Hangman Interview - Diabolical Conquest Webzine

Diabolical Conquest (Nin): Okay, the first question I'd like to ask, I suppose, is about the evolution of the Hangman sound, since the first demo was completely different from the newer material that I've heard. The first demo was a lot more Morbid Tales sounding, and the newer material is slanted more towards frantic teutonic thrash. Do you think you'll be sticking with this style in the foreseeable future?

Hangman (Yakir): Haha! Teutonic thrash! I like that! Well, about our sound, the band line up has been changed, new bass and guitar players, so each member in the line up brings his own style and influence to the music. You also got to keep in mind that more then 2 years have passed since the first demo, things change, our views on Metal have changed. As for the style for "Thrash Onslaught", you can expect even MORE frantic thrash!! Faster, sharper and heavy as fuck!

DC: I'm really fucking looking forward to it! Another question that i'd like to pose is...what does it mean to you to be an Israeli band? I understand that you are in the army, and that the realities that you face in the army has informed your music and lyrical output to some extent. How do you think your culture has imprinted itself on Hangman's musical identity? Is it important to you to be recognized as an Israeli band?

Yakir: The army has definitely changed us all, it got me even closer to Metal than I was before!

As for the influence on us as a band, and our songs, one of our songs was written by our lead guitarist Dolev after his friend in the platoon committed suicide. One more thing I got to add about the army is the fact that it was the main reason that made Hangman disband in late 2003. All the band members were drafted, you see. Hell, it still gives us a hard time today!

About your question on us being recognized as an Israeli band - I don't think so. If we had some middle-eastern influences like say Melechesh or Orphaned Land - then yes, but hell, we as a band speak a common, universal language called THRASH FUCKING METAL, it's well spoken world wide for those who have it pumped in their blood, so it make no difference in this case if we are from Israel or Afghanistan

DC: So it's not important for your band to be known as an Israeli band? I mean, let's say you relocated to Holland like Melechesh, and people started looking at Hangman as though they were a Dutch band.....

Yakir: Hm…. It sure is important to remember from where you come from, I paid for my citizenship with three years in the army, same goes for the rest of my band and every Israeli citizen out there, but then again, I don't think it's important to us in a way when it comes to our music. they can look at us anyway they want. Melechesh will be recognized as Israeli since they have this oriental influence in their style, but they are long gone from this scene, here in Israel we look at them as band who come from outside Israel, like you said, a Dutch band.On the other hand you got bands like Ancient, who keeps telling they are from Norway cause it's more "true" even if more then half of the band is Italian. We let our music speak for itself.

DC: And that music speaks very LOUDLY, haha. You said earlier that each member of the band brings something different to the band. What influences do you think you channel into Hangman? How do you envision Hangman as a musical entity yourself?

Yakir: I think my vocals and attitude give the band "something else" from others. It's pretty much my lifestyle from the day I get up in the morning. I live to push this shit to the limit. Well, most of my influence comes from Blackened Thrash and Heavy Metal, so you may not hear it in "Thrash Onslaught" but we have at the moment 5 new songs that we have rehearsed, which don't really sound anything like the stuff on "Thrash Onslaught", musically and lyrically – I would say I am responsible for that, along with Tal. It's more "epic" in a way, and more "diabolic", still early to talk about this - but maybe a few things will change in time for us, think thrash metal with epic feeling and diabolic concept. Anyway, the focus on “Thrash Onslaught” is still on violence and hate!

DC: Where does that violence and hate come from? What fuels the machine that is Hangman?

Yakir: Well, for starters I think that Thrash Metal is the most violent music out there! Fuck "brutal death metal" and Norsecore played at 350BPM. It's all about the violant vibes that you get in Thrash that makes you berserk. It's the ultimate kick in the ass. On the other hand there are a lot of things that fuel us on a day to day basis- corruption, religion, etc. We sure don't want to be taken by our nationalty, but you've got to keep in mind that Israel is a hostile place.

DC: So do you think Israel is an ideal breeding place for thrash metal? The political and social climate there seems quite intense from an outsider's perspective, and you would think that more thrash metal bands would be popping up all over Israel.

