The current reigning kings of hardcore metal music, Hatebreed, will be bringing their brutality to Columbus Sunday in celebration of their 10th anniversary tour.
The music will be loud and the mosh pits violent at the Newport Music Hall as Hatebreed takes the stage with Most Precious Blood, Full Blown Chaos, Gizmachi, If Hope Dies and Manntis. Though the band has been about as successful as possible in the hardcore scene, selling hundreds of thousands of albums, lead singer Jamey Jasta remains modest about his band’s success over the years.
“I’m just glad that we’re in a position that people still care enough to even interview us,” he said in a telephone interview with The Lantern Wednesday.
Those readers who cannot catch the concert Sunday night at the Newport can still enjoy the transcript of Jasta’s interview with The Lantern below.
What kind of hate is Hatebreed breeding?
The negativity we express in the music is definitely not aimless. I really feel like there is a lot of solutions out there for a lot of life’s problems, and the stuff I’ve gone through in my own life. I’ve been able to turn around some pretty bad situations and most of the time music was my inspiration to do so, so if anything, we’re trying to get out negative energy to achieve a positive outcome.
How would you describe Hatebreed’s music?
I would describe it as fast, old-school New York hardcore with modern death metal influences.
What bands influenced you guys?
Everybody from Sepultura and Slayer and Suffocation to Agnostic Front, Integrity, Earth Crisis, Cro-Mags, Killing Time, Sheer Terror, Madball.
Got anything special in store for your 10th anniversary tour?
We did the first show last night (Tuesday) and we did like an hour-and-a-half, played pretty much everything off the EP and the first album. We did a couple cover songs, some new songs, so it’s definitely – I mean there’s some songs we haven’t played in like three years, so it was fun.
What songs did you cover?
I don’t want to give it away, but it’s definitely a band we’ve toured with and that has influenced us.
Have you ever played in Columbus before?
Yeah, we’ve been playing in Columbus since ’97 … at the Newport, at the Alrosa Villa, there was a place that closed years ago we played, it was smaller bar, I can’t remember the name. That was probably ’97-’98, but in ’99 we played our first big show with Danzig at the Newport and that was amazing.
What do you think of Columbus?
I love it. We’ve always had good shows, even in the early days on the first album when the hardcore scene was still pretty small in Ohio we were having great shows, that’s why we’re coming back on the 10th anniversary tour.
What thoughts are running through your mind head coming to the city that Dime Bag Darrell was murdered in?
I’m trying to keep the outlook positive. Obviously it’s very upsetting for us having been close friends with him. You know, the fans, they are incredible and we’re not going to turn our backs on such a great scene just because of a tragic event. Plus, the music is also very therapeutic for us – we go and put our hearts into it and give Dime a shout out – that’s what he’d want us to do, he wouldn’t want us to skip a city.
Why did you pick the bands that you did for your tour?
Mainly because we wanted to give some newer, smaller bands a shot and not take out bands that were more established. Most Precious Blood is a friendship thing, we’ve known those guys … for a long, long time having played some of our first shows with Indecision, their old band. Full Blown Chaos is on my label. Gizmachi, Manntis and If Hope Dies were all submitted. Gizmachi is actually managed by Clown from Slipknot who has helped us out a ton in the past and we wanted to help them. It was great, like the first night of the tour, last night (Tuesday), everybody got a great reaction, the place was packed on a Tuesday night, people were going ballistic so we’re looking forward to the rest of it.
What kind of venue do you prefer, a smaller stage like the Newport or a big stage like at Ozzfest?
A show is a show to me, but every now and then I get an itch to get into a little bar or a small little 100 – 200 capacity club just because it’s right there in your face and everybody is going crazy.
How does it feel being in a band that has been together for 10 years now?
It’s a little surreal. I think it kind of proves how fast time really does fly. For us to still be around having gone through everything we’ve gone through, I feel proud that we’re still staying true to our message and our sound.
Do you ever go to any shows as a fan anymore?
