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an Interview with Martin Van Drunen
by Matt Smith
Not many vocalists in death metal have a distinct voice you can name on the spot, but none is as unmistakable as Martin van Drunen. Even back in his days in Pestilence I knew he was an originator in the genre. His latest project, Hail of Bullets, consists of ex-Houwitser bass player Theo van Eekelen, Gorefest drummer Ed Warby and Thanatos guitarists Paul Baayens and Stephan Gebédi. In May they released a full length CD on Metal Blade records entitled ...Of Frost And War and if you haven't heard it yet you are missing out on some classic old school death metal churned out by men who know what the fuck they're doing! I spoke with Martin himself to get the low down on the concept behind the new disc and share our thoughts about how true death metal can sound in the hands of the right people!
GASP: Hey Martin, how's it going?
Martin: I'm fine man, how about you?
GASP: Excellent thanks, are you calling from Holland?
Martin: Yeah, where are you calling from?
GASP: Worcester, MA, quite a bit away from you. But Worcester has become the Metal Mecca with the Palladium here hosting the New England Metal Fest every year and many other metal tours that make their way through the states so it's nice to have that in my hometown!
Martin: Yeah, that's really great!
GASP: It is! I've been listening to Of Frost and War non-stop for the last few weeks and I must say it fucking kills! It's good to hear your voice with some new brutal music again.
Martin: Thank you man, I really think everyone did a marvelous job and we're really pleased with the album.
GASP: Now I know you from Pestilence, Asphyx, and Comecon, in your opinion how is Hail of Bullets different from those bands?
Martin: Well, it's a different age now, you have to translate old school brutality to 2008 and I think we succeeded really good at that. We play old school death metal but it doesn't sound old and I think that's a big difference. If you compare it to all the bands I've played in, I'd compare it to Asphyx, but there is still a difference.
GASP: Definitely, I agree with you because you've perfectly captured that old school sound and it sounds very fresh. Me and my buddies that do GASPetc.com love the old school stuff and it's great to hear you guys doing stuff like this now.
Martin: I'm pretty much the same, I like all that old stuff. I got bored with a lot of the stuff that has come out lately and we were like "what ever happened to good old school death metal"? That's more or less the whole idea behind Hail of Bullets, to show people that it is still a kind of metal to compete with all the others. To be honest, if you put it next to something with a lot of blast beats I think it's heavier.
GASP: I'm with you there, I'm always more interested in the interesting mid-tempo kind of riffs over the blast beats. It sounds so much heavier that the fast stuff.
Martin: Speed doesn't mean everything. We had one little blast beat but we threw it out because it didn't fit, you know?
GASP: Yeah! I noticed ...OF Frost and War has a World War II concept running through it.
Martin: It takes place in Western Europe during the war and the battle between the Germans and the Soviets. It's about how this part of the war is seen and it's pretty unknown but it was probably one of the most brutal parts of the war in Europe and to me it was really interesting and also a challenge to write about and I was fascinated by the whole thing. There were so many casualties, I mean there were sometimes like 2 million died in one battle so I decided to write about that instead of what most people decide to write about in death metal songs. It is a concept album because all the lyrics are about this part of the war.
GASP: It's a great concept, especially for a band with a name like Hail of Bullets, it conjures up images of a World War II battle field and this concept perfectly fits the band name. The sound effects fit perfectly and it all flows so well.
Martin: There is a booklet that comes with the CD with actual pictures of that part of the war and it's not just a concept album but it's also in chronological order. It actually ends with the fall of Berlin and it's all based on actual facts and you'll read in the lyrics everything is taken from historic reports from that part of the war.
GASP: Like "The Crucial Offensive (19-11-1942, 7.30 AM)"
Martin: It WAS a crucial offensive, that's why I mention it because it was the turning point of the war where the Russian offensive used their artillery and the Germans were blown away and there was chaos all over. It's like the music in the song, when I heard the music to that song I just visualized that part of the story.
GASP: It really is a great concept!
Martin: Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoy the concept of the album.
GASP: It's great, it makes us old school fans really happy and proud to say we love this kinda shit. I mean a lot of older bands like Dismember are putting out killer albums now.
Martin: And there's a lot of new kids getting into it and I played shows with Asphyx and there's a new audience developing in addition to the old fans.
GASP: How do you feel about the current state of the death metal scene? Because a lot of the new bands are cookie cutter sounding and it's really boring in my opinion with the generic growling vocals and double bass drum etc.
Martin: The way they do the vocals I could do it with a telephone (growls into the telephone) and all you have to do is put your hand around the microphone and you don't even have to scream and I scream but I use a lot of power and it's a lot of work for my vocals live and I have to work for my voice and it's a lot of training and I enjoy it very much! I don't want to put the lads down but first I can't understand the shit they're saying and they start with one word and end with another and I can't understand any thing they say in the middle of the sentences. They should try and say something with the lyrics and there's all the blast beats and three hundred riffs in one song and it's not my idea of banging your head and going nuts on one song. With me I can still go crazy when I hear the first Possessed album or Massacre or old Celtic Frost, that's the kind of stuff I like. And that's why Hail of Bullets was founded in the first place to play that kind of music because we love it. There are a lot of bands that play their instruments really well but afterwards I felt like they didn't really blow me away, I mean they didn't even break a sweat on stage. When I was a kid I saw the first Slayer and 'lica tour and that really blew me away, I came away like "YEAH!" but I'm not really seeing that nowadays.
 GASP: I totally know what your saying and I agree with you on that too, there aren't many bands that really blow me away the first time I see them.
