One would think Hell are a fresh new face to the industry, giving a new brilliant and sharp edge to classic heavy metal paired with entertaining stage theatrics. While the band have spent the last few years gaining legions of fans with their acclaimed debut and sophomore releases, it is a fact that Hell once existed a long time ago in the dark depths of the metal underground. We speak to guitarist and original member Kev Bower who walks us through the absolutely fascinating story of Hell…
From nothing to everything after more than 20 years defunct because of a bizarre connection that drove them back to record that long awaited debut album. The story of Hell is one that would fascinate every musician and fan, and one of the most interesting interviews we have conducted as The Metalist.
Read an extract from the interview here and listen to the full interview below.
The first thing I wanted to ask was that the band has always been shrouded in great mystery, the first line-up of Hell is before my time. The band started many years ago, and stayed in the underground and then finished and disappeared, then came back in 2011 to actually record a debut album. Why that long period?
Well the short version of the story is that Hell is originally a four-piece band from Derbyshire. It was myself, I was the original guitarist and keyboard player, there was Tony who was the original bass player, Tim the original drummer and then the fourth member of the band was a guy called Dave Halliday who was the other guitar player and kind of the frontman as well.
The musical climate was very different back then. If you can imagine the kind of stuff you heard tonight happening back then, people just didn’t understand it. A lot of people called us the English Mercyful Fate even though we were miles and miles apart. But anyway long story short, we toured for five years, and never got anywhere at all. We amassed hundreds and hundreds of rejection letters from record companies and basically nobody was interested. So in 1986 the band broke up and we all went our separate ways. And Dave sadly took his own life shortly after that.
That is really where the story would have ended and been consigned to the history books had it not been for the fact that every single gig we ever played there was this little blonde haired kid in the front row…
Listen to the full interview below!
