By Aaron Small

Misanthropic southern metal anchored by Erik Larson (ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY, BIRDS OF PREY, THE MIGHT COULD, PARASYTIC) on drums, HAIL!HORNET return with their new album, Disperse The Curse. In the four years since the 2007 release of their self-titled debut, H!H has changed labels, moving from Dwell to Relapse.

Larson narrates the switch, “Basically Dwell was a subsidiary of CMH Records. They did the first SOILENT GREEN record, but mostly they would do tribute records. Our guy, James Curtis, was really trying to get that label to be more of a label as opposed to putting out Now This Is What I Call Metal #6. But I don’t think people at CMH were really behind it. Pretty much Dwell was James; it was just him running it. I think CMH pulled, the metal thing wasn’t making them money so they folded Dwell. So that meant our record was pretty much gone. They did the CD version, but then I’m Better Than Everyone Else Records did a limited run of the vinyl. It was cool. We were able to get both formats out. Basically when Dwell folded, it was right around the time that Vince (Burke, guitarist - BEATEN BACK TO PURE) and I were tracking this new one. It was like, fuck it! I’ll send it to Relapse and see if they’re interested (both ATP and Birds Of Prey are signed to Relapse). It’s a bunch of people who do relevant things in the scene, so it seems like a no-brainer. They can definitely get rid of 500 or 1000 of ‘em pretty easily – even in this climate. So I just sent it to Relapse, they had their committee meeting and said ‘yep, let’s do it.’ That’s how it worked.”

Hail!Hornet didn’t change their methodology much when recording Disperse The Curse. Sniper Studio in North Carolina, the same facility the debut was tracked at, was utilized again. “It’s Vince’s studio,” explains Erik. “It’s basically an out-building behind his house. He records all kinds of bands. He moved from Hampton, Virginia down to Moyock, North Carolina so that he could build an out-building and build a studio, ‘cause he was doing it out of his house but his old lady was really getting annoyed with it, having all these bands coming in the house and making noise. So he actually moved and built it. It’s not a crazy studio but it’s pretty nice. He knows what he’s doing and he knows how to use what he has. He’s got a good collection of amps, a drum kit; it’s pretty awesome down there actually. His whole theory – I feel I can speak for him on this – is fuck all the bullshit. I want things to sound organic and real. None of this sound replacement shit or processed guitar tones. It takes a little bit longer sometimes, especially with this Hail!Hornet record, but that’s a whole other story. I think he does a really good job.”

Delving into the recording of Disperse The Curse, Erik reveals, “The way the band works is pretty much, Vince calls me up and says, ‘I’ve got a bunch of riffs, come down to Moyock.’ So I drive down, he’s about two hours from me, and he plays me the stuff he’s got. Usually he has them in 85% finished format in terms of the song. We sit down and arrange it, figure it out by throwing ideas back and forth. As soon as we have a complete idea, he presses record and we record it right there on the spot. That’s how we’ve been doing both the records. Disperse The Curse, I went down and tracked three or four sessions. But the main difficulty with getting Hail!Hornet to the finish line so to speak is the cousins (vocalist T-Roy Medlin - SOURVEIN, BUZZOV*EN and bassist “Dixie” Dave Collins - WEEDEATER, Buzzov*en, BONGZILLA) ‘cause they both live down in Wilmington area, which is about three hours south of Vince. Dixie’s busy with Weedeater a lot of the time, and currently he’s doing the Buzzov*en resurgence. Troy and Sourvein, they do a lot of touring. Trying to get them up – Troy’s constantly broke, so it’s hard to get him to be able to come up to record. It’s just one of those things. That’s the difficulty, that’s what takes so long, is getting them up to track the stuff. But they did and they fucking totally ruled! They both gave outstanding performances on this new record. There’s one song that didn’t make the album that Randy Blythe (from LAMB OF GOD) did guest vocals on. We chose not to use it, not because it sucks, just because I felt like the band should stand on its own and not have ‘Featuring Guest Vocals’. Randy and all of us down here in Virginia and North Carolina, we all know each other really well, we’re all old friends. There’s not like a scene status thing. Especially here in Richmond, everybody’s in a band, so nobody gives a shit that you’re in a band. You can throw a stone and hit someone who’s a musician in this town. You either got to be good or go home.” Perhaps a Japanese label will sign Hail!Hornet and that can be the bonus track. “Totally, I prefer to have the record come out in its own right first, and then as a bonus or a nicety, be able to include that. I’m sure Randy would be stoked. Both Vince and I just felt it would be better for us not to rely on…”