Oh yeah. We had some time and I was recording and every now and then I would leave the studio and go check out shows and it was great. I went to see Machine Head and DevilDriver, then I went to see Meshugga and God Forbid. Recently, I went out and saw Throwdown opening for Soulfly, so I’ve been to a bunch of shows.
What’s in Hatebreed’s future, you guys got any new albums coming up or anything like that?
We’re going to have a new album come out hopefully May or June of next year, we’re going to be recording in January, February and March. We’re still deciding on a producer but things are looking good and we’ve got some killer songs, we’ve been playing two of them live.
What was it like opening up for Judas Priest and Anthrax (Oct. 5 in Bridgeport, Conn.)?
That was fun. It was little weird, I gotta be honest, it was a little weird playing the seats, just because there’s no pit and everybody’s sort-of just stuck in their seat, but everybody got up and was banging their head and having a good time. It was more of like an honor for us just to share the stage with the original Anthrax and with Judas Priest, again, who we played off-day shows from Ozzfest with them and they were so good to us, so it was great to see them again. We grew up practicing like less than a mile from that arena, so to play a big arena in a place where we started in a little basement less than a mile away, that was really a trip, that was an honor.
One of my favorite songs is “Live for this” – how do you work the mix with the more positive songs you have with the angrier stuff?
You know, to me, I think of the yin and the yang – you can’t have one without the other – and I try to maintain a balance. I think on all three records, if you were to really hone in on the lyrics you can tell there’s an even balance of each. It’s really just about expressing that stuff that I’ve never really had that outlet to express. Even still today, like with the new album material that will come out next year, there’s stuff from my past that I never addressed that I’m able to now and the outcome is positive because I’m getting it off my chest and I’m not bottling it up.
How has hosting MTV 2’s “Headbangers Ball” affected the band?
It really hasn’t affected the band. I’d say, like one way or another. I think it’s affected a lot of other bands, like as far as really establishing great careers for people because it’s such a huge medium for bands to get their music out there. For Hatebreed, we were already selling 2-300,000 albums before it came out, so we were pretty much already established in that world, but, you know it’s great that we have that medium to have our videos played because when, you know, “Perseverance” came out, “I Will Be Heard” was never played on MTV 2, so now that it’s got a chance and the new video’s got a chance, hopefully that will affect for another year to come or whatever. I just resigned (to host “Headbangers Ball”) too.
How much longer are you going to be hosting the “Ball?”
You know, as long as metal keeps thriving, metal and hardcore and every other form of aggressive music. We’ll see what happens.
What kind of lifestyle does being in the hardcore scene afford? Am I going to see Jamey Jasta on “Cribs” any time soon?
It’d be funny if we did like a headbanger’s “Cribs” because I’m sure we’d see some pretty f—ed up apartments and sh–. But no, I mean, I think that hardcore and metal music, you know, people don’t want to see things like that. I really think because of pop and hip-hop being more a decadent sort-of way to brag about people’s material things it’s more acceptable, but it just doesn’t belong.
What do you listen to when you’re not pissed off?
I’m kind of like a fanatic of this band Three-Six Mafia, they’re a rap group. I’ve been following them for over 10 years, so I have basically every release, every bootleg, every mixtape, poster, things like that.
What’s the wildest city you’ve played in?
For a while there it was Athens, Greece, but you know when the last album came out, we thought it was … more like back-to-our roots, fast, aggressive album. We didn’t think it was going to have the success it did all around the world just because we felt it was a more brutal record. I think the more brutal the music is the less accessible it is, but once we got to like South America and Japan and Australia, I was just baffled to see the violence and the maniacal pits everywhere. I mean, even on the last little short U.S. run we did, it was, New York, Philly, Detroit, L.A., people were just losing their minds.
What is it about hardcore shows that brings together the straight-edge kids, crazy people in general and even the skinheads? Why does everybody come together?
It’s just that release man. You get to the show, you forget all your problems of the week or the day, you scream your head off, you go crazy and you leave and you feel cleansed.
