Metal Mayhem UK - Made of Hate Interview

It has been a couple of years now since the group members met as teenagers and decided to rock together. Since the very beginning, they were receiving very positive feedback from the audience while gigging around. The solid, energetic and skill proven music collected many fans, also abroad.

The guys started their career performing at some of the biggest polish festivals and gaining lots of interest from the audience and from the industry press and media. Some of the magazines announced Michal Kostrzynski - the lead guitar player and the band founder - the amazing, new-born and gifted guitarist who's technique and the way of playing shape up so well, they were sure the upcoming quartet to succeed very soon.

Metal Mayhem: I'm sure that there will be quite a few reading this that will have never heard the name Made of Hate before, can you tell us a bit about the band before we start.
Mike Kostrzyski: Well, let's start from the beginning. We are bunch of quite young guys from Warsaw, Poland and back in the day we decided to make something that we've always been in love with, which is music. Heavy metal in particular, which is rather obvious considering your interest in our band. HAHA. By the time we started to run Made Of Hate into live thing, we already had had some experiences in playing metal. I think that we can actually say that Made Of Hate was born in the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007. It was time of many changes in our lives and growing up to become sure about what we want and what to do to accomplish our goals. This way or another, we come up with our debut album called "Bullet In Your Head" which should be already at your local music store.

MM: Despite your young age, you have a very mature sounding style. How would you describe Made of Hate to those that have never heard you before?
MK: I think that our music is some sort of mixture of such musical elements as aggressive riffs, multiple melodies, crazy solos, wild vocals and powerful rhythm section. Our music is full of striking impact based on the honest expression and will of playing what we love. To be more clear I would say that our music is based on traditional trash metal mixed with many other musical genres including all shads of metal as well as classical music, funk and jazz. Even though, I think it's better to listen to the music then talk about it. I share that opinion, that music is hardly describable and only your perception can tell what particular music is worth. In my taste I see Made Of Hate's music as very fine. HAHAHA

MM: If you could pick one of the songs off the album that sums you guys up perfectly, which one do you think it would be?
MK: Oh, that's hard one. It's like to pick one among all your children. But anyway, in my opinion, I think that "An Eye For An Eye" would be my pick here. That's because in that song you can find loads of twisted solos, some really groovy riffs, a musical surprise and omnipresent melodies. All is finished with some aggressive vocals filled with true emotions. But I feel I could say exactly the same about few other songs like "Bullet In Your Head", "My Last Breath" or "Mirror Of Sins" HAHAHA. It's really hard to pick one; I like all of the songs on the disk. But ok, let say "An Eye For An Eye" is my choice.

MM: Coming onto your debut "Bullet In Your Head", which will be out 22nd of Feb, you surely can't be any happier with how it turned out?
MK: Yes, we are really happy with releasing this album worldwide. This is exactly what I had in mind saying about our goals. My dream has always been to start from so-called West. It may be really hard to explain, but if you lived in Poland and knew the entire heavy metal scene and it's environment you would easily notice that it's is really something big to put your feet outside your neighbor. We are really happy with that and we get happier every single day. It reminds me something though. It reminds me all the effort during years spent on practicing and working on yourself. Now the time has come to jump out of the cradle.

Bullet In Your Head

MM: Is there anything you would have liked to have changed or added if you had the chance to go back?
MK: I don't think so. We are really happy with all the things around our band. Only one thing comes to my mind. I would have definitely tired to reconsider time in studio. It's weird, because I was ready to stay in the studio for 3 or more weeks, but it turned into only 7 days and it was it. Done. We had only few hours to hang around the studio location. But anyway it's a detail. In general I think everyone of us is happy with what we've got.

