After their 1990 lo-fi 4-track debut »Underground«, US metal band Hexenhammer played some local shows before disappearing for 33 years. In 2023, they returned with a Bang (or a Bong): a 40-minutes long one-song audio-drama called »Hyberacula«. »Lumpy Gravy« played by Megadeth, anyone? We asked guitarist / vocalist Argos Dean about the origins and future of the project.
skug: Hexenhammer is a strange kind of music with a strange band history. The Bandcamp page labels you as black metal but what you guys do is not black metal.
Argos Dean: Yeah, I know. We get that sometimes, but I’m not sure why. There are maybe some of those elements occasionally, especially in some of the new songs to come, but we’re obviously not black metal. More like silver metal.
When you guys started Hexenhammer, what was the initial idea? What kind of music did you want to make? What did you want to do? What was the plan – if there was a plan?
When we began Hexenhammer, the desire was to have a band where the visuals and the music matched each other to create our own image, where we could exist in our own little world. I always wanted to be theatrical, wear masks, contact lenses, dress up, etc. Originally, before »Underground«, we went for more of a gothic metal sound that later evolved into something heavier as we went along. People have often cited examples of thrash, black, doom, industrial, and traditional metal in our approach, but find it hard to put us into a particular genre. I don’t know, but we just started calling it Gen X metal, so, I guess we’ll see if that sticks.
I was surprised and excited when »Hyberacula« came out last year. Why did you decide that it was time for a new album?
Thanks, I appreciate you saying that. Well, the thing is, originally, we were of the idea that we wanted to wait until all of our followers were dead before we released the follow-up to »Underground«… but some of them were just taking too damn long, so we just said fuck it and went ahead and put it out anyway.
»Hyberacula« is one song, cut up in four pieces. Why did you choose this concept?
We wanted to try and do something unique that we hadn’t seen before instead of just putting out another traditional album type set-up. I wanted it to be a concept album made up of only one song. It’s actually 40 minutes long, so I felt that it probably needed to be labeled in four parts or chapters – sort of like a novel or serial would be. Basically, it’s somewhat like an old radio audio-drama at heart, but in the form of a metal album.
You started working on this song in 1990 and finished it in 2020. Can you tell me what happened in between?
Well, partially. It’s a long, strange story, but there’s some things that we no longer talk about, involving what actually happened with us during part of that time. To make a long story short, I started writing »Hyberacula« in 1989 and finished it sometime in 1990. It was meant to be our second album and come out in 1991. We recorded the scratch tracks, but before we could finish the album, the drummer let us all down by quitting on the band and things started falling apart. I can say that we came into contact with an organization called N.F.C Industries at that time and became involved with a situation at their cryonic facilities. Unfortunately, I can’t go into any real detail about what occurred after that, for various reasons, but in 2017 we got back on track and resumed recording the song. After it was finished, we went through another set of unfortunate circumstances that kept delaying us from being able to complete the album. But we’re very stubborn, so we persisted. And now, what’s done is done. I think, for better or worse, that some of the unspoken parallels between this song and our own surreal life events just adds to the strangeness of everything.
Can you tell me the story of the song?
Yeah, basically the story centers around a character named Oscar Farwell who is a scientist in the field of cryonics. He agrees to be cryogenically frozen in 1990, on the condition that he will be brought back and re-animated at an unknown time in the future when technology makes it possible to do so. While he is frozen, he is technically dead, but since the possibility exists for him to be restored to life, he remains in a realm of limbo – much like Schrödinger’s cat in the unopened box – and Death / The Reaper does not appreciate the irony of the situation. Eventually, the time comes where he is indeed restored to consciousness and awakens to a new time and place. But of course, as the rest of the story unfolds, there’s a darker twist.
»Hyberacula« is available on Bandcamp, but also as a CD. Is this important to you, that there’s still a CD, for men who call themselves Gen X metal and so grew up with CD?
Yes, I think so. Internet downloads, streaming, YouTube, Spotify, etc. are all fantastic, but there will always be some people out there that appreciate owning a physical copy of something that you can actually have and hold. I guess that’s why CDs, vinyl, and even cassettes continue to survive somehow.
Reviews mention Ministry and Rob Zombie, but I also hear Hospitals circa »Hairdryer Peace« / Residents / Royal Trux circa »Twin Infinities«. Are these references you can make something out of, or do you come from another musical background – straight metal?
That’s interesting. Actually, I’m not familiar with those references, but I’m definitely interested in looking them up and maybe seeing what you mean. My musical background consists of a pretty wide variety of non-metal interests that you might be surprised by, but when it comes to »Hyberacula«, I think that there’s mostly some old Metallica, Megadeth, Sepultura, Voivod, Skinny Puppy, and Bauhaus influences all mixed up in there.
Is there a link between »Hyberacula« and »Underground«? Or are these two completely different stories?
They are two completely separate things. There’s no story to our old debut album »Underground«, it’s just a lo-fi collection of our songs from that period of time in 1989/1990. The only thing that does kind of connect the two, is that the sound effects at the very end of »Underground« are also at the very beginning of »Hyberacula«. So, in a way, we pick up right from where we had left off 33 years before! So, now what’s next? We’re about to start working on the next chapter for Hexenhammer and our cult-following… starting with a new song and video in 2025 that’s called »The Hammer of the Witches« and I don’t know, but word on the street is that it will blow your mind!
Links: https://hexenhammerhxh.com/; https://hexenhammer1.bandcamp.com
