By Andrew Bansal
Based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, Bloody Hammers is a goth/stoner/doom metal quartet led by bassist, vocalist and principal songwriter Anders Manga, and the band’s lineup also includes his wife Devallia on the organ and piano. Having started out in 2012 and still very young in their career, Bloody Hammers have already put out three full-length albums, and are now ready to unveil their fourth LP ‘Lovely Sort Of Death’, slated for an August 5th 2016 release via Napalm Records. The band’s newest effort presents gothic elements in a manner very few other bands have. The discernibly ‘European’ sound, the tone and the atmosphere of this set of tunes is something metalheads would, in all probability, readily appreciate, and with this release, Bloody Hammers are staking their claim as frontrunners in establishing goth metal as a desirable musical genre for listeners. On July 28th, Metal Assault spoke to Anders Manga to discuss the album and more. Enjoy the conversation below.
Anders, it’s good to have you on Metal Assault. I’ve been listening to your new album for a few days now, ever since I got the promo. I have to admit that I wasn’t too familiar with the band before, but this album made such an impression on me that I signed up for this interview just for that reason.
Oh, awesome man! Thank you! That’s cool to hear. Our publicist was saying that the music on this album is just about on or around the line where the metal community could get behind it. So, I appreciate you being Metal Assault and wanting to talk to me (laughs).
Yeah, we cover all kinds of hard rock and metal. It’s about the attitude and the vibe as much as it is about a particular type of sound, so you definitely fit in both ways.
Excellent! Thank you.
So, I was reading about ‘Lovely Sort Of Death’ and you seemingly said that it might be the darkest album you’ve recorded till date. What’s the reasoning behind saying that?
Well, when I write songs, I just go with whatever mood I’m in at the time. I just let in flow out naturally, and whatever happens, happens. When I was writing for this album and songs were coming to me, I noticed that the songs were more, I guess, atmospheric, and I was digging it. I know it wasn’t exactly what I was doing before. Some of the songs aren’t quite exactly what Bloody Hammers was before, but I just wanted to go with it. If you get caught up in what other people want and what they think, it can just get contrived and not honest. And this is a honest record. It’s what I wanted to do. It’s a mood I was in at the time, and I went with it. It turned out to be probably my favorite record I’ve ever done, and I like that about it. I like the atmosphere, I like that it’s a varied record. It takes you on a little journey of different styles. It’s not like, here’s a hard rock song and here’s another hard rock song. It’s not a concept album but it’s just varied.
Would you say that you’ve pushed your boundaries more on this one than in the past?
Yeah! I think the one instrument that I had in here that wasn’t there before was the Moog synthesizer. I live just down the road from the Moog factory, Bob Moog built the synthesizer here, and it’s always been a local influence. I love the sound of a nasty Moog bass with fuzzy guitar tones. Combine the two, it just makes a nasty sound. Once you start messing and goofing around with the Moog, you just get inspired. Things happen and you stumble upon riffs, and it’s just atmosphere, you know. So, that’s probably one of the things that’s different. That instrument wasn’t there before, and it inspired me and took me in that direction.
In terms of the guitar tones and tunings, etc, was there anything different that you did?
It was still mostly drop C or drop D, low tuning as always, because I don’t want to get into a situation where we’re playing old stuff and I’ve got to switch guitars with different tunings (laughs). So yeah, the tunings and everything are all the same as before.
You mentioned the synthesizer but you’ve also used the piano, organ and instruments like that. How big of a role was that in the actual writing process, or was it just like another thing on the top?
I would say both. If you think of a song like ‘Shadow Out Of Time’, the keyboard came first and you can tell because it starts with the keyboard. That was the root. It just depends on what instrument I have in my hand at the time, really. Like, ‘Bloodletting On The Kiss’ was something that started with a keyboard. I just kind of stumbled on that sound and I just built the song on top of that. Other songs, some of them are obviously all guitar, and I’m thinking ‘The Reaper Comes’ as an example. So, it just depends on what instrument I’m playing and when what strikes me. I’m not a very disciplined writer. I’m not one of those people who can say, “Tomorrow at 3 o’ clock, I’m going to write a doom metal song.” I can’t do that. If I go down there and try to be disciplined and write, it will be terrible (laughs). So, really the best comes out when I’m just goofing around, warming up or something like that. Some melody pops in my head out of nowhere. Those are the best songs for me, but I know other people can write in that disciplined way and they can do it with a band.A lot of bands would get together at a certain time and write songs. Bloody Hammers is me, and my wife Devallia who plays keyboards. I’m sort of an introvert guy anyway, so I work better alone. I’ve been in band situations before, and when I’m put on the spot where I’ve got to write a song and come up with a melody right at that specific time, it was just not as natural as whenever I let it come naturally.
Right, and you’ve released four albums in four years, which is kind of taking it back to the olden days when bands used to put out albums every year. How have you been able to keep up with this kind of output?
I don’t think of it as a business or anything like that. Some guys play golf, I write songs! I just enjoy writing songs and I guess that’s why. It’s just something I like to do, you know. I think a lot of bands put out an album and they go on tour for two years or whatever. So, that’s why it takes them so long to put out the next record because they’re touring so much. We don’t tour as much. Unfortunately we haven’t really gotten to that point. We have to get to that point where we can tour more, but I guess that’s why we’ve put out more albums, just sitting around and not touring (laughs). I’m sure other bands would write more stuff too if they weren’t touring. It’s harder for newer bands. A lot of the bands that are still doing extensive tours have been around a long time. Bands like Metallica tour and go out for months, and I know back in the day those tours would last for years, not months (laughs).
In terms of the kind of genre that you’re labeled by people, for the most part it’s ‘goth metal’ or whatever people call it. Are you comfortable with that term? What would you call it?
Oh, I don’t care. People can call it whatever they want. I’ve heard people say ‘doom metal’, some say ‘psychedelic hard rock’. I like that people can’t really put it in a box. That’s one of the things I like about it, but it also works against me because we’re living in a world of hashtags, stores want to know what section to put it in, and festivals want to know whether you fit with all their other bands. We’re too goth for a stoner rock festival and we’re too stoner rock for a gothic festival (laughs). It works against us, but you’ve just got to do what you want to do. It doesn’t really fit in anywhere, and it’s up to people to decide, I think.
You said that you don’t tour all that much, but this album is coming out next Friday, so after that what plans do you have? Are you going to be playing shows at all?
Yeah, we hope so! Our booking agent is looking into things that we can do. Sometimes it takes a while to find that kind of stuff, and I like touring in the fall. So we’re looking at that and may be early spring next year. In LA, I played a place called Bar Sinister a couple of times. The last time was in 2005, so it was a while ago, and I played that show as myself. I have an electronic darkwave sort of project, so I performed some of it at that show. It’s a great place! Hopefully, Bloody Hammers can come out that way and play for you guys soon enough!
Bloody Hammers links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
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