What better way to celebrate the weekend than with some blackened death tech hardcore dark metal?
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We all live in north London.
How did you meet?
We all once upon a time were all in different bands and we all played a gig together in Kent that a mutual friend had set up. Maybe it was 2013/14? Couldn’t tell you. It’s been a while! Since then we had all kept up with each other from that moment when we first crossed paths.
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How long have you been playing as a band?
We have been a band for around 7/8 years but we have been Human Hell since February 2020. Various changes occurred through this time as you’d expect. Tom and Callum have been here since the beginning.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Human Hell is a reflection of the world we live in perpetuated by government, news big businesses, social media and ourselves. We created the hell we live in. What would your hell look like?
What are your influences?
We take a lot of influence from the likes of Slipknot, Meshuggah, The Acacia Strain, deafheaven, Sikth and Whitechapel just to name a few.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Blackened death tech hardcore dark metal?
Dunno, no band really likes to pigeonhole themselves to a genre if they are trying to create something with some originality. We are still experimenting but honing in on a sound as we speak. We are essentially influenced by deathcore elements. Although we do pander to some of the lighter aspects more prominent in metalcore. And more recently some darker styles and blackened hardcore. Though to be honest we aren’t to hot on branding ourselves with a “core” when people ask we usually just say metal, or really heavy horrible shouty metal.
We are very rhythm driven. A lot of our songs are complex and odd. We like to play with time signatures and polyrhythm so don’t be alarmed if you find yourself nodding out of time. We do that on purpose. But we do also love a good old riff people can slam each other to. I guess we try to draw the best of what we like and merge it into something seamless which will hopefully sound original. From older and newer styles. We essentially write the music we want to listen to. Which is good as well because I guess it means it will evolve with our tastes.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Despair. Cryptic hopelessness.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
As mentioned before we were a band previously and towards the end of 2019 we did play our final show at The Black Heart, Camden which was a night to remember. We had mosh pits at pretty much every song and even a crowd surfer. Expect a lot of head banging and lots of hair flying about.
Obviously 2020 is a complete write off for every musician in the world. So what happened to us was that we decided to release our debut song Misery on Friday the 29th of February. (Which happens 14 times in 400 years) then not 2 weeks later, worldwide lockdown started to take place.
So long and short no we haven’t played any shows as of yet. Boo.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We once had a drunk fella start crowd killing with a long thin box we used to contain our banner. That was funny but a couple songs late pr before a big breakdown he was in the middle dry humping the box? You do you bro.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Tom and Callum play Schecter and Ibanez guitars. Steven plays a Mapex drum kit with Meinl Cymbals.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are plugging the release of our debut EP The Only Guarantee In Life Is Death, released August 28th.
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What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
6 months is a hard one given the state our world is in. We hope to be back up and gigging in February/March. Although lockdown hasn’t stopped a single thing for us. We are on our way through our next few singles. And we haven’t felt more sure on anything before this.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
No doubt about it we will be supporting Conjurer, and support would be from our boys in Jonestown.
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