By Carl Begai

UK-born guitarist/producer Andy Sneap has earned the right to call his own shots. He first carved his name in stone as a member of the legendary SABBAT in 1985, subsequently launching a career in producing that reads like chapters of a heavy metal bible. And while sitting in the studio chair earns far more money than the write/record/play routine of the bands he’s worked with, Sneap is quite happy to get his hands dirty. The best example of this is his single-handed and successful attempt to breathe new life into the unsung heroes from his childhood, HELL. Their short but influential run from 1982 – 1987 as a Nottingham favourite made a lasting impression on Sneap, who took on the role of producer and guitarist for their first official album, Human Remains – released earlier this year – ultimately shoving the band’s legacy into the public eye some 25 years after the fact.

“I grew up watching these guys locally,” Sneap reveals. “I was 12 years old, learning how to play guitar, and I took lessons from the original frontman, Dave Halliday. I got to know them as friends and kind of followed them around. They were 10 years older than me and doing what I wanted to do, and at that age you take everything in and are influenced by everything around you. When we launched Sabbat we modeled ourselves after Hell a little bit; we took influences from them and their work ethic. They seemed very professional for a band that wasn’t really on a professional level. They were doing all these big local gigs but nothing that was even the size of what we’re doing now.”

Hell was essentially an underdog band with potential that screamed of greatness, but could never get out of the garage. It was for this reason that Sneap jumped at the chance to bring Hell over to the big leagues when opportunity presented itself.

“We always said it in Sabbat interviews, that Hell was amazing. But, because they never had the chance to record these songs properly they never had the chance to play out of their local area. None of the journalists back then were prepared to travel out of London to see a band; Hell had to go down to play the Marquee or some shithole in the back end of London. They couldn’t afford to do that because they didn’t have any backing, so things unfortunately fell by the wayside. Everyone in the Midlands knew about this band, and from the turnout we had when we did a show here a few weeks ago – 500 people in a local club – there were so many familiar faces in the crowd. It just showed that everyone who knew this band in the ‘80s knew the quality of the music and what this band could have been.”

“Obviously, it was a lot harder to get a band known back then. There was no internet, it was all tape trading and fanzines, so you had to get into that scene to make yourselves known. These guys weren’t from that background, so they didn’t really get a foothold in that scene. When the internet came around they ended up getting this cult following going through the demos and the single they did.”
“I’ve always known the potential of these songs because I’d seen Hell play live so many times and heard the songs, while people in the outside world have only heard these really shitty recordings from mono cassettes that were going around, but I knew there was quality to these songs and I always wanted to record them. So yeah, it’s totally my fault (laughs).”
“They always wanted to do this and they were gutted when it never happened,” Sneap continues. “They were still into rock music and keeping their ears to the ground. Kev Bower’s (guitars) son is really into metal, so he’s re-living his youth a little bit (laughs). He’s always loved music and loved playing, so this is a bit of a dream come true for him. For the other guys, it was sort of snatched from their grasp so it didn’t take much talking to them to convince them. In fact, they didn’t have to put anybody up front; it was me saying ‘Alright, this is what we’re gonna do…’ (laughs).”

Hell’s resurrection was not, however, something the band’s members and Sneap had fantasized about over shared pints at the local pub year after year. He says the reunion and new album came down to chance.

“They hadn’t seen me in 20 years,” Sneap reveals. “I met up with Kev about three years ago, and I hadn’t seen him since he left the band in ’86. It was through his son, Tom, who’s into metal like NEVERMORE, TRIVIUM and ARCH ENEMY, all these bands I’ve worked with. Kev and Tom had gone their separate ways at one point, but they were getting to know each other again, and Kev was looking at all his albums giving him the big ‘I used to do this…’ speech (laughs). Then he saw they were produced by Andy Sneap and was pretty sure it was the kid he used to know. I was in Florida at the time, and one day I was on MSN Messenger and the name Tom Bower popped up, and he said ‘My dad says he knows you.’ I’d kept in touch with the other guys, but nobody knew where Kev had gotten to; it had been like he’d disappeared off the face of the earth. I got his phone number from Tom and gave him a call when I got back to the UK. We went out for a beer and it was old times straight away.”

“I have big residential studio just down the road from them, so for them to come down and record the songs properly with great gear was easy. They’d come down to the studio on the weekend, get a few beers in, talk about old times and record some songs. It was a lot of fun.”
“I’ve actually never been more prepared to do an album than this one,” Sneap adds. “I’ve heard these songs so many times over the last 25 years that I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. Usually when I go into the studio with a band I haven’t even heard the songs. It was a lot of fun sitting down with them, it took me right back to my teenage years when I was watching them play live.”

Sadly, Human Remains isn’t a full Hell reunion, as original vocalist/guitarist Dave Halliday committed suicide shortly after the band split up in 1987. The vacant vocalist slot was filled by Kev Bower’s younger brother, David, after recording the old songs with former Sabbat bandmate / ex-SKYCLAD frontman Martin Walkyier fell flat.

“We did the album in blocks of three, doing two or three songs at a time, finished them off, but we didn’t have anyone to do the vocals. We tried Martin, who was Sabbat’s vocalist, and we did the whole album with him. It started off okay but by the end of it, it really lacked the depth and the melodies the Hell songs have. When you compare Hell to what Sabbat did, Sabbat was a lot more straightforward and riff-based. Those songs fit Martin really well, of course, because they were written for him. The whole Sabbat sound came from my riffs and Martin’s vocals. Hell is a different beast because the songs were written around a different singer with a different approach. Martin’s versions were good, but they lacked that higher register that Dave Halliday had.”

“Kev brought David down to do a voiceover on ‘Plague And Fyre’, and he also did some backing vocals because he’s a professional actor with that kind of experience, and we realized we had somebody that had the same register as Dave Halliday. He was perfect because he had the acting background, and he’d seen the band 15 or 20 times back in the day because he used to help them out. It was like ‘Kev, why didn’t you tell us your brother can sing!’ (laughs). I think it was a bit hard for Kev to swallow that his younger would be fronting his band, but he’s warmed to the idea and things have worked out great.”

Which, Sneap agrees, is something of an understatement. Since the release of Human Remains in May 2011, Hell has performed at several world renowned metal festivals including the UK’s Download and Bloodstock, Finland’s Tuska, and Germany’s Summer Breeze. He says the band has every intention of building on the buzz surrounding Human Remains, and a new album is indeed in the cards.

“Definitely. Kev’s already got half of the new album written. He’s got the keyboard parts written and they’re killer ideas, actually. We’re going to work on some more old material for the next album, like ‘Land Of The Living Dead’, ‘Deliver Us From Evil’ and ‘Where Angels Fear To Tread’ – I really want to do the instrumental ‘Death Squad’ – so I think it’s going to be 50% old stuff and 50% new material. And the third album will be all new material as far as I can see. Everyone in this band plays their roles, we’re all experienced musicians, so I’m not the least bit stressed about what comes next. I’m quite excited about getting together and throwing some new material about.”

At press time Sneap was gearing up to record TESTAMENT’s next album and due to start work on the highly anticipated follow-up to ACCEPT's raging comeback album, Blood Of The Nations. He is still very much in demand as a producer, but Sneap has no qualms about putting those paycheques on hold in the interest of Hell.

“I’ll take the time off to do this, to be honest, because I enjoy it so much. I’m enjoying doing something fresh in music again. It’s quite inspiring. I’ve been working in studios and looking at computer screens for 15 or 16 solid years now as a producer. It’s about time I did something a little different (laughs).”