Raise Hell
Wywiad przeprowadził Tomasz OsuchYoung guys, just after finishing school, grabbed their instruments and recorded black metal album, being at that time praiseworthy reflection of their inspiration. With Nuclear Blast giving them really warm and open-handed welcome, guys grew up to be the really big band. Years passed by, moustaches grew thicker, gentlemen tasted booze and tits and finally returned with "Not Dead Yet", their appearance changed. At that time they declared to follow without hesitation the path chosen on that album. Some time followed, they played the game called life, raised heads high and gave birth to amazing record - "Wicked Is My Game". Still aware of what they are doing, determined... RAISE HELL drummer says with optimism about this and gives oath. I hope that the next attack will kick your asses even stronger. Let's see...
Hi Dennis! How are you? First of all I would like to know why did you decide to entitled album "Wicked Is My Game"? Is your life wicked?
"Hey! I'm fine! We think that life is wicked in general if you think about how different people are! And what we are pointing at with the title is that people are running there lives as a game some loose and some wins! We have the good people and the bad people just like in games! Hehe I guess my life is wicked as well!"
No doubt hehe... For me personally new album contains more parts charachteristic for thrash metal than previous album – "Not Dead Yet". With this album you throw black metal music up. Tell me Dennis, what was the reason of changing the style 2 years ago?!
"We had like two years between all the albums and I guess it came totally natural for us! It's not that we didn't like black metal anymore but we just felt that we wanted to develop our music to something more personal and stronger! But I think that the album contains elements from both the previous albums. I mean we kept the melodies from "Holy target" and the groove from "Not dead yet" but we wanted to do something more and we experimented with more death-metal riffs and also wanted to get some rock n roll feel in the album! I think that we really found ourselves with this album! We also felt that the vocals should be more extreme for this album because it fitted better with the lyrics! I know that our new material will definitely be in the same spirit as "Wicked is my game"!!!"
A lot of people can think that you resigned from black metal because this kind of metal music isn't very popular nowadays, and they can say that thrash metal is more popular than black now... What do you think about it?
"This had nothing to do with it at all! The main reason why we slowed down was because we wanted to enjoy our live-shows!! And we had a lot of thrash elements on "Holy Target" as well so it wasn't like we decided to go to thrash because it was popular! At this time it wasn't even popular and I think the wave came when Destruction came back! 
I don't know if thrash is bigger than black metal now. I mean just look at Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth. I wouldn't even call our music pure thrash. I think we have so much more in our style!"
And tell me are you interested in black metal at present? Do you have respect for this scene?
"Yes, I listen a lot to black metal. I mean just because we changed style with our band it doesn't mean that we changed bands we listened to. I have a lot of respect for the black metal scene!"
"Wicked Is My Game" is really aggressive, but melodic thrash metal album. Of course it's only my opinion, and as I just said, there are some parts strictly connected with exactly Destruction. But from the other side, it's a third album of Raise Hell. Do you believe in this' magic of third album' which is often a rule in metal releases?
"Yes we had some extra pressure but mostly for ourselves, I think. I mean you learn a lot from recording an album and this time we wanted to think about everything. We recorded a pre-production for this album and this was great since we only had two weeks in the studio! For "Not dead yet we had four weeks but we changed half the album in the studio. For "Wicked is my game" we had all the songs totally finished and knew how the songs would turn out! And this also made us very happy with the album!"
What does the 'original' mean in your own words, Dennis?
"I think that original is when you write music that you are totally satisfied with! I mean when you don't give a damn what people will think and create music you really stand for! This way you will get a special energy which is impossible to maintain when you play something you're not burning for!!!"
Well, maniacs can tell that "Wicked Is My Game" isn't too original, because of thrash metal and some specific felling. But in my opinion, this album is more individual that two previous albums...
