Cover Art for the Album "Inevitable Dementia"
What is your style of composing/writing music? Jam together or alone?
Crucifuck: All writing is more or less done in the jam space. Myself and Hell Bastard live together, so writing guitar parts comes quite easily. Lyrics are mainly written by Necromancer, but I have recently had a hand in that as well. Once we have the main idea of a song, we jam it a lot to refine it a bit. I feel that the songs don’t reach their full potential until they are recorded, and THEN played live, because you try to recreate what you do in the studio, with all the details worked out, and then put the live energy into it.
What influences your music (other bands/books etc.)??
Crucifuck: I’m pretty influenced by everyday things, I write a lot about how pathetic people can be, with how they manage their life…it’s pretty sad to sit back and look at how some people can just fester away until they die instead of taking advantage of the time they have. One book that means alot to me is ‘Controlled Burn’ written by Pete Helmkamp of Angelcorpse. It’s inspiring to me to focus on what I can offer myself in life, that’s what the book taught me to do. John (Necromancer) is a very deep thinker when it comes to all things unknown, I think that’s where he gets a lot of lyrical inspiration from, delving into subjects that get his brain asking a lot of questions.
What albums are you currently banging you head to?
Crucifuck: Man, it’s endless…lately I’ve listened to lots of Repulsion, I love that new Cretin album (cause it sounds like Repulsion only heavier), Destroyer 666’s ‘Cold Steel…’ is an album that will always get me going, all Revenge albums, … Rammer’s latest ‘Cancer’ is in heavy rotation, Thy Flesh Consumed (black/grind band from Halifax) just released an unbelievable new album. My favorites that will always be there are Exhumed, Angelcorpse, 1349, old Sepultura, Krisiun, Belphegor, Summon ….all things fast ugly and heavy. And since myself and HellBastard live together and are pack rats who just keep collecting shit, there’s always stuff to keep me interested in all things metal…it will never end!
How did you get into metal?
Crucifuck: I was into music very young, my father is a professional Celtic musician, so that’s what I grew up around, but once I hit 11 yrs old or so, the people my age that took music somewhat seriously were all into Nirvana and stuff like that, loud stuff. Once I found Sabbath it was all over, I’ve been playing in metal bands every since and it’s been my passion ever since.
What was the first metal cd you bought?
Crucifuck: I found ‘Ride the Lightning’ at the library, then a week later I found ‘…And Justice for All’ at a flea market. I think those were the bench marks.
The first metal gig you attended?
Crucifuck: I went to see The Misfits when I was 12, and the band opening for them was the local band, Terratomb…I was floored, I thought they were the shit, I had seen bands like Carcass and shit on TV…but that was the first time I saw something so extreme live, and at a very young age so I was very impressionable. And now I’m in Terratomb….funny how things work out.
Do you guys hang out together other than rehearsal time?
Crucifuck: Yeah, we’re all best friends. Like I said, myself and Hell Bastard live together, and Necro and HellSpawn also live together, and we’re about 1 minute away from each other. Jamming and smoking pot is what we do when we get together; hence, we have a band.
Do you guys get drunk together often?
Crucifuck: Yes, we play lots of gigs to, so that pretty much means we’ll be drinking.
What is your favorite alcohol?? Any good Canadian beers?
Crucifuck: I think Olands is the unwritten official beer of the Halifax metal/punk scene. We need to get an endorsement or something…get them to give us money for touring.
Is this the only band you are in? Any members involved in side projects?
Crucifuck: I’ve always played in multiple bands. I play drums in a band called Terratomb ( http://www.terratomb.com and http://www.myspace.com/terratombonline ) who have just released a new album. Me and HellSpawn also play in a Slayer cover band called War Ensemble, although we only play a couple shows and parties a year. I used to play drums in a couple crust bands to, System Shit and Sloth.
How’s the scene in the Maritimes??
Crucifuck: Halifax is great, the other cities and provinces are pretty hit or miss, but Halifax is a very tight knit community. All the bands hang out and drink together and get along. Shows are also fairly consistent these days. It seems like there’s gigs every weekend, whereas it used to be once every couple months. Bigger bands are now making stops on their tours here. This month we will have the pleasure of opening for Krisiun and Belphegor…which is something we’d never dream of 5 years ago. The scene is getting stronger and stronger so we can support touring acts now.
Could you tell about a few bands from the Maritimes that we should know about??
Crucifuck: Terratomb, Thy Flesh Consumed, Burning Moon, Wohedness, Collapse, Iron Fist.
How important is touring to you band??
Crucifuck: Touring is the most important thing a band can do as far as I’m concerned. We have only just begun to tour, but we plan on doing a lot more after the winter. There’s nothing better.
Your Favorite venue in Canada??
Crucifuck: I recently played with my other band in Toronto at a new place called ‘The Metal Bar’…which we a great place. (As i have been to the place i can say its a fucking awesome place..great Job by Dave\m/\m/-Pedro)Toronto is probably where we’ve been most successful touring wise outside of the Maritimes, so we’ll always jump at the chance to play there.
I got a Toxic holocaust/Hellacaust split from my buddy Keegan of Skull Fucking Metal .How did that come about?
Crucifuck: That was Keegan’s doing. He really dug our stuff so he released that, which was our first demo. It came about right as we were recording ‘Dark Age…’ so it was kind of an awkward time for it, but it helped a great deal with promotion. We can probably give Keegan credit for half of the fan base we’ve gained internationally. And Toxic Holocaust kick ass, so it was cool that way to.
The Label that released both your albums Great White North Records is no more (R.I.P.).Are you signed/in talks with other labels?
Crucifuck: We’re currently independent again, not much talk has gone on with bigger labels, but there are people willing to put our shit out. So we’ll see, but any interested labels should definitely get into contact hellacaust@hotmail.com
What can we expect from Hellacaust in 2007?
Crucifuck: Like I said, we’re booking a tour now just to get the need to play out of our system before we start the next album. We are looking for label support, hopefully “Inevitable…” will turn some heads…but we’re not going to jump on any offer that comes our way, Great White North was good experience for dealing with unorganized people with big dreams. We don’t need anyone to blow us just to make us feel good, we want someone who is willing to work harder than we do, which is pretty fucking hard. We’ll keep managing ourselves until we see someone who can take us to the next level. We started this band very young and our goal has always been to get better and better, which we will keep doing…this is just the very beginning.
Thanks for answering all my question.Any Final words and comments
Crucifuck: Thanks for the time and support. Check out all of the Maritime bands you can. Some of the sickest metal you’ll ever hear is coming from the arm pit of Canada…don’t ignore it!
Contact info: Website: http://www.myspace.com/hellacaust
E-mail: hellacaust@hotmail.com