As Diehard As They Come

The east-coast, hardcore metal band, Hatebreed,which was nominated for a Grammy and headlined the second stage at Ozzfest last year, will be making a stop in Fargo on this spring’s bi-annual Jägermeister Music Tour.

Nearing the end of their tour in support of their fourth studio release, “Supremacy,” the heavyweights of hardcore will be joined by co-headliners, Type O Negative.

The Brooklyn Goth metal band will be promoting their highest chart debuting release, “Dead Again”.

Now in its fourteenth year, Hatebreed has sold a combined one million copies in the U.S. alone, and has seen several lineup changes including members dying.

The band has toured extensively, including six tours with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, seven tours with Slayer, and major outdoor festivals such as the Download Festival in Donnington UK, the Waken Open Air Festival in Germany, which is the largest all metal festival in the world, and five tours on Ozzfest.

Describing their fans as diehards, likewise the band itself is truly as diehard as they come.

The music from this five member group is aggressively brutal with absolutely zero room for clean guitars or vocal harmonies. Vocalist and frontman, Jamey Jasta, describes the latest album, “Supremacy” as “An all-out onslaught of in-your-face brutality.”

Ironically, Hatebreed’s lyrics speak of positivity, overcoming failure, personal achievement and self respect.

Hatebreed recently switched record labels from Roadrunner to Koch Records after recording the “Supremacy” album, which featured new guitarist Frank Novinec, formerly of the bands Ringworm and Terror.
Both Frank and Jamey are also in the side project, Icepick.

Jamey also has his own record company, Stillborn Records, and clothing line, Hatewear.

I caught up to the front man and former MTV2’s Headbanger’s Ball host the day he was working on getting stitches removed.

HPR: How did you get hooked up with the Jägermeister Music Tour?

Jamey: We were on the Jägermeister tour with Slayer in ‘03. It’s always a good time and we really wanted to maybe one day get a chance to headline it. Now this is it and this is like the best time for us just because we’re coming to the end of the record cycle. We weren’t going to tour again. We were going to work on the record but it worked out that we were free and when they came asking us, we were pretty stoked.

HPR: What projects do you have coming out?

Jamey: We got a DVD coming out in September, and then we got a cover album that we did. Like a tribute album to the bands that inspired us. Then the live album recorded by Vinnie Paul from Pantera. That’s going to come out next spring.

HPR: “Live Dominance” will be your first DVD. What will it showcase?

Jamey: A little bit of everything: Mainly the Detroit show just because we wanted to show how insane the live show was and the back story behind that. There’s other shows on there like New York, Philly, New Haven, a couple songs from Germany, backstage stuff and other content.

HPR: What made you decide to do a cover album?

Jamey: We did it just for fun before we did “Supremacy.” We just kind of had it done and didn’t know what to do with it. Then I went back and started revisiting it doing vocals and stuff started turning out really cool. We Hatebreedized it all, ya know what I mean? When we did this Koch deal, they were super interested in putting it out, so it just ended up working out perfectly.

HPR: What songs will be on the album?

Jamey: We did Misfits, “Hatebreeders”; Metallica, “Escape”; a bunch of hardcore bands like Judge, Madball, and Agnostic Front. I mean, really it was so much fun. I pretty much knew all the words to all the songs so it was cool but it was just a great all around experience. Just like when you were a kid. When I first picked up the guitar and learned a riff from bands that I liked. It was like that, you know?

HPR: How are your side projects doing?

Jamey: “Kingdom of Sorrow” did really good. That came out on Relapse back in February. We’re doing Ozzfest, that’s going to be fun. We’re doing two dates with Slipknot. We’re going to do another Icepick record eventually. Not sure when, probably once all this other stuff comes out. There’s a lot of stuff so it’s like, pretty crazy.

HPR: Last year at Ozzfest you had the crowd do a circle pit around the sound stage.  Will you be doing anything crazy like that on this tour?

Jamey: [laughter] We’ll have to see. Sometimes the security and the promoters and everybody yell at me when I do stuff like that so I got to be careful. We don’t want anybody to get hurt. Obviously we want everybody to have a good time but yeah, we will see.

If You Go

What: Hatebreed w/Type O Negative
When: Tue. June 17, 7:30 pm
Where: The Venue @ The Hub
How Much: $27,
Who: All Ages
Info: (701) 232-6767