Yakir: Haha - no man, if hostility would be a breeding place for thrash metal then Iran would be starting a modern Bay Area scene! We as a band are a little unique here for our style and attitude. Israel is a place with many Metal bands around, most of them play "extreme metal" like Brutal Death Metal and Black Metal. Not a lot of Thrash Metal bands out there.

It does piss me off to llive here, our government really reeks of corruption, and we have economic problems as well since many people are unemployed. Aside from that though, I would leave those subjects for punk bands...

DC: One thing Ive always felt about thrash metal is it's the most genuine music out there. TThere is so much vitriol, aggression and conviction in there, genuine emotion that cannot be replicated or manufactured...and much of this aggression comes from being young, being wild, and being angry. If you look at bands like EXODUS or DESTRUCTION, they seem to have lost that with age, with family and stability...do you think that thrash metal requires certain living conditions to sound the way it does? I mean, thrash metal is so much more than just MUSIC, you can't turn it on and off, in my opinion, it's real energy, real emotion, real hatred being channeled into a musical product, so in some senses it seems like you need NEGATIVE conditions to produce a great musical product.

Yakir: Well after I have heard a few tracks from the new Exodus (thanks NIN) I've got to agree with you. I think that Destruction are an amazing band, but their new album is average at best. Come on! We are missing stuff like Infernal Overkill. As for certain living conditions or lifestyle - I don't know man, maybe Lemmy from Motörhead is your proof that this is true, the guy is 100 and still going strong, with no wife/family, just the road as his home. I don't know - I have seen so many bands go crap with the years!

DC: Yeah, same thing happened with Dave Mustaine, haha, the guy can't write without a needle in his veins….

Yakir: Yeah! Mustaine needs the old needle to write good shit…nowadays he's just drugged by the cross! Just listen to Killing Is My Business…the guy was so metal he was probably shitting nails! Nowadays he just looks like a bitter old rocker who got ripped off by Lars…

DC: Anyway, you mentioned earlier that israel has a great number of heavy metal bands...Do you think heavy metal is important to Israeli youth? How does the mainstream media react to heavy metal? Is it visible/prominent enough in Israel to bother conservative/old people?

Yakir: About how mainstream media reacts to metal, I think they'd rather give exposure to pop culture and Israeli ethnic music (middle eastern) than Metal, but I can't blame them - they gotta make a living too you know, and Metal just don't sell as much as the other genres I mentioned.

DC: Do you think thrash metal essentially has a short lifespan? If you look at bands like Exodus, Destruction, Sodom, Razor, Slayer, Overkill, all of these bands had 2-5 GREAT albums, then started going through the motions. Then you have bands like Ulysses Siren, Whiplash, Forbidden, Darkness, who all burned out after two or three recordings. I think, personally, that this is directly related to the conviction that is required to PRODUCE thrash metal...they lose the vigour, the aggression and the youthful energy, and therefore lose the capacity to create thrash metal that people like us can identify with. Then you look at bands like Running Wild, King Diamond, Manilla Road, trad metal bands who have been creating great record after great record. In some senses, I think thrash metal is the hardest form of music to play over a long period of time, because you need to retain that frustration and hatred, something that is hard to do when your band becomes successful and you start being accepted by the music media. Do you think that's true?

Yakir: Yes, I understand what you are saying about the genre short life period, for some it is like that, I mean - even the mighty Slayer did not manage to top their frist 3 albums, even it's allmost 20 years since they were released. Those bands keep surviving, and we hail them for that survival force, but things will never be the same. Maybe it's because they really run out of this so-called "spirit" and hatred that they had plenty when they were young, on the other hand once in while you get something that happnes worldwide that manged to wake up the old bastards, like say Kreator's Enemy of God, which aside from its anti-religion title, deals with terror, War in Iran, Afghanistan and greed in general…

But then again, at the end of the day, you don't need to look too hard things that will turn the hatred in you, in this day and age, all you need to do is open the newspaper. So I think that "fire" may be merely flickering in their hearts, but it's sure as hell has not died. Even if they've become old/greedy/soft/tired or whatever you want to call it, I think it still burns in the hearts of those who really lived for it back then, they just have to rekindle it.

