Bloody Hammers have just released their excellent new album Lovely Sort Of Death. We had a chat with mainman Anders Manga to hear all about the album and it’s creation.
Could you give us a brief history of Bloody Hammers?
Sure. I wrote and recorded some songs back in 2012 just for my own amusement. I played all the instruments and recorded it in my home studio. I had 10 tracks so uploaded them to Bandcamp. After thinking of many much worse names, I decided to call the project ‘Bloody Hammers’ after the Roky Erickson song. A day later Jorn from Soulseller Records emailed me with interest of putting the album. The deal was fair so we went with it. Soon after some other bigger labels were also emailing and from that, I ultimately decided to go with Napalm Records. So in 2014 they released ‘Under Satan’s Sun’ and most recently, ‘Lovely Sort of Death’… so here we are.
The band are from Transylvania County in North Carolina. What was it like for the band starting out and coming from there?
It’s difficult finding musicians because it’s not a real metal or hard rock place. It’s mostly people interested in bluegrass, folk and electronic music. The band I recruited for touring were actually many hours away in Raleigh, NC.
How would you describe the music of the band?
I used to call it Southern Gothic Fuzz but it’s a little of everything. There are some moments of doom metal, gothic rock, classic metal… ‘horror rock’ might be a good genre title to settle on.
Who or what are some of Bloody Hammers influences?
Some off the top of my head… Black Sabbath, Bauhaus, John Carpenter, Goblin, Alice Cooper, The Sisters of Mercy, Slayer, Fabio Frizzi, Popol Vuh, The Misfits, Iron Maiden… as I said before, Roky Erickson. Stuff like that.
Your new album Lovely Sort Of Death is out now, Can you tell us a bit about it?
I wanted to do something diverse and I think I achieved that. I wanted to take the listener through a journey of different atmospheres. Assuming they listen to the full album in sequence. The heavy fuzz guitar tones are still there but we’ve added a little more Moog and strings here and there.
Is there any significance behind the albums title?
Not really… I liked the sound of the title and it was borrowed from the old Jack Nicholson film called “The Trip”.
There always been a darkness and macabre feel to the bands sound and songs on the new album like The Reaper Comes and Messalina continue this, is that something you look to when writing new songs?
It’s just a natural mood for me to write in. I like dark and atmospheric vibes so that’s what I tend to aim for. I also like big epic metal songs and was looking to capture that vibe in songs like “Astral Traveler’ and ‘Infinite Gaze to the Sun’.
There is also an element of sex and sultry ness with the bands sound, is that the case with the new album?
If that happens it’s just natural and nothing I’m trying to do on purpose. Maybe it’s just the dark vibe that crosses over into that feel. I’ve heard that in several interviews so that’s interesting.
You have done videos for the songs Bloodletting On The Kiss, The Reaper Comes and Lights Come Alive from the new album. Can you tell us a bit about these videos?
We just do the best we can. Video budgets are very low these days but it’s understandable in the current music business climate. ‘Lights Come Alive’ and ‘The Reaper Comes’ was shot in the same weekend. We spent a little more on ‘Bloodletting’… we rented a small castle and just got as weird as possible. We also just did a quick performance video for the song ‘Ether’.
Will Bloody Hammers be playing any live dates to support the album?
We hope so. We’re looking into if and when it makes sense. This time we hope to get to Finland, Sweden and some other places we didn’t go last time.
Will you be making it over to the UK and Europe for any dates?
Yeah, UK is definitely a must if we go across the pond. We had a great time at Download Festival in 2014 and also in Cardiff and London just before. Those were our favorite of the tour.
What are the bands plans for the rest of the year?
Right now just looking into live opportunities. We’ll see what happens hopefully soon.
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