MM: Have you seen many of the reviews yet? How do you think MoH have been received so far?
MK: Last time we checked the reviews were really friendly and the notes were rather high, which is really great, but anyway we know that there is a huge way ahead of us. As for the general reply from our people, I have to say it's really great. Just take a look on our MySpace profile. We've gathered many friends there in a very short time and most of them are actually excited about our band and our music. When it comes to media I have to admit that I was really impressed by the promotion and media's reaction about us. I've been interviewed dozens times recently. And I was told there is more to come. So as you can imagine full hands of work, but it's more then pleasure to do so. That's another goal I mention before.

MM: Children of Bodom is a name I noticed come up, do you think that this is a fair comparison? What would you say are your main influences?
MK: Well, I think that our musical languages have some common accents, but they are also common to other bands that play with gravity on melody and aggressiveness. You can name here such bands as In Flames, Nevermore or Lamb of God. As for this particular comparison with CoB I think it's the easiest way to label the music without saying anything about music. I'd say after Dani from Cradle Of Filth, that such labels are good for music shops and so on. If it comes to my significant influences I would say all trash and heavy metal from 80s and 90s, with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer at the top. Then some bands with different flavors of metal such as Judas Priest and power metal, neo-classical celebrities like Malmsteen. It's not far from here to other great influence of mine, which is classical music, especially from baroque to romantic eras. I really love that music, plus I'm musicologist and it's a subject of my interest almost every day. But let's get back to next influences. I'd notice all the so called modern metal, or whatever you call it, presented by In Flames, Nightwish, Fear Factory or mentioned Nevermore and Lamb Of God. I can't omit polish band Kat, which has always been my favorite. I would end with progressive rock and funk and pop. I listen what I like and in every single type of music there may be something interesting for me. As you see the influence may be endless.

Made of Hate

MM: AFM is a label with a very impressive roster. How did the deal come about with them?
MK: Yeah, they have some really great names there. The more we are happy with being signed with AFM. The history of this deal is rather simple and not unusual, that's for sure. I just sent the CD to AFM headquarters and then I received some really good opinions from our German neighbor. Next step was negotiations, which didn't let me sleep for few days, but the result was great. We are in and AFM guys are great friends. I consider us as lucky ones to tell the truth.

MM: Have you had many chances to perform live yet?
MK: Actually not yet. We had some offers around Poland but together with our promoter we decided to wait for the debut album. That is actually reasonably, because how would people know the songs or our music or even us? We think that all the waiting and growing hunger for live appearances will be satisfied soon.

MM: How about for the rest of 2008? Are there any notable gigs/festival appearances been announced yet, or is it too early to say?
MK: It's too early for that, especially if you consider us as a newcomer with debut album. We just have to wait for some details about reception and selling. But anyway we are in touch with few promoters and we are thinking about tour or something as soon as possible. I'm more then sure there will be a hand of details very soon; just stay put and check out our MySpace site and official web site.

MM: What would you like to achieve before the end of 2008?
MK: Rolls Royce and big house would be fine HAHAHA. But seriously I would like to get enough attention to convince concert agencies to support us in tours and so on. I'd also like to sell enough CDs and play at least enough gigs to cover all outcomes which would let me to focus only on music. That would be another goal scored.

MM: How about in, say, 5 years time. Where would you like to be or what would you have liked to achieve?
MK: In that time I'd like to play as many shows as possible. In way like Behemoth with over 150-200 shows a year. I'd like to be a part of heavy metal world and have no other worries then music and playing. It's all because me and all my mates in band love music ad can't imagine doing anything else then playing fucking heavy metal all the time until our old bodies will turn off. I really hope for Made Of Hate to be one of well-known metal bands in the world.

MM: We wish you the best for the future, any last words for our readers?
MK: Thank you very much! To the end I'd like to invite you all to check us out and try our musical taste! I can assure you that if you like twisted heavy metal our debut album "Bullet In Your Head" is dedicated to you Plus we really hope to step on Britain's soil and have some great time on shows! Anyway horns up and be metal! Thanks and see you around! Let Metal Mayhem last!

Chris Rogers