DC: Okay...In this day and age, where we find ourselves inundated with high-tech abyss studio productions, and (crap) bands like Ephel Duath, Fantomas, Dodheimsgard and Opeth are all making forays into fusion jazz and prog, there are many people who see ''thrash metal'' either as an '80s relic, or a more modern groovey incarnation propagated by the likes of Pantera, newer Exodus and Machine Head (YUCK). What do you have to say to people who would call your music dated?

Yakir: Well, all those fags may call my music dated, but they will the ones who won't pass the so called "test of time".They will begin listening to just Jazz and all that other stuff.so it doesn't matter any way, because they won't be around in a few years. They can call my music "dated" in this party or that fest, but pretty soon they will be sitting in a Jazz concert and forget they even know what the word "metal" means anyway - so I really don't give a fuck about them. those guys will just keep on changing, like the Metal scene is changing every 2-3 years, but we will be the one's who will stay no matter how "dated" we are.

DC: So do you think thrash metal is eternal, a sound that will forever remain immutable regardless of the various mutations/evolutions that metal will suffer through time? How do you see thrash metal today, an underground sound championed by the likes of Abigail, Sabbat, Toxic Holocaust, Desaster, Witchburner etcetera..do you see HANGMAN in the middle of all that?

Yakir: Yeah you know - this "true thrash Metal sound" is no longer been produced by the big bands or supported by the big labels - so it's natural that you will have sooner or later this underground community of bands who are sticking with a sound people have forgotten. Do I see HANGMAN involved in that? Absolutely! The same goes for every band that breathe thrash metal in this day and age. I mean come on, they don't make a living of it, unlike bands like say Machine Head, thats for sure, so it's got to be from the heart!

DC: Do you remember when thrash metal all of a sudden became trendy again? When bands like Swordmaster, Nocturnal Breed, Gehennah, Bewitched (swe) were being signed to Osmose and other bigger independent labels and ''retro thrash'' became the most popular sound in Europe...What did you think of that big boom?

Yakir: Yeah, middle to late 90's or so, I actually see it in a positive light.

I mean, I'll take retro thrash bands any day of the week ( and twice on Sabbath) over Melodic Death/Thrash from Sweden. I'm actually a big fan of Nocturnal Breed and Bewitched myself. It was good to see big label start to push thrash bands, thats for sure. It died soon after, though, since to many bands arose from nowhere and wore it all out pretty quickly. Just like the rise of power metal in the same time, late 90 to 2002.

DC: Wouldn't it piss you off if people called HANGMAN ''retro thrash'' though? The word ''retro'' in itself seems to hold so many unsavory connotations (ie suggesting that the band is a gimmick, a fun project etcetera)

Yakir: Calling my band Retro won't anger me, but suggesting that Hangman are playing thrash is a sure-fire way to get us unleash hell on your ass

There is a big difference between Enslaved forming Desekrator as a gimmick and a band of young guys who only want to play thrash metal because it's the most pure thing that they know.

DC: Okay, we'll wrap things up with an anticipatory look towards your new album. What can we expect with Thrash Onslaught? And what the fuck is going on with suffering jesus and your demo reissue?

A: Well, I have talked with Mary and we have decided to push "Deadly Thrash Demonstartion" to late 2006 or maybe even more. I really think it's better to let "Thrash Onslaught" to be out before the demos are reissued. So sorry for all those out there who want to get their hands on our demo stuff... You're gonna have to wait a little more. Sorry guys. However, "Thrash Onslaught is gonna give you a hell of kick in the face, so it's gonna take you a while to get your shit together any way. As for Thrash Onslaught, like I said, think 1986! This one is pure old school slab of thrash metal in his most pure form, 10 tracks, an intro with a special guest and very very special cover song as a bonus! So watch out - the onslaught is on the way!

Sinners of Sodom (Demo , 2003, Self-Released)

Thrash From the Dead (Demo, 2005, Self Released)

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