean cruise. Bottom line is anywhere that we can bring our music live to the masses and have raging pits happening and the audience responding to the music sounds good to me!
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I’ve had a piece of drywall be passed to me from my vocalist from Dichotic who he himself had moshed so damn hard that he crashed through the wall at a concert we had organized. It was hilarious and yet so bizarre. I know that a bandmate doesn’t exactly count as a fan, but it was truly bizarre.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Support your local scenes. Come out to shows and encounter musicians of the younger age to practice their instruments. We need to pass the torch down to the youth of this day in age to ensure that metal music continues to thrive and see younger talented musicians stepping up and striving to emulate their idols and create their own music. Metal Heads Unite!
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Damn, this is another tough one to answer, just one? Dimebag, Chuck, or Sean Reinart are who I am torn between as these 3 guys have inspired me in so many ways. I didn’t have the honour or pleasure to meet Dime or Chuck, but Sean was a beautifully talented soul who was so very gifted and taken from us far too soon. These 3 musicians all had a huge impact in the genre, and I know we all would wish that they could still be here today carrying the torch and rocking out on the stages!
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I will start with what I hate = lugging gear in and out of venues is one thing. Dealing with musicians no matter what always sucks when we clash or have squabbles. We become a family of course but still sucks to have the focus derailed due to a squabble. And I won’t deny, I have been the cause of some of these moments, or I fight for something I believe is essential to be translated or captured and that isn’t always received well. But there is always areas to compromise and celebrate the wins and let go of the losses.
Which is what I lost most about being a musician. Accomplishing this album is a huge highlight. How many people get to do what they truly love and see it through? Through many challenges of time, losing members, and complications that derail the process of recording, the key aspect is preserving and not settling, keep going after making such goals possible. Releasing this album seems like such a daunting goal and yet here it is. Departing was originally conceived in 2005 before I even started working with Neil on that song in a previous project that didn’t get released. So I can attest that sometimes good ideas take years to come to fruition and be heard, yet believing in oneself and staying the course ultimately does allow one to reap the rewards. But that doesn’t mean the road taken isn’t full of challenges, the key is to not give up! USE THE FORCE LUKE!
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
I do wish labels would help promote the artists more with regard to touring. Not that I have first-hand experience of this, but what we are exposed and visible to with our icons who created and wrote incredible music, but they don’t receive the degree of funding that we as the listeners may believe that they do. Touring itself is hard on bands financially and mentally/physically. But will say that the journey and pathway to standing in front of the audience and performing one’s music is an incredible feeling. However, being prepared and performing to one’s best of abilities requires a lot of focus and preparation to truly bring a solid performance to the fans.
How people listen to music has drastically changed also, the days of standing in line to buy a tape or CD back in the 90s and listening top to bottom over and over again. Using a pencil to rewind, or having a tape eaten and can’t buy a copy of your favourite album so would get a copy of a copy of a friend’s tape. Even tape trading is a thing of the past. So how we appreciate and are exposed to music is so vastly different from than times I once knew. And yet, the exposure to such a vastness of music is so readily available. There are pros and cons to each of these aspects.
What matters most is that we don’t let music be taken away from us. In that regard, recording ourselves and controlling how the music is released or even distributed again plays into the different times that we live in between labels and independent releases Hatred Reigns is proud to say that we recorded this ourselves, with incredible support from Dark Moon Productions to allow us to use their studio to mix and master the album!
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
I can’t name 1 but I can name 5:
Death – “Human”. This album opened my eyes to how jazz elements could be fused with brutal metal rhythms that would become one of the best albums in the genre.
Cynic – “Focus”. I loved their contribution to At Death’s Door with their more brutal metal song structures, and yet upon first listen of this album, I was hooked. It was absolutely a game-changer album for the genre.
Suffocation – “Pierced From Within”. As much as I love Effigy from the opening bar of music, Pierced raised the bar to a whole new level that just hits the nerves in the right places and will always be the album that I choose of theirs.
