If we could describe Hatebreed’s musical career — which after emerging from Connecticut’s metal and hardcore underground in the ’90s now spans two decades — in one word it would be this: Consistent. Sure the band’s seen ups and downs: their metalcore-defining debut Satisfaction is the Death of Desire helped define the now-massive Victory Records; in the mid-aughts Perseverance and The Rise of Brutality made them juggernauts in their own right; singer Jamey Jasta would become host of MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball; the band would earn a gold record after appearing on the Punisher soundtrack; heck they even earned a Grammy nom. Still eight LPs in the band is known for delivering the same goods — namely an equal blend of uplift and rage and set to rhythmic apocalyptic riffage.
As Jasta explains Hatebreed views that consistency as a virtue. “Our first record is like when you’re a teenager and you discover your first hardcore record” he says. “I look at it as our training-wheels album. But for everything after that we were professionals. Once you can live off of music your outlook on everything is totally changed. If you have fans and your fans are rabid and want a certain thing you have to give them what they want…. Having to deliver it every time I see that as our responsibility.”
It’s clear that Jasta means everything he says. When we reach him he’s awake at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning signing merchandise to send to fans. So yes Jasta feels a sense of duty and that’s clearly audible in their music. He’s not shy about listing Perseverance and The Rise of Brutality as their biggest successes but spin their metallic 2009 self-titled album or the galloping punk-inflected 2013 LP The Divinity of Purpose and you’ll find that Hatebreed’s as consistently punishing as ever. Jasta’s built an institution and he’s done little to undermine Hatebreed’s legacy.
That isn’t to say however that the band hasn’t evolved. Yes Satisfaction heads (like me) can find wonderfully meat-headed pit-minded arrangements on The Divinity of Purpose but the band is still tweaking its formula — O.G. bassist Chris Beattie for instance has more songwriting responsibilities and groove-laden tracks like “The Divinity of Purpose” says Jasta come directly from the bassist’s noggin.
“[In writing new songs] I was at the point where I was going through my riffs and I was like ‘This just sounds like old stuff’” he says “And I know that when you’re an established band you have to do that — like Slayer has to have Slayer-sounding riffs. But my style is limited because my playing is limited…. I write things from the standpoint of a guitar player or a singer.
“With Chris he’s always writing and when he showed me the bassline for the beginning of ‘The Divinity of Purpose’ I was like ‘This is great! It’s entirely a breath of fresh air from what I do.’ There are a lot of old-school Hatebreed parts to keep older fans happy but there’s a lot of newer ideas [in our music] and a lot of those ideas Chris brought to the table.”
At their core though Hatebreed’s durability comes from their ability to slot on nearly any heavy-music bill. Indeed they’ve built a wide-reaching audience something that surprises Jasta. (For instance he says that during their Perseverance anniversary tour they didn’t draw the nostalgia crowd — many fans showed up expecting new songs.) Indeed Hatebreed’s slotted in with artists ranging from modern deathcore to ’90s hardcore stalwarts and in conversation Jasta casually brings up a staggering variety of bands they’ve shared a stage with: Whitechapel. Earth Crisis. Exodus. The Vogel-riffic Despair. And for their current tour Black Label Society.
Their penchant for varied bills in fact comes from their Satisfaction is the Death of Desire days. They supported that album for four years establishing themselves in countless heavy subgenres. “We found a flyer from ’95 not too long ago where we opened for At the Gates Napalm Death and Sick of It All and the show was packed” he says. “But when we were handing out flyers people were like ‘This is a weird bill.’ And we were like ‘Why? Why is this weird?’
“Scott Ian from the Get Thrashed documentary said that we brought metal punk hardcore and death metal together which was nice of him to say” he adds. “But when we tried to do those old tours certain people frowned upon them…. Even when we took out Napalm Death or Exodus or Type O Negative we got a lot of backlash. But why would you want to see us tour with bands that sound like Hatebreed? It doesn’t make sense — why don’t we just do three hours of our music instead?”
He makes a good point. As for the future after their current Canadian dates they’ll have a packed 2015 of touring and at current they’re already planning their schedule for 2016. Indeed Hatebreed’s a well-oiled machine — so well-oiled in fact that the band doesn’t even use setlists anymore. “We haven’t done one in 10 or 11 years outside of the [Perseverance anniversary tour]. Even then we started switching things up. Now we just say that every night is different.”
HATEBREED perform on Wednesday December 31 at Flames Central.
