Interview with Hell Bent For Metal - October 2009

HBFM: So first of all, congratulations on behind the author of the best album of 2009 for me: congratulations for Vast Oceans Lachrymose! But before we get there, why don't you talk a bit about WHW's inception, to get the ball rolling?

Tom: Thanks for the kind words about VOL. Yes, the WHW story goes back quite a ways now, being that this year marks 20 years....the original concept for this band revolved strictly around musical needs and aspirations...to expand beyond the rather straightforward metal stylings of our previous band (Polaris). With time, WHW evolved into something far more personal, in that it became a vehicle for expressing things which I could not otherwise, and that has been the case for many years now.

HBFM: Indeed, While Heaven Wept has got a sound that wouldn't be easy to slip into a category! The first years were quite turbulent, right? How was it like then, to form a band in the advent of the 90s?

Tom: At the time it was somewhat easy, being that WHW started while we were still in high school...you know it's always easy to create something with your close friends and so forth. It gets more challenging as individuals grow as musicians quicker than others, or when other influences come into play (women, careers, further education, other musical aspirations), but I've always managed to stay the course!

HBFM: Along with WHW, you've also helped found Twisted Tower Dire and lent a hand to the Solstice squadron! How did that come to happen?

Tom: There was a time before the Internet existed where a lot of tape-trading and networking via snail mail transpired between bands, fanzines, (then small) distributors, etc....you'd find little ads for handmade zines in the back of Metal Forces or something, and break out pen to paper to establish contact. Further the doom metal scene was very small at the time...literally no more than 20 bands worldwide...and ultimately, everyone was in contact with everyone else...in the case of Solstice, people like John Perez and Gabriel Lilliehook would always tell me that I needed to hear Solstice as they were like the UK version of WHW....and from what I understand, other people told Rich and the guys the same thing. Eventually, we traded releases and found quite a bit in the way of mutuality...keep in mind, even to THIS day, there have been less than 10 epic doom metal bands to ever have existed at all, so our bonds were perhaps tighter than others due to this. I ended up over in the UK on a trip with a choir I was involved with through university, and I broke off from that group to go meet up with Solstice...this would've been back in 1995, right around the time that Simon Matravers had quit the band...anyway, while I was there, Rich said if I "wanted the job" it was mine, and the rest was history from there. As for TTD, that band developed from the remnants of another local Northern Virginia band called Golgotha who opened for one of my other bands rather frequently around the area. Once Golgotha had run its course, a few of the members decided they wanted to do something that was both more traditional as well as more epic, with purely clean vocals...apart from obvious Maiden influences and so forth, the early WHW material influenced some of the members at that time as well, and that's how I first became involved. We recorded my vocals for the first demo literally the day before I was boarding a plane to head back to the UK to work with Solstice (in January 1996), so I guess you could say that I personally hand-delivered Twisted Tower Dire to the EU!

HBFM: When you came back from England, you set about recording Sorrow Of The Angels, which took three tries to record! But one thing that intrigued me was this mention to a "Cantique de Jean Racine". It grabbed my attention because it was something completely different from the rest of the material, arrangement-wise. How did it come along, and why was it dropped? I think (though I haven't heard it), that it would have made a killer song!

Tom: It’s an amazing piece of music dating back to 1865, actually winning Gabriel Faure' an award in fact. For me the melody and counterpoint is simply ravishing, and lyrically it was quite intense as well. We attempted to record an arrangement involving piano, viola, and chamber choir (comprised of volunteers from my university choir) but it didn't really turn out as I'd envisioned at the time. The truth is, I haven't listened to the results in a long time, and with today's technology I'm sure we could salvage it, but I can't even remember which attempt at recording "Sorrow Of The Angels" these tracks would be cataloged on! I'll have to go back through the old track sheets....if it's on the ADATs from 1997, maybe I'll see if we can bring it back to life...if it's on the old reel-to-reels we'll probably have to bake them in an oven first and transfer the contents to a hard drive (which we probably should do at some point anyway).

HBFM: Considering your most recent direction, I'd dare to say that piece of music would definitely deserve a shot! But moving to the touring for Sorrow of the Angels, you mentioned that some time into the tour, in 98, one concert became famous. Can you develop on that?

Tom: Well, it depends on which concert you're referring to....the first show in support of the album was definitely the best, but the most publicized was probably the disaster of Stoner Hands Of Doom 1!

HBFM: Yes, that one! Since I didn't know what SHOD stood for.