Cryptopsy – “Whisper Supremacy”. This album changed the landscape of Brutal Metal into Extreme Metal. Emaciate, in my opinion, is the epitome of extreme metal. This album though doesn’t let up and when I want to let off some anger, this is the album that I put on.
Necrophagist – “Epitaph”. Albeit, this album took me time to come around to listen to as I was tired of all the Necro this / Necro that named bands but discovering this in 2006 changed the face of Metal again which still to this day has inspired whole other genres of Metal!
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
I haven’t truly been much of a vinyl guy, I do appreciate it but having kids or people in the house makes the needle skip, I do have a small collection of favourite albums around. 80s / ’90s I would say tapes as I broke many pencils, had many no-name Walkman die on me or worse had tapes eaten between my Walkman and tape deck so replacing these albums be they original or copies of copies was the norm. And then in the mid 90’s switching to CD’s seemed ridiculous, but I have to admit organizing my carrying CD binders for long trips to know which CD’s to switch to and not having to deal with skips or eaten tapes was nice. Until of course, you get scratches on the CD and that became costly.
But then in 2005, the government was nice enough to give me a sweet refund cheque which I used to purchase my first iPod, which comes with the joys of importing, renaming, organizing, and all the joys of technology to upload albums and albums to said device. And over the years the joys of transitioning to newer models which I still have my 160 GB iPod Classic and use except that the headphone jack is now crackling. SOOOO, to keep up with modern times we switch to YouTube or streaming from other platforms in the car.
If I had to choose though, CD’s are my preferred choice for the sound quality to be maintained and have limited hassles especially if traveling and going out of data range or such. Though a damn scratch or skip on a CD does ruin the experience regardless! Ultimately, every platform has its place in history and each person has their own appreciation. I am curious about what will come next, implants?
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
It is an honour to play live no matter what to be quite honest. Sure, there are special moments that stand out. As mentioned above, the vocalist going through a wall was quite memorable with Dichotic in Halifax. As well as performing at a few festivals with that band in the Annapolis Valley. But with Hatred Reigns I must admit that opening for Aborted and Archspire during their cross-over tour in 2018 was an incredible experience as it was a killer night of Extreme Metal music here in Ottawa!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
If I wasn’t a musician, I would have loved to have become a film producer or location scout to be able to bring film to the screen. Maybe instead I would wish to be Bond, James Bond. Drive the Aston Martin, enjoy exotic locations, and get to blow shit up. Speaking of blowing shit up, I would love to have been on Mythbusters!
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Morgan Freeman, ‘cause you need a narrator of course. Samuel L Jackson as an alternative narrator and just because he is the man. I would invite Monica Belluci and Selma Heyak because why not right? And lastly, I would love to have Howard Shore come to attend the dinner party and have him stop dinner so he can conduct the Fellowship of the Rings orchestra throughout the dinner as the music from that soundtrack specifically appeals to me in so many ways.
What’s next for the band?
Although the current album “Awaken The Ancients” drops this December 1, 2023, Hatred Reigns is working on writing music for the sophomore album. However, we wish to embrace the current release and see what opportunities to perform live come along.
As mentioned above, if there were any opportunity to travel abroad and bring our music to listeners far and wide, I would be honoured to perform this music and future material to our listeners in their cities!
Have to wait and see of course what is to come.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
Bandcamp: https://hatredreigns.bandcamp.com/album/awaken-the-ancients-2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hatredreignsband
Instagarm: https://www.instagram.com/hatredreigns/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hatredreigns1027
Distrokid: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/hatredreigns/awaken-the-ancients
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake
I am curious to bite in a delicious Barm. Hope it is soft and chewie! (CHEWBACCA ROAR!)
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Hatred Reigns is excited to share our new offering of “Awaken The Ancients” with the UK fans! We wish to bring our metal mayhem to your country in time when opportunity permits!
Reign On!
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