Martin: And then with Pestilence when we would open for someone and we had the mentality that no matter who the fucking the headliner was we would try our hardest to blow them away and most of the time we did and we wanted to make the audience crazy and I feel like if the crowd catches your enthusiasm then you did a great job.
GASP: I agree. Now your distinct vocal style is legendary, is it any more difficult keeping up its intensity now than it was back in the early Pestilence days?
Martin: Nowadays I train a lot more and when I do a show or an album I make sure I'm in good shape and I practice a lot at home. I can scream without oxygen and I'm a lot more prepared than I ever was. I mean I had a cold and couldn't sing for three weeks and then I had the Hail of Bullets record and I trained a lot and I didn't know how far I would get but I ended up doing all the tracks and went further because of the training I did.
GASP: That's great, because your voice sounds just as intense as it did back then. It's undeniable.
Martin: Thanks a lot.
GASP: While I know HoB is a side-project for you guys, would you consider taking it to the next level and do a full-blown tour considering how fucking amazing it is?
Martin: Well we're not a side project, we are a full band it's just the members of Hail of Bullets all have different other bands and we can plan tours with the other schedules and if we plan it well we can tour. And if there is any offer, it doesn't even have to be a specific tour we can do some American festivals or ten or twenty shows in America you know!
GASP: That would be great, especially to see you on the New England Metal Fest next year.
Martin: If you know the promoter let him write a mail to us and if there is any opportunity because right now Theo, the bass player is at home and is nervous because his wife is pregnant and the kid could come at any moment and he has his priorities in mind but when all that settles down then we have to plan everything and do a short tour. But I don't think HoB would do a tour with a hundred concerts in one year, I don't think that's possible. I would love to do some European shows and play in America because I have some really great memories of being there. It's been a long time since I've been there.
GASP: How long has it been since you played in the US?
Martin: The Pestilence tour with Death and Carcass.
GASP: Wow, so it's been a long time, it'll be great to get you in the states again soon!
Martin: Yeah, I hope so really.
GASP: Yeah, and I just saw Sabbat in the states for their first mini US tour and they totally blew me away. It was so great to finally see them after twenty years.
Martin: Yeah I can imagine, and if they do great shows and perform live great then it's worth it. I see a lot of older bands you know go out and play again and they have a lot of fun and they blow the kids away. "All right little kiddies, age doesn't mean anything, we're 45 or 50 years old and it sounds just as great!" (laughs)
GASP: Yeah, and it gives us all hope that we'll be cranking this stuff out well into our senior years.
Martin: Yeah, and thinking as we're getting older starting up some old special metal house for old metal heads and sit there and play cards and listen to Possessed and all that stuff. (laughs)
GASP: I would love to be part of that retirement home (laughs)
Martin: (laughs) But it's funny because it's the first generation of metal heads and as we're getting older we're in some retirement home and we walk outside for some fresh air and the first truck that comes by would end it all. (laughs)
 GASP: (laughs) I heard about the new Asphyx 7 inch, and that you're covering a new Celtic Frost song and I think that's fucking sweet! Obviously you loved Monotheist, it definitely made me and a lot of other Frost fans happy. Not many bands can make a comeback like that, especially after the career Frost had. Are you friends with Tom and what do you think of his departure from Frost?
Martin: Sad, it's sad and also strange. And the thing is I'm in the same situation with Asphyx and it would be really strange now for me to suddenly quit so it's really hard for me to understand and it's sad for the fans because they waited for years and then they returned with a really great album like you said and now it stopped, I can't figure it out and now he'll never reform it again because you lose all credibility, it's really sad.
GASP: I know, because I really can't see Frost going on without Tom.
Martin: I'm sorry but it wouldn't be the same, it would be like Motorhead moving on without Lemmy! It's just impossible. They did something new and it was fresh but it still had the old sound too and they did a magnificent job with that album and I don't understand it at all, I know as much as you do.
GASP: So you haven't talked to him.
Martin: All I know is the statement on the site.
GASP: Yeah, it a real bummer!
Martin: It's sad because this weekend is the Rock Hard Festival in Germany and they were supposed to play on Friday and were playing on Saturday and I was really looking forward to playing with them and now they have a nice replacement with Testament but I'm really sad about it. So now we're going to play the Frost cover since they're not playing and it will be like a tribute for the fans and because we are disappointed by the fact they're not playing. We play the cover like Frost but we put our own touch on it and to be honest I think it's the best vocal performance I've ever done. I did it live, no dropping in and they rolled the tape on and I screamed on it and did it in one take and everyone seemed to be happy and when I listened to it I was like "damn did I really do that?"
GASP: Cool, I look forward to hearing it. To wrap this up, since this is a half horror ad half metal website, do you have any favorite horror movies or directors?
Martin: Dario Argento, and I think one of his best movies ever is Opera.
GASP: How about Lucio Fulci?
Martin: Yeah I like Fulci a lot and Romero but I like Argento because he has this suspense and these little things like where the hell did he get this? Like with the needles, it has to be an Italian. (laughs)
GASP: Cool, well it was cool talking to you and I'm going to try and talk to people here to get you playing the Metal Fest and getting people into the HoB disc and I look forward to hearing the new Asphyx stuff. Keep up the great work!
Martin: Thanks you very much, I really appreciate it, I enjoyed the interview a lot. Thank you very much!
GASP: All right, excellent, take care.
Martin: You take care of yourself, cheers!
GASP: You too, cheers!
Hail of Bullets
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