Tom: Ah...well you know...it's all water under the bridge now, but basically what happened is this: I'd spent several months helping to promote the show via my contacts in the scene, my metal department at Tower Records, doing everything I could to publicize the show...then come the day of the show, things started fine but more and more problems developed with each band's set. The event was to transpire in two separate locations, an outdoor park during the afternoon, and a night club in the evening. Needless to say, in the middle of Revelation's set a massive hurricane-style thunderstorm developed (ironically at the same time Bobby Liebling and Joe Hasselvander arrived backstage), and their set had to be cut short for safety reasons. It was decided that Revelation would be allowed to finish their set later that evening, and all the other bands scheduled to play during the day would get their time as well, including daytime headliners Spirit Caravan. This is when the scenario took a turn for the worse; while I had no problem with giving all the bands a chance to perform as planned, the sensible thing would've been for ALL of the remaining bands to play shorter sets to accommodate this. Instead, the "stage manager" got wasted and disappeared, so for example, Spirit Caravan literally went on to play like a full 110 minutes (or something close to that)! Anyway, Rob came up to me in the middle of all this and asked if we could cut our set short and so forth...and you know, really that wasn't such a big deal in the long run, but no one else was asked to make that sacrifice, and I just felt like "why should we be the ones to lose out just because Spirit Caravan played a full headlining set?" Tensions were high, I was angry because of all the work I'd put into it personally, and quite frankly, it was just a total debacle. This said, some of my anger was misdirected in that it wasn't Rob or Cheryl who were at fault, but I didn't know it at the time, either, like I said, it’s water under the bridge now. The bottom line is, when we finally got onstage, I made an announcement along the lines of "If you're here for some hippie bullshit, you might as well fuck off right now - as this is doom METAL!" Subsequently, most of the audience turned around and split haha....except....and I say this with great appreciation, for John and Sylvia Perez, and a few other diehards. We were getting more and more pressure from the soundman to get rolling, and we hadn't even had time to properly tune, just adding more insult to injury....so basically we tore through "In Aeturnum" and "Thus With A Kiss I Die" and then I walked off the stage.

HBFM: That must have made you some fans!

Tom: In the weeks following, a lot of people were chattering about how much of a dick I was and whatnot, and you know, I can see where they're coming from, but what THEY didn't realize is how much I'd personally invested in the whole event myself, how some key bits of information didn't reach the band, and hell...I talked to Cheryl at Born Too Late II this past year and she admitted the whole thing was an atrocity because it was their first attempt at doing something of that magnitude. Since then, I've made my peace with the SHOD folks, and you know, I regret losing my cool publically, but shit happens. And well, WHW isn't stoner or hippie rock either haha.

HBFM: Hehehe, it isn't! But I'm glad that's water under the bridge! In 2003, the release of "Of Empires Forlorn" signaled the beginning of the shit in your sound! We can definitely see where Vast Oceans Lachrymose was coming here. But why say that everything pre "Empires..." is "development material"?

Tom: Well, anything prior to "Empires" originated in high school...basically everything on "Chapter One" was written when I was 15-17, apart from parts of "Thus With A Kiss I Die" and "Unplenitude" which were both completed during my stay in the U.K. with Solstice. I'd obviously had some degree of musical education, but not to the extent that I would experience in college, therefore all of the old material literally is developmental material...making the transition from emulation of influences to innovation, finding my voice as a composer, applying new concepts in terms of arrangements, etc. It's not that there's anything "wrong" with this material...it's just very raw, visceral, primitive...perhaps emotionally immature in some ways too, but it's definitely real, so that's why I can still perform some of those songs today and feel good about doing so.

HBFM: Thanks for clearing that up! With "Empires" you also performed your first concerts in Europe, and again, there's a story to nearly all of them, I'm sure! But what I'm curious about is what differences do you Americans find between the two scenes (if there are any)

Tom: One of the biggest differences is the fact that people are actually very impassioned in Europe...knowing all the songs, supporting the bands avidly...and REALLY listening to the music. I noticed that often people would show up early for the concerts, and stay for the entire show, regardless of who was playing, whereas it seems to be fairly common in the US for people to show up for only the band they want to see, and then leave (which I think is quite disrespectful). Apart from that, you know...the bands...worldwide...it's like an extended family, so that much is definitely the same anywhere. Also it appears that doom bands and fans all love their beer! I know I do!

HBFM: Beer is definitely a gatherer of people, haha! While we're talking about bands in general, WHW had some quiet moments at times, while you went to England, for instance, but it never quit and it was never actually on hiatus. Nowadays we get reunions from bands every month or so, which raises the question of: is it worth it? It's a polemic subject, as Pagan Altar, to name one, are still kickin' ass, but many seem to be coming again to live off old glories... To make things "simpler", you get those that never disappeared like Manilla Road and Brocas Helm to name a few. What's your take in this?

