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Genre: Heavy power metal
Origin: Brazil
Current line-up:
Roger Hammer - Vocals
Daniel Job - Guitars, Keyboards
Daniel Person - Drums
Jr. - Bass
Vulcano - Guitars
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Current label:
Pure Steel Records
Discography:
Defender of Metal - 2001
Heroes of Tomorrow - 2008
Official Site:
http://www.myspace.com/warhellishwar
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1. Hello! How are you? I think that you have
recently played some live shows here in Europe. Which are your experiences
from that? Will you come again?
JR: Hello Greece!!! HELLISH WAR's fine thank
you for asking. Well as you said we're coming from a European tour which
was absolute success. We've been through 3 different countries, played
along with lots of awesome bands and had the chance to meet with a lot
of great people along the way. It was great fun and we have also learned
a lot of things with this tour. Yes, we've been invited to come back in
the near future. Hope to do Greece as well!!
2. Let’s talk now a bit about your decision to
release your 2 albums in one package through Pure Steel Records. Why did
you decide to do that? What new do you offer with this release in order
to make people who already have them both to buy it?
JR: Acctualy Pure Steel Records only wanted
to release “Defender of Metal” in Europe. Then we came with the idea for
the double pack release and they liked the suggestion. For us it would
be good because we had only sent the Brazilian edition of our albums to
Europe and we never had control to where the albuns were really going to,
if they were selling good or whatever. Being in a label that comes out
different you know. As a gift for the fans who already have one of the
albuns or both of them we added some bonus tracks in both albums. And “Defender
of Metal” was remastered. So it's a good package.
3. Between your debut album “Defender of Metal”
and your latest one “Heroes of Tomorrow” a period of 7 years has passed.
Why did it take you so long? Did things come to a point that made you think
of disbanding?
JR: Because we got stuck into a 5 year contract.
Our previous label Megahard Records went bankrupt and didn't want to set
us free from the contract. So we wait till the end of the contract and
got ourselves free to do whatever we want to. The Brazilian edition of
“Heroes of Tomorrow” is an independent release because of that. And the
answer for the second question is no, we never thought about disbanding.
We had a hard time but we never gave up.
4. One other thing that I have noticed by listening
to both releases is that your debut album is more epic and your latest
one has more power metal elements. Why is that? How did this change happen?
JR: Well it just happened in a natural way
of evolution. We never sat together and planned the album to be like that.
It just went out that way.
5. I think that you also participate in the new
RUNNING WILD tribute. Can you tell us which song you decided to cover and
why? What did you change if you compare it with the original and how did
you get the invitation to participate?
JR: Oh yes. We're on the RUNNING WILD tribute.
We chose “Return of the Gods” because it's a very good song. Comparing
the songs I would say that we have more bass in our version and the final
sound is a little bit heavier than the original. We did some changes in
the guitar solos also and we doubled the time of the drum intro. But don't
need to worry RUNNING WILD fans the song is still the same, no drastic
changes in there. (laughs)
We read about the tribute on the internet,
sent our material to the guys who were organising the album release. They
heard our material and invited us to participate.
6. Since we talk about RUNNING WILD, what do you
think about their decision to disband? Do you think that it was the right
thing to do and why?
JR: It was their decision to do it and I like
to think it's the best way to go. Because this way they're been honest
to the RUNNING WILD fans. They want to go through a different kind of music
now. We're losing a great band that has intensely influenced the HELLISH
WAR sound but this is the way things goes. I wish them good luck and if
someday RUNNING WILD decide to put their thing together again I know that
the fans will be there for them again. Because they never lied to fans.
It was a very honest decision for them.
7. By listening to your music can you tell us
which bands you think that have influenced your sound and in which way?
JR: Well we're very influenced by the 80's
era. Bands like IRON MAIDEN, RUNNING WILD, HELLOWEEN, MANOWAR, JUDAS PRIEST,
SAXON and so on.
8. Which of the songs that you have composed so
far make you proud and why?
JR: We're proud of all our material. But I
think that “Metal Forever” is the one. Because we wrote it all together
in the rehearsal so that makes it a special one.
9. Do you have any new songs ready? When should
we wait for your new release?
JR: Yes we have. We already presented a new
song in a couple of concerts during the European tour. It's an instrumental
theme called “Battle at Sea”. But we have half album written already. We’re
thinking of releasing it in the second semester of 2010. But before that
we're planning to release a live album from the European tour in the beggining
of the year.
10. If you had the money to do an expensive album,
which song would you choose to visualize and how do you imagine it?
JR: Even if I had the whole money in the world
I still would choose metal music. And I imagine it like a mix of our two
albuns. The rawness of “Defender of Metal” and the technic of “Heroes of
Tomorrow”. (laughs)
11. Thanks for your time answering my questions.
Good luck with whatever you do! The epilogue belongs to you…
JR: We thank you guys. Greece is always looking
forward to know what's going on with the band and we hope to go there someday
for a tour. We'd like to thank our fans and everybody that supported us
all these years. And a special thanks to Volker Raabe, Andreas and Markus
Lorenz from Pure Steel Records.
Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis
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