Not only is Disperse The Curse the album title, it’s also the name of the third song. Does that phrase hold special significance for Hail!Hornet? “I think that’s just T-Roy; he writes all the lyrics, so I can’t really, fully 100% speak to that. But I thought it was really good. He sent us a whole list of different titles that he was thinking about; it’s got a lot of good alliteration to it. But I think it also… I’d imagine it had some personal meaning for him, like I’m going to get rid of this bad shit in my life. Maybe it was in conjunction with us doing the record, like he felt this was a good time for him to start new. That would be my guess.”

‘Beast Of Bourbon’ is an eye-catching song title as it immediately lends itself to THE ROLLING STONES’ ‘Beast Of Burden’ from 1978’s Some Girls album. “I think that’s just a play on words. Down here in the South, we all do that a little bit. He (T-Roy) likes to drink bourbon, I like to drink bourbon. There’s definitely plenty of bourbon going on while we were making the record, so it probably has something to do with that.” Erik’s favourite bourbon? “Evan Williams Black Label. When I was in Europe with Parasytic, I don’t really drink beer that much; I do it as more of a chaser. So I spent all my money on shitty whiskey in Europe, because… you can find Jim Beam there now, and you can find Jack Daniel’s there always. The only reason I appreciate Jack Daniel’s is because you can find it all over the world. But there’s no good bourbons over there. I spent all my money on Four Roses, or there’s all these crazy offshoots from basically big American companies who make bourbons, but they send over their shit product to Europe with some silly logo that says Authentic, Aged Three Years. Like come on!”

There’s an interesting parallel between the first and second Hail!Hornet albums; that being the way they end. ‘Swarm Of Malice’ is nine minutes long, and ‘Blacked Out In Broad Daylight’ is almost there at eight and a half minutes in length. “Again I’ll refer to Vince – this is his baby. I’m just fortunate enough to be included. He picks the running order. But all these songs are totally close to his heart. A lot of it is like when I do my solo shit, it’s songs that don’t work for the current band that I’m in. The way he segue ways the songs is very particular. No one ever gives him fucking credit! He’s an unsung hero in the Southern heavy music scene. Nobody ever says ‘Vince Burke is a kick ass motherfucker.’ But he is a kick ass motherfucker! He doesn’t really tour, but he’s recorded so many people and put out a shit ton of killer music. Hopefully with this new release being on Relapse, it will get him the attention I think he deserves; not only as a producer, but also as a songwriter. He recorded Birds Of Prey for me, he’s recorded Parasytic. He’s done Sourvein. There’s a lot of stuff that dude does that goes under the radar.”

The first Hail!Hornet album was easily comparable to EYEHATEGOD, but on Disperse The Curse, those similarities are nowhere near as prevalent. H!H has begun to create their own sonic identity. “That’s cool, I appreciate that. At least from a drumming perspective, a lot of that has to do with me playing in Parasytic, playing super-fast crust punk and getting better at playing double bass. Also, Vince kind of thought outside the box a little bit. Usually a band’s first album is everything we have right now. Then after that, when you have some time to gel and listen back to what you did, you see other places you want to venture to.”

Currently there are no tour plans in the works. “Me and Vince have talked about it. We’ve only played one show in our entire existence; it was with DEAD BIRD and LORD BY FIRE, who are from Richmond. We were supposed to do a split with Dead Bird, but that never panned out. It’s just difficult ‘cause everybody lives in different cities, except for the cousins. But even the cousins live 30 miles apart from each other. I told Vince we should think about it and start putting out the feelers about playing some shows. It’s a good record and people might want to hear these songs live. He just kind of chuckled and said, ‘I know man, but the cousins, we’ll figure it out’.”