Hello, this is Tomasz Twardowski. Hellfire began in Warsaw, Poland. In 2003 the lineup stabilized when we released “Recoffination” – our debut self-recorded CD. Positive reactions from both Polish and foreign press encouraged us to begin working on the second album. A few months later the drummer got replaced by “Eliminator” – Grzegorz Olejnik. With the beginning of 2004 we recorded the single “Where Is The Answer?” During the last holidays we began recording our second album, “Requiem For My Bride”. In Autumn 2004 Hellfire started cooperation with Sonic Age Records and they released RFMB at the end of March 2005. Today Hellfire is Twardy (voc); Eliminator (drums); Arturos (guitar) and me Oley (guitar).

I think “Recoffination” is a mirror of our young and spontaneous metal energy but  this mirror is not smooth and brisk enough.  If I had been able to record this album once again I would have corrected a few of elements.  But please don’t think that it’s a bad album, I just want to say that the youth has its own rights and you don’t see things from a certain distance. So “RFMB” is more solid, also when you look at the technical side of the album and also when you look at the structure of songs... I think we avoided the mistakes which we made during our debut and we prove that we can play faster, stronger, more precisely and technically better. Our ideas, our abilities, songs are more complicated and more thoughtful approach - especially when you are to create concepts. 

This album, as I said before,  is a huge piece of metal energy but I don’t think it qualifies to be an issue. (In my opinion of course). It was our first step in metal way and Recoffination should be available for our true fans and real metal maniacs. Something like rara avis :) . But if someone (e.g SAR) decided to issue this album surely we would think about it. 

You are right - our new record is a concept-album. Secretly I can give you a short account of lyrics :) A young girl Mary is having problems, she falls into depression and tries to commit suicide. Unfortunately for her, she survived, she is in a shock. Bruised, she looks for help in the nearest house . The house is a trap and imprisons Marry inside. The house has its own will, its own being, it is an ancient evil where a man called Jack and five lameness girls live. The man has plans towards her and that’s all I can say, do you want to know more thrilling details? Then buy a CD ?.  The whole concept idea was designed by the two of us (Kuba and me) , and the whole lyrics were written by me. When we talk about inspiration I think most metal maniacs admire Stephen King and so do I. He’s just a God of horror/thrilling novels for me. “Shining”, “Pet Cemetery” totally crushed me. Unbelievable. These books are masterpieces and you can hear the echoes of Stephen  King’s art into our lyrics. 

Yes, you are right, we can say that heart of Hellfire is combination of King and Annihilator but each of us has some a little different basis in metal.  Because I’m the vocalist I always enjoy music with unique voice. Manowar (Eric Adams), Gamma Ray with Ralph Sheepers, Primal Fear, first albums of Agent Steel…  You may be surprised but I listen to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple (Ian Gillan) very often and you can hear some hidden echoes of these artists in my vocal parts. 

Hehe, it’s a good question.  From “RFMB” I would definitely chose “Needle dance”, “…The Answer” and “Twist of Knife”  and I would add one song from Recoffianation – “Hellfire”. 

It’s not a decision. It’s metal so you do what you feel or it doesn’t make any sense. From the beginning we were developing into a heavy/thrash style even though extreme metal scene is more popular in our country.  Time passes and you gain experience, you are more open to music so we will see what style Hellfire will represent in the future but people should do what they like the most not following popularity footsteps. 

Polish metal scene is very specific. Black and death is much more popular than heavy/thrash. Polish records companies rather want to promote bands from abroad than invest money in local bands. Forget about Polish TV metal channels or radio stations. From time to time you can hear metal on the radio but only at 1.00 or 3.00 a.m. for two hours. So if you want to win a contract you should get in touch with foreign labels. But most of them plan their schedule for two years ahead, on the other hand it’s easier to invest in the local scene especially when we talk about young bands. But situation is slowly changing. The main reason is rapid development of internet and global communication.  Nowadays we have powerful tools for communication and communication market grows rapidly (especially via internet) so one day all obstacles will disappear. The best example is Hellfire, Polish band signed a deal with a Greek label, doesn’t it sound strange ? ? So if you really want to and you have something valuable to offer it should be noticed. (It wasn’t modest :) )

10. SO HOW DID THE PRESS ACCEPT YOUR NEW ALBUM SO FAR? IS THERE A REVIEW THAT YOU READ AND YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS UNFAIR TO YOU? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT SOMETIMES A BAD REVIEW MIGHT HELP YOU IMPROVE MORE THAN A GOOD ONE?

Very positively. Everybody sees in this material a bondage to the 80’s, technical, speedy stuff. And that is what we wanted. So we are satisfied. There were a few reviews that were unfair for us but we don’t think about it a lot. I have to change your statement “sometimes a bad review…”  into “only a bad review might help you improve…” It’ s the only way to see your own creation from a different point of view, different perspective. When you read a bad review you think – maybe it’s true, maybe we should change something or improve our abilities.  However, if we got max points every time that would be ideal :) 

I want to give listeners only one thought  –  “it’s fucking great piece of heavy/thrash metal” :) 

We played a couple of shows, there are plans on doing a tour in Poland – but after the summer holidays. We will see, I would like it to succeed.  If the sales go well, if we get more positive reviews like the ones in your web-zine :), then we think some offerings of gigs in Central Europe will appear. But now we are focused on live-shows in Poland after the holidays. 

Thanks for the interview, best wishes to all of the readers of BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE  – I hope you will be in heaven :) when you hear “Requiem for my Bride”!!!