I guess, there’s still no HATRED’s homepage avalaible, and I know nothing of your band’s history… Therefore, please enlighten us in regards to your past…

- HATRED was formed in 1991, the original lineup was Tim, Julio, me, and Jon Lewis was on drums. John was replaced by Carl Short in ‘93 and David replaced him in ‘95. With David we feel that we have a solid lineup and hopefully it will remain.

If I’m not mistaken, “Daze Of Darkness” was your first-ever recording, right? What can you tell me about it now? Are you still pleased with this tape (generally speaking, of course)?

- We recorded 2 tapes before «Daze Of Darkness». The first was a 4 song demo we recorded with Jon in ‘92. We made copies on our home stereos and just handed it out to friends and sent it to a few zines. Never did much with it. Then with Carl in ‘93, we did the 1st «Suffer» demo. This had the same songs as the newer MCD, but it wasn't the greatest recording. We recorded it again later with David so he could get in the studio, we knew he could do a better job on drums. As far as being pleased with our older stuff, I know we could do a much better job now, but at the time we released them thats where we were at, and what we were capable of. So I'm pleased.

What about “The Offering” CD? Is it out already? If not, when will it be unleashed? Is it self-financed stuff like “Suffer” MCD, or you have a deal with certain label?

- «The Offering» will be released in about a month and a half. We just finished mastering it a few days ago. Now we just have to finish up the layout and get the money together to have it run. We will be releasing it ourselves.

And once again regarding “The Offering”… Does your new effort feature any sort of innovations or it’s still ‘good old’ death metal in the US way?

- I guess its similiar to our older stuff. We do have some faster songs and one song where Tim does some clean vocals (sounds interesting – ED).

When it comes to extreme music, USA is mostly famous thanks to enormous number of brutal death metal bands and there’re a lot of utterly faceless acts among them… Do you think that HATRED has any chances to be marked out of this multitude of ordinary and typical bands?

- I hope so, all we can do is spread our music and name around the best we can. How successful we are is not really for us to decide, its for the people who listen to this kind of music to decide.

By the way, what is your view on US metal scene in the whole? I guess, there aren’t too much of BM acts over there, eh? What is the reason for that and what do you think of the black metal movement which is getting stronger and stronger (as well as more ‘commercial’ – just recall CRADLE OF FILTH who recently appeared in Bravo magazine!) now?

- I think that the metal scene here as a whole is on the upswing. There seems to be more attention lately, more shows and festivals. There are alot of great underground bands that deserve the attention and I'm glad to see it. As far as black metal goes it definitely has been more popular here in the past few years and there are more blackmetal bands here in the US. I don't think anywhere near the numbers of bands overseas though.

“Suffer”, “Hatred With A Smile”, “Mass Genocide”, “Voices Of Pain” - these are some of your song-titles… It seems like HATRED is not the kind of a ‘man-loving’ band?

- I think that its just not a man loving world. "Hatred With A Smile" is about people you detest, but for certain reasons you can't let them know, so you have to act civil towards them no matter how much it pains you. "Mass Genocide" is about how the world as a whole is killing itself little by little. "Voice of Pain" is kind of about what would go through someones mind as they're having a mental breakdown and they do things there is no return from.

Let’s discuss the violence phenomena (it’s really can be defined as ‘phenomena’ nowadays, I guess)… It strikes as the main theme of your songs and I’d like to know if your praise it or, quite the contrary, try to warn us in some ways? What is your opinion on the current situation worldwide, I mean, endless wars and mass genocide, etc.? Is there any chance for us to change the whole thing or we are doomed and there’s no hope for humanity’s survival?

- There has always been and will always be violence. I think that there are times when there is no other option, but only when there is no other choice. I don't think that it something admirable. This is one of the reasons I like playing the style of music we do, because it allows us to vent our aggression. If you have a bad day and your really pissed you can practice or play a show and take it all out on your instrument. Maybe its a kind of therapy? As far as the world being doomed, I don't know. I hope not, I'm not ready to go.

I’ve received your promo package together with some flyers and one concert ad, which tells us that you once played together with King Diamond! Did you? And what is your opinion of that gig, as well as of associating with King and his band?

- Yeah, we were lucky enough to play with KING DIAMOND. He put on a good show. We had a blast, the show was running late and all the people were just standing around waiting to hear some music. We played first and by the time we came on everyone was kind of rabid. We only got to play for about 20 minutes, but we still had a great time. We didn't get to meet anyone from the band, King Diamond was nowhere to be seen. He came in the club when the band went on stage and left when they finished. They had alot of security and it was kind of a clusterfuck, the opening bands had to wait outside for along time when they were doing their sound check and had to get permission from their security to do anything. Speaking of King Diamond we are supposed to cover "Abigail" for a tribute which I was told will be on Necropolis. We're all excited about this, the song will be a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.

I believe, an inevitable question arises here after asking you about King Diamond… There’re plenty of bands claiming to be ‘satanic’ ones, however most of them don’t even believe in what they’re singing about… What do you think about such acts? Do you believe in anything yourself or you’re of atheistic nature?

- I'm just myself, and don't consider myself anything really. There has to be some supreme forces, but I don't pretend to know what they are. I think that if a band actually believes what they are singing about or preaching I can at least respect them even though that I might not agree. In the end I feel you get out of life what you put into it.

What about the relationship in the band? There’re two brothers playing in HATRED (Julio and David Castillo on bass and drums), does it help you or vice versa?

- We've had our problems as does any band or any group of people that work together closely. Some problems more extreme than others. We all enjoy being in the band so we try to put this above what ever problem occurs and work through it. Hopefully we will be able to continue to work like this. We were all friends first and continue to be, we all hang out together outside the band so there is more to it than just being in the band together. Julio and David actually get along well considering they both work together also and live in the same house.

In the end, I’d like to talk about your bandname… Is “hatred” only a good-sounding word for you, or this feeling is something you adore with, or, perhaps, often feel towards other humans?

- We chose “hatred” because its something that you see everyday, you can't get away from it. Its not something that we adore, its something that we can't escape. I see people everyday that hate me because of the way I look and thats what pisses me off. People that just judge blindly. We don't go around hating everyone and we are not angry all the time. Actually I think we are probably happier than alot of people, because we are able to do something that we really enjoy. We can take our minds off our jobs and lifes everyday bullshit.

This is the last and rather usual one… Your future plans and final words…

- Our plans for the future are just to stay together, make music that we all like and be able to do some touring. I thank you for the interview and your patience and Long Live Metal!
 

HATRED contact –
Email: Hatredva@aol.com