"I think that this album is much more mature than the previous ones. And we also experimented a lot more for this album. I agree that the album isn't that original but I think that we have a lot of elements which separates us from other "Thrash" bands. But it's almost impossible to come up with something that doesn't already exist in metal music today. Always when we write songs it starts with a jamming and as long as we like a riff it doesn't matter what kind of style the riff is! So we are very open minded in our music and this gives us a new perspective to metal music. So I guess that's what gives us our new sound."
In my opinion Raise Hell is special band on Swedish scene because you don't play sweet death metal. In Sweden you haven't a lot of thrash bands....
"Yes! I agree! We have never fallen for the typical Swedish "Death metal" scene. That's also the style we wanted to go away from when we changed our music. We really just want to be "Raise hell" and somehow maintain a trade mark!"
Raise Hell's music is connected with some kind of lifestyle of band-members. Do you prefer a rule 'sex, metal & satan'?
"Hehe.. To be honest it would be a lie to say that we live only by these rules! I mean of course we party a lot and burn for metal music but when you can't get enough money from your music you got to have a job at the side and life changes pretty radical at that time. Hehe... It's when you go on tour and on the weekends you really let loose!! I would say Sex, metal and beer!"
And tell me Dennis, what about ladies? :))) What is their reaction for Raise Hell's music?! Do you have some 'problems' with ladies after lifeshows?! You know what I mean...
"Well! I think that ladies have very easy to enjoy our music! Maybe because it's pretty groovy but I'm not sure! We have got great response from ladies anyway. No! We don't have problems with ladies after concerts! There is always a lot of rumors about this but I don't think that we are worse than any other band!! Magazines always writes what people want to read!"
Ok, let's back to "Wicked Is My Game". Tell me Dennis, what means blood on the cover?
"The whole cover art work is just very symbolic for the meaning of the album. The blood just symbolize the "Blood shed" in the lyrics!"
"Hellborn" is the first track on new Raise hell album. In Poland we have death/black metal band named Hell-Born. Do you know this band?
"No, I've never heard them. I do like "Vader" very much!"
Like almost everybody..."Wicked Is My Game" is available already from two months. I suppose that promotion of Nuclear Blast is very well. What are the reactions for this album?
"So far we have got great reactions both from the label, press, media and fans! I think people are a little bit surprised in the beginning when they listen to the album but I think that when they have listened to it a couple of times they find everything they expected from Raise Hell!"
Nuclear Blast prepares re-edition of "Holy Target" and "Not Dead Yet". It will be special release. What is the main reason that you decided for this compilation? Was it NB's idea?
"This was totally NB´s idea. But it gives us more promotion and fans are able to buy the two previous cd´s for the same price as one. So we agreed. It has no bonus tracks but it contains a 20 page booklet with all photos and lyrics from the both albums."
Did Nuclear Blast give you enough money for this album's session? Hm... I suppose you haven't any causes to complain for it...
"Yes! We wanted to go back to Flat Planet Studios and Nuclear Blast got the deal with Anders right away! Since we were much more prepared this time we only needed two weeks in the studio. 
We recorded all the songs in one or two takes so we had no problems to finish it in two weeks. Anders had the same idea as us about the production so everything worked out great and we got very satisfied with it!!"
Dennis, are you satisfied in 100% from the "Wicked Is My Game" production? Now that you have heard the final product would you change something if you had the chance and if yes what would it be?
"As I just said... We already knew how the production would turn out and I have nothing I would want to change about it because if it's to perfect there is no life in the production!! I think it's very important to have small mistakes and some kind of live feeling into it!"
And for the end of this interview tell about Raise Hell's plans for the future? It's high time for Raise hell concert in Poland!
"Right now we will try to tour as much as possible. From "Not dead yet" we only did one tour but we will really try to go to all the countries we have missed out on the previous tours. Poland is one of these countries and if we just get an offer we will come right away! It would be great to play in Poland! I guess we will go on tour in the beginning of next year and we will do everything to get to Poland as well!"
Tack sa mycket for intervju!
Tack själv!! Check out our album and hopefully we will see you guys in Poland to Raise some HELL!! See ya!
Tomasz Osuch
