Four years have passed since hardcore mercenary, Hatebreed released its last studio album. In the interim there has been tons of touring and a few side projects, mostly by frontman, Jamey Jasta.
On January 29 Hatebreed returned with its sixth studio album,”The Divinity of Purpose” and immediately hit the road with Shadows Fall, Dying Fetus and The Contortionist, to spread the blistering word. The line-up remains unchanged, with Jasta, bassist Chris Beattie, drummer Matt Byrne, and guitarists guitarist Wayne Lozinak and Frank Novinec all returning for the cause.
The day after the release of the band’s new album, The Examiner caught up with Novinec to discuss the new tour, “The Divinity of Purpose“, pre-show rituals, American versus European fans, and much more. Frank was happy to be back in the thick of it, on the road with new music to perform.
“Everything is awesome in Hatebreed world,” declared Novinec. “The record came out yesterday and the reception has been amazing. The shows have been great and it’s just great to be back on the road with new material. We’re playing a couple of songs off the new record. It’s good to breathe fresh air into the balloon. One thing that’s great for the band, the way that we do keep it fresh is we don’t use a setlist. Jamey will shout out what song we’re gonna play and we’ve got about two seconds to think about how it goes and start playing it, which is really great for us and the fans. So it’s different songs every night, and that’s how we’ve managed to keep it fresh.”
Novinec admits getting back into the studio to record a new album, though rewarding, is not nearly as exciting as performing it. However, he was excited about the time the band had to put into it and the final outcome.
“Well, you know, it’s never fun. It’s long days listening to the same things over and over, but at the end of the day it was nice for us because we had the time that we usually don’t have to make this album. So we had time to go back and review, and tweak, and rearrange the things that we wanted. One of the beautiful things about the positive reviews coming in about the record, is everyone is talking about what a strong record it is from beginning to finish. That was probably the best part about getting back in there and creating our new album. Having the time and being able to go back and make the album we wanted to make.”
“The Divinity of Purpose” has more of a straight forward sound than previous Hatebreed efforts. Novinec agrees with that assessment:
“Fortunately for us we’re a very universal band and we have fans in the metal scene, in the hardcore scene, in the punk scene, and the hard rock. So we’re able to go outside of the boundaries as far as maybe just a regular hardcore band would be concerned. But at the same time it’s hard for us because we have to walk a fine line and keep everybody happy. I think on the last record we tried a couple different things. We went out as far as we wanted to go as far as experimenting goes and at the end of the day it’s still Hatebreed. But I think on this record we went for a more straight forward thing and it’s just us doing what we do best. It’s more of a meat and potatoes thing.”
Check out the full interview with Frank Novinec below, learn what he does with his downtime and who he thinks should go into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next. You can also view the first two videos from the new album here.
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Music is the universal language: Speak it loudly!
Rustyn Rose is a veteran music journalist who owns and operates Metalholic Magazine and Metalholic Radio.
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