With a line-up made up of current and ex-members of such Death Metal stalwarts as Asphyx, Gorefest, Thanatos and Houwitser; Hail Of Bullets pedigree was never in doubt. Back with their latest war packed opus, "On Divine Winds" we just had to get in the trenches with drummer, producer and all round Death Metal guru Ed Warby. 

The reactions have been incredible so far, much better than we hoped. We had a lot to live up to and that pressure was definitely felt by all when we were making this album. Fortunately most reviews agree that we at least equaled or even surpassed the first album, so it looks like we made the right choices! But to be honest the most important thing to me is that we ourselves are satisfied, and that’s most definitely the case.

It’s a mixture of all things that make old school death metal the greatest thing on earth: huge riffs, a massive groove, ultra heavy, down-tuned guitars, pounding drums, killer hooks and to top it all off one of the sickest throats in metal. Or simply put, full scale war!

When we started working on this album we felt we needed a lyrical subject to match the one we had on the first album (the Eastern Front), and after some deliberation Martin came up with the Pacific. At first I wasn’t sure and admittedly I didn’t know much about it, but Martin managed to convince me/us that it would work. And he was right! The shift in location made for a more epic feel in the music, there’s more melody (all doom-laden of course) and altogether the album sounds a bit more like a plane as opposed to a tank, if that makes any sense.

That’s all Martin’s doing. As soon as he heard the first instrumental demos that were to become our promo he felt it sounded like war, so he seized the opportunity to realise his long-standing ambition of making a full concept album about the Eastern Front. Beyond that it’s just something that fascinates him, not just war but history in general.

I’m particularly interested in understanding how you all approach the writing of Hail Of Bullets material. Is this a collective effort or something you all tackle alone?

I’m responsible for about 70% of all the material, and I usually write alone. Whenever I have a song idea I make a rough demo for the other guys to comment on, and I take it from there. The rest comes from Stephan and Paul, and we usually work their stuff out together at my home studio to ensure it fits in with the big picture. Sometimes we combine parts like in Tokyo Napalm Holocaust, the main body is Steph’s and the bookends are mine. Full Scale War is mostly Paul with some typical Ed-harmonies thrown in (I’m usually the melody guy), so that’s as collaborative as it gets. We rarely rehearse so actually writing a song with the whole band isn’t an option, and I find that way of working usually leads to a compromised musical vision anyway. Don’t get me wrong, it works very well for certain bands, but for us this is much more effective.

The album has a very unique cover provided by Mick Koopman. How did the finished article take shape from concept to what we see on the CD cover, I mean how much input does the band have into this process?

We gave Mick a tentative list of the song titles and some brief descriptions and he took it from there. The finished artwork is actually very similar to the first concept he did, this was so powerful already that we didn’t like any of the changes he made after. Eventually we went back to the first draft, changed the dynamics somewhat and we had our cover. Mick is a very collaborative guy and he really enjoys working with us, he also did the cover and booklet for my doom project The 11th Hour which was another beautiful creation.

You again chose to work with Dan Swanö to produce “On Divine Winds”, what makes Dan the “go to guy” when it comes to mixing a Hail Of Bullets record?

Just listen to the album, that says more than any praise I can heap upon the guy, however well deserved it is. Dan was involved right from the beginning, because of him we were able to shop for a record deal with a promo that sounded better than most albums and because of his drive and enthusiasm he really feels like the clichéd 6th member of HoB.

You produced this record this time around. What do you think you brought to the process and how did this differ from Dan’s ethic from the first album?

This is the first time I actually got a producer’s credit but in reality I’ve been producing HoB since day 1. The promo was done DIY style with me at the helm, the first album was done mostly at Excess Studios which meant I shared responsibilities with the studio staff (Dan only did the mix on that one, the actual producing was done by the band), the Warsaw Rising EP was recorded almost entirely at my home studio and served as a test-drive for the new album. Dan doesn’t like being part of the recording process and as such doesn’t do any actual producing. He does tell us how to mike the drums, or what he needs to get a good sound going, but that’s as hands on as he gets. What I do as a producer is get the best performances from the other guys, decide which takes to use and what additional parts the songs need and finally put all the pieces of the gigantic puzzle in the right place. Me and Martin also worked out the vocal lines together this time to create the most effective possible harmony between the music and vocals.

Making the album took a massive 9 months, but we weren’t actually in the studio all the time. Because we chose to record mostly in my home studio we were able to work whenever we felt like it, which creates a pleasant pressure-free environment instead of having to watch the clock ticking away several euro’s each minute you’re wasting on changing strings or whatever. I do enjoy the process of creating an album, but 9 months is a long time to stay focused so I was glad when we wrapped things up!

You chose “Operation Z” as the debut song to film a video for, how did you guys enjoy this process? I always think this must be a really alien environment for a band, having to stop and start over numerous takes.

I’ve done videos like that in the past, play the same song countless times all day long while the director moves the camera to get the shots he needs, very laborious and extremely dull. However that’s not how we made this one. It was filmed during our actual show at the Summer Breeze festival where we debuted the song in a live setting, there was a 5-camera crew present to film the show and the video was edited from this footage, much more effective and time-saving. Besides, doing a video the old-fashioned way is much too expensive considering the benefits of having a clip these days.

We’ll keep doing what we’ve done in the past, we call it “Blitzkrieg-style” and basically what we do is book separate shows or festivals, fly there and back and that way we don’t have to get on a bus for weeks while still being able to visit relatively far away countries. It’s extremely effective and takes relatively little time. We’re working on some new bookings and there’s already a few great ones confirmed such as Maryland Death fest in the US and Party.san in Germany.

Absolutely! I’m simply petrified whenever a new album comes out, scouring the net for reviews, getting terribly upset when I read anything less than positive and just generally being a wreck… I snap out of it after a while, but yes, no matter how many times I go through this it doesn’t get any easier. And I think that’s a good thing, as it makes sure I keep trying my best to deliver a good product, once you stop caring you lose your edge I think. Nobody wants a band on auto-pilot, there’s enough of those already.

What is your take on the Death Metal scene today vs. say 10 – 20 years ago? More and more old school bands appear to be making more headlines today than ever before, why do you think that is?

I hope it is because people yearn for the days when bands had actual songs instead of 20 riffs and a drummer with parkinson’s… yeah I know, that makes me sound like an old bitter man, haha! No seriously, I think quality will always prevail and there’s a lot of life left in the old bands. It pleases me immensely to see young kids at our shows, even if they were doing a silly circle pit at a deathcore gig the night before. Suffice to say I don’t think much of that scene…