Interview with HATRED REIGNS

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

To the Hatred,

I am Jeff, the guitarist and the founding member of Hatred Reigns.

What got me into metal music requires me to take you back to the start of my metal journey.

In the Winter of 1989 by my bandmate, Neil Grandy invited me over to see the drumkit that he had gotten for Christmas. While there, he asked me to pick up a guitar that was sitting nearby and I must admit that my life was forever changed.

Discovering metal music and sharing a common interest in composing original music with Neil inspired us both to want to start a band together. Though we had our minds set on taking music as seriously as we could, we pursued our education and careers to the best of our abilities. All the while, we would be weekend warriors composing, performing, and recording music for our different projects.

We have been fortunate to release albums, perform live, and do some small touring with our various projects; all the while keeping the focus on our families and careers.

I won’t deny that there isn’t a part of me that would love to see Hatred Reigns touring outside of North America. To perform at festivals or tour extensively in Europe, Asia and South America.  Though New Zealand and Australia would be absolutely a dream come true!If I wasn’t a musician, I would love to be a film producer or location scout. Alternatively, I would wish to be Bond, James Bond to drive an Aston Martin, travel to exotic locations, and get to blow shit up. And yet, I would love to have worked on Mythbusters and blown lots of shit up, for science!

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

Aside from playing guitar, I love to cook and grill a variety of foods. I am a cinephile and enjoy many films in my home theater. My true passion includes going on adventures exploring nature, be it hiking, biking, or just taking in the scenery, animals, and water. Reading fiction or biographical books honestly helps to get creative ideas flowing. These aspects of my life absolutely play a key influence on my creative ideas, infusing the stories of films/books along with soundscapes to escape the day-to-day challenges and chaos of life.

Carpe Diem!

How long has your band been around?

Hatred Reigns was created in the Summer of 2015 by myself. Our current lineup 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)

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

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.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

Determining a band name has proved to be quite a challenging endeavor. 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:

Hatred Reigns encompasses all of these criteria.

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

It is an honor to play live no matter what to be quite honest. For Hatred Reigns, I must admit that opening for Aborted and Archspire during their cross-over show in 2018 was an incredible experience. It was a killer night of extreme metal music here in Ottawa where 2 massive tours collided and we got to be a part of it!

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

Here in Ottawa, we don’t have a whole lot of options honestly for Extreme Metal. Larger touring artists have more options to choose from, but personally, I truly love the Brass Monkey where we will once again take the stage opening for Kataklysm this November 10th. It is a great stage with lots of space.An ultimate fantasy show would be to perform at Wembley Stadium, but most likely out of the reality spectrum with this genre of music, though never hurts to dream! For me, an achievable dream would be to perform at Fou Founes Electrique, in Montreal, Quebec as that is where I saw Suffocation on their Despise the Sun tour Winter of 1998 and subsequently Cryptopsy’s Whisper Supremacy CD release concert Fall of 1998.

Fou Founes is where I witnessed 2 astoundingly legendary bands just pummel the audience and crush the other bands. Mike DiSalvo and Frank Mullen knew how to command their flock and each incredible musician of these 2 bands flawlessly executed their albums of such opus degree of influence upon the audience. These 2 shows imprinted the desire to perform at this venue. Along with so many other incredible performances that have occurred there.Another dream would be to perform in Europe, Asia, and South America, but especially in New Zealand and Australia.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

If I were to create an eclectic fantasy tour it would be quite dynamic:Mr. Bungle - California (1998-2000 tour)Metallica - And Justice For All Tour (1989-1990)Megadeth - Rust In Peace TourSlayer - Seasons’s In The Abyss TourSepultura - Arise TourPrimus - Pork Soda TourFrank Zappa - Apostrophe TourCryptopsy - Whisper Supremacy TourSuffocation - Pierced From Within Tour (though they rock on any tour tbh)Depeche Mode - Music For the MassesIron Maiden - Somewhere in Time TourDream Theater - Performing Images & Words, Awake, Metropolis and A Dramatic Turn of EventsOpeth - Ghost Revereie TourPink Floyd - The WallAdditional performances by:Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Eminem, Slipknot, Septycal Gorge, Origin, Cytotoxin, Archspire, Death, Cycnic, Athiest, and many many more!

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

If you are a young musician thirsty to write and compose new music, I strongly encourage you to do so. In fact, anyone of all ages should explore their desire to create or play metal music. Play air guitar or air drums as hard as you can. Go to your music store and invest in your future to ensure metal music thrives. Also, be sure to support the Metal community in your city for up-and-coming talented bands, not just the bigger touring bands. Everyone starts small and works towards becoming the big touring band.

Start somewhere, be driven, and through perseverance, your efforts will pay off. Even if you never get big, keep at it and have fun playing metal music!

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

Don’t sell your first guitar, that Kramer has never been seen again. Having written 30+ songs on that beast, I regret selling it for a wood grain Ibanez Sabre guitar. Don’t listen to the sound guy when he said “Yeah, the power bars are surge protected” cause that fucking wanker didn’t know shit from his asshole! Fucking battery melted and destroyed the motherboard such that my rack was shipped to Japan to be fixed; though I wish I could have gone with it!Lastly, be sure to change your fucking strings before going to perform at a concert you cunt! Nothing more embarrassing than being 30 seconds into the first song and a string breaks.