Tom: I think if the bands that reunite are doing it for the right reasons (i.e. true inspiration, personal necessity, etc.) then I embrace and encourage it.....incidentally, Robert Garven and Tim Baker - it you're listening...Cirith Ungol is sorely missed! But, your point about Brocas Helm and Manilla Road is also something to onsider...bands that never really stopped shouldn't receive anything less in the way of support or accolades compared to other bands that are returning with strong releases.

HBFM: Not to mention the newer bands coming along which should, by no means, come out hindered in their promotion! But coming back to WHW, and bridging over to the present, you guys are spread throughout four states in the US. How does that work in terms of keeping the band active for rehearsals?

Tom: Well....it takes quite a bit of effort to coordinate, that is for sure; not only do we live in four separate states, the rest of the band (besides Jim) have families, busy jobs, and let's not forget all the other musical projects as well. This is one instance where technology, the Internet, cell phones (etc.) really does make it all possible. We usually don't rehearse as a band very often and instead practice in smaller configurations or independently at our own homes. In fact, we only rehearsed 4 times as a band over a year before we started the actual tracking for "Vast Oceans Lachrymose"

HBFM: You are still involved with Solstice, to mention one of those projects above! Since Halcyon where you did the vocals, you've switched to the guitars, is it a similar routine as with WHW?

Tom: To clarify, I didn't actually sing on the "Halcyon" release, merely a few concerts surrounding it...it's still a bit of a shame that we never fully realized the potential of that line-up...but anyway, I think I'm far more comfortable on guitars in either case, just because I've been playing guitar for about 28 years now. But really, I'm not sure what is going on with Solstice currently or if I'm actually still involved. Rich had been very much focused on Pagan Altar for some time and rightly so. Now that he's not part of that any more, I'm not sure what the plan is, but I know he has a lot of responsibilities as a father of 3 now. Time will tell, right?

HBFM: Looks like it! This year you played the Born Too Late II festival, as we mentioned earlier, along with some great names such as Argus, Iron Man, Orodruin, Apostle of Solitude and other doomsters! I can only guess that it must have been one helluva party! Can you feel us in?

Tom: Man...what a concert...I am quite sure that despite the intimacy of the venue, what went down musically at Born Too Late II was one of the greatest nights in the history of doom metal...every single band was fantastic, there were no egos, just a huge family reunion....just wait until Cyrus records their first demo....what a band (featuring past and present members of Orodruin)! Total early Uriah Heep meets classic Rainbow or Trower, but with utterly amazing vocals (courtesy of Orodruin's Mike Puleo)! And Argus...totally lethal man...Butch and the guys totally killed it....and these were only the first 2 bands! How I wish it were all filmed....it definitely warrants another edition I'd say!

HBFM: Congratulations on making me even more jealous about that gig, haha! You said it was a family reunion, does the scene in the US reflect that? You're quite a huge country!

Tom: Absolutely...we're all brothers and sisters - at least within our doom and pure metal community...we all strive to stay in fairly regular contact, and are extremely supportive of each other's musical efforts. This isn't really difficult to do considering the sheer number of high quality releases from this year alone! No one is resting on their laurels here!

HBFM: I'm glad to hear some optimism! And yeah, from the ones I listened you, you people really have been productive! Coming back to WHW and hitting Vast Oceans Lachrymose, the original material was actually split for two releases, right? What can you tell us of the plans for both studio and live ventures now? I'm hell bent on attending Hammer of Doom III already!

Tom: Yes, Vast Oceans Lachrymose was originally going to be twice as long, but after the song "The Furthest Shore" grew to mammoth proportions and also after we realized just how meticulously our engineer Chris Salamone was approaching the recording, it was decided to save the other half for the next album "Fear Of Infinity." Besides that, the vision of "VOL" itself became more clear midway through the process...you know, all of our albums are thematic and the material that appears on each one is there for a specific reason (that being the musical flow of it all). I think the plan as far as recording "Fear Of Infinity" is to get cracking on it as soon as it is financially possible (we still owe quite a debt to the studio for "VOL"), so as to not have another 5+ year gap between albums. Regarding live performances, we certainly want to get out and play a lot more than we have in the past, but for the time being, we're focusing on festivals and one-off events at the request of Cruz Del Sur Music, who want us to wait for the ultimate reaction to the "VOL" album. We'll definitely make a few trips back to Europe in addition to our performance at Hammer Of Doom III, but it will be later in 2010 and early 2011 before that transpires. I'm sure some kind of tour scenario will develop eventually as well.

HBFM: Let's hope you do get some nice dates here in Europe and ones I might be able to attend! Would you like to say anything as a closer to the interview?

Tom: Thanks a lot Luis for the opportunity to talk about WHW and for the interesting questions...you certainly did your homework! Other than that, thanks to everyone who has been so patiently waiting for "Vast Oceans Lachrymose" all these years, I hope you will feel it has been worth waiting for!