Hellripper: Becoming The Goat
Few know him as James McBain; to most, he is the genius behind blackened speed metal band HELLRIPPER and leader of the goat kvlt. “The whole goat thing was a complete accident,” James admits. “I don’t think there was any mention of goats for the first two years of the band. Then, when I wanted to do the HELLRIPPER Scotland artwork (a parody of the MOTÖRHEAD England logo), I thought a goat would be perfect.” What was initially planned as a run of 50 T-shirts ended up being their best-selling merch, and became not only a band logo but an entity in itself, a mascot, and the origin of the “goat kvlt”. “It’s funny becoming known as the goat band because so many bands have used the goat before us, and still do – I mean, you’ve got war metal, which is a whole genre based on goats, you’ve got BATHORY, VENOM, even THE ROLLING STONES used the goat back in the 70s. It’s such a thing in metal that it’s weird that people associate it with HELLRIPPER specifically. But I’m not complaining, it’s helped the band immensely.”
From recording riffs in Batman PJs in his bedroom to becoming known as THE goat band in metal, HELLRIPPER has come a long way since releasing their first EP in 2015. While “All hail the goat” has taken over as slogan and greeting, for two years the HELLRIPPER‘s motto was simply, “total fucking mayhem”, set out when they released their first album in 2016, Complete and Total Fucking Mayhem. “The intent was basically just ‘full speed or nothing’ in the words of James Hetfield. But now the style of the writing has changed, and there are more dynamics in the music. So when the mayhem comes, it’s more effective. I think the mayhem is there even in the slow, brooding, doomy parts, just in a foreboding sense of dread rather than the axe-to-the-face kind of thing. I still think I’m doing well on the total fucking mayhem front. Especially the live shows, that’s the more rock ‘n’ roll side of my personality, where it’s just balls to the wall the whole time; within one song, my hair’s sweated into a devillock.”
Despite becoming a prominent feature across HELLRIPPER’s social media, one thing that won’t ever be joining their balls-to-the-wall live performances is the goat mask. “It’s horrible. You can’t see, you can’t breathe. It’s difficult to function in it for more than 10 seconds,” James grimaces. “People turn up to our shows with goat masks, though, and customised goat masks that they’ve done themselves. It’s great. I want HELLRIPPER fans to be part of a community. I’m a metal fan first and foremost, so I love speaking to fans of the band and getting recommendations on music and films and things to do. The community aspect is one of my favourite parts, I love it.”
An album that, come March 27, fans will be recommending to everyone and their mother is the upcoming HELLRIPPER album, Coronach. It is named after the vocal lament traditionally sung at funerals in the Scottish Highlands – not because of any underlying messages about death, but because it sounded cool. “That was the main thing,” James laughs, “and it fit the Scottish theme and sounded dark.” As with their previous album, Coronach features an enticing collection of dark Scottish folklore, however this time there are some personal experiences mixed in (just none about funerals). “Kinchyle (Goatkraft and Granite) is about growing up in Aberdeen. When you mention Scotland, a lot of people will automatically picture the mountains, the water, the trees…the postcard, Outlander kind of Scotland. But although there are cool bits to it, Aberdeen is windy and grey. I go there to visit friends and family quite regularly, but every time I go, it feels like the city has had the life sucked out of it. There’s more depression, drug problems and shops closing down. And I wanted to write a song about that.”
“It’s the first time with HELLRIPPER I’ve done anything like that, because HELLRIPPER has always been centred on dark horror themes, so I never really thought something personal would work. But I wanted to try something new, relate it to Scotland and then put a dark atmosphere over the lyrics. If I said it wasn’t a personal song, you wouldn’t be able to tell.”
Kinchyle is also the McBain clan’s war cry, historically used to intimidate enemies and summon clansmen to battle. “I just started playing that riff and immediately sang ‘Kinchyle’ over it because it fit,” James says. Adding a personal touch to HELLRIPPER’s lyrics was more about exploring something different, to keep him inspired and have some fun, rather than any traditional catharsis artists tend to find from writing music. “It might happen again in the future if I’ve got something else to say,” James teases. “But my life at the moment is: I play guitar, tour and listen to music. So it’s not like I have a lot of important stuff to say.”
Coronach also features a song called, wait for it, Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm. “I thought, why can’t I have a song called black satanic fuck storm? That’s the beauty of music. You can do whatever you want.” James says the title was inspired by an Australian rock band he likes called TROPICAL FUCK STORM. “When I came up with that riff, I started singing black satanic fuck storm over it as a placeholder, with the idea to change it later because I thought it might be a bit too ridiculous. The tricky part was finding something Scottish-themed that could relate to black satanic fuck storm.” Fortunately, he found the tale of Thrawn Janet, a Gothic horror story by Robert Louis Stevenson about possession, witchcraft, and the reality of evil. “And then I changed the spelling to K’s and V’s to make it look more evil and cult, and a bit more tongue-in-cheek as well. The vibe of HELLRIPPER is black ‘n’ roll, after all.”
James McBain loves a challenge – specifically a musical challenge. Not only does Coronach feature a smorgasbord of instruments: cello, synth, keyboards, piano, violin, bagpipes, acoustic guitar, to name but a few, but each track on the album includes something new that has never been done in HELLRIPPER before. “The hardest [experiment] by far was definitely the clean vocal part on the title track,” James says. He is adamant that he would love to perform this live one day, but alas, it is nearly nine minutes long, so it might be challenging to squeeze it into a setlist…
“I’m giving myself challenges, to be fair. You can’t see behind me right now, but because it’s a new album release, I’ve just had a thousand vinyls delivered and all the merch is coming tomorrow. So I’ve cleared a pathway of boxes to navigate my house. There’s probably a better way of tidying up and making it presentable, but I’m having fun being a ninja warrior through my house.” So the occasional ninja warrior challenge is also fun, but James says he is not keen on “most other challenges, to be honest.” Do with that what you will.
Coronach is out now via Century Media Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS128 here.
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