Fond memories of my first band.As for previous lineups of Hatred Reigns, there are too many things that I would love to say but honestly, those moments and events that transpired are what got us to where we are. We have to learn from such moments to improve for the future = bring a 2nd back up guitar, invest in quality equipment to avoid surges, and do your best to avoid stupid issues.

Ultimately, ENJOY THE MOMENT! Shit will go sideways and you can’t control every moment. Be present and have fun, cause you can’t get it back! Deep Thoughts by moi.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

Each song has its own place and purpose on this album but I must say that Departing Acheron, the first cut that will be released Oct 16th, 2023 has a special place. This is the one song that was actually composed back in 2005 when I lived in Edmonton, Alberta. The song has gone through variations from the original to this truly formidable version. Departing is an homage to Carcass, yet infuses other influences that make Hatred Reigns who we are.

Mitchi Dimtriadis added his own flavorings vocally which to me is the icing on the cake for this song. Also, this song video happens to be the premier video which we are excited to release this Fall. Not to knock the second released video which is the title track. We learned a lot while filming the Awaken the Ancients video and Departing such that we decided to premier Departing first. Both videos were shot in the same space actually so it is interesting to see how they contrast one another.  We are all quite proud to say that this album and its supporting videos were written, recorded, and captured visually by ourselves which adds to why this album is a passion project for me personally.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

Awaken the Ancients, Pain Leads To Nothingness, and Ushered By Charon certainly display our technicality as a band. Our current set starts with Obsolarium whereby the orchestral intro grabs the audience's attention and closes our set with Departing Acheron which tends to appeal to get the audience moshing hard. Groovy!

 What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

Hatred Reigns doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, instead, we blend our favorite old with new extreme metal influences into the songs you hear on Awaken The Ancients album. There are definitely homages and threads of influences such as Cryptopsy and Suffocation. Along with tastes of Origin blended with degrees of Pantera, Carcass, and even Behemoth. We let riffs and song ideas come organically as well, not force an idea necessarily, whatever benefits the song for our own satisfaction; this is how we approach writing songs.

Kirk Hammett once said “To imitate is to create” but add your own style and flavor 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 kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

Hatred Reigns doesn’t purposely try and have subliminal messages in our music. However, we still infuse our own passion and interest into the music and lyrics.

Awaken the Ancients album concept is inspired by the writings of John Milton’s - Paradise Lost and Dante’s - Inferno. However, the concept was truly inspired by the film What Dreams May Come which depicts what happens to damned souls after they commit suicide and how they might be rescued by not damned souls, though they risk attempt being tortured and trapped in Purgatory also. Such ideas spawned the creation of the album's lyrical concept before the band name was even determined, though it came shortly afterward as previously mentioned. Finding the right members to bring this album to fruition proved to be the biggest obstacle that required much patience and perseverance.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

Funny you should ask this question considering how I finished the above statement.

Since the inception of the project in the Summer of 2015, the biggest challenge was finding the right musicians to work with to achieve the vision. Weeding through many auditions and trying hard to work with the various members that came and went over the years was definitely a challenge. Finding the right musicians was key to seeing this album be captured and released.

That isn’t to say that some of the people who came along didn’t have skills or talent but they were lacking in certain areas, or other comments didn't permit them to continue with the band as life happens.

But when you do find skilled musicians and for whatever reason be it stress, anxiety, life’s complications, or addictions that aren’t fully made aware to the members, these things can cause tempers to flair up, or absolute strife within the band. Plus throw a bunch of tired or hungry people into a vehicle and drive to a concert in another city, which had tension beforehand makes for some interesting moments.

There are so many factors that cause people to react or respond negatively or tempers to flare up. Not sharing a key detail with every member, though others may happen to know details, or someone talks over another person who is trying to speak and ultimately derails the conversation.For me, figuring out click-track tempos baffles the shit out of me! We will collaborate to figure out what tempo a riff or song may be, but in that moment we could happen to play it faster or slower than expected. Click tracks absolutely baffle me, but that isn’t cause for bandmates to explode. But I can attest that such challenges have happened cause a tempo may be too fast, or worse, the tab isn’t entirely accurate so such matters can interrupt the tracking process.

For the outro of Obsolarium for example, we tried desperately to track the part to a click track but ultimately it had to be recorded in free time and I recorded it precisely on the first take!Ultimately, communication is the key to every success and collapse of friendships, relationships, and businesses. Ok fine, it could be about a girl as well. Wars have never been started that way, haha sarcasm! HATRED REIGNS!

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

Awaken The Ancients drops this December 1, 2023, and Hatred Reigns are already writing music for their sophomore album. However, we are focused on the current release to see what opportunities are presented to us.

If the opportunity to perform abroad is permitted, we will bring our music to listeners far and wide. For now, we shall wait and see.

Support Metal everywhere.Reign On!

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