The Hellfreaks: Journey To The Next Chapter
Pitch Black Sunset. What words are conjured up when spoken? Perhaps imagery of a dark beach with black sand adorning dark waves. Maybe dark shores on a bay where the moon is brighter than that dark sun. For Hungarian punk-metal band, THE HELLFREAKS, it means a continuation of their style into 2023 and a progression from their previous album from 2020, God On The Run. With this fifth record, the foursome expand on their unique style, especially after 15 years curating it as a band. On the cusp of the band’s next album era, Distorted Sound spoke to vocalist Zsuza ‘Shakey Sue’ Radnóti about the album’s production, their promotion plans, and Shakey Sue’s love for women in music.
“We’re all very excited for Pitch Black Sunset to come out.” Shakey Sue begins. “It’s always a crazy time for a band because whenever you are releasing new music, it takes ages before people can hear it, but that’s the normal process. It’s always like that because after you finish your recordings, it takes a very long time until it’s distributed and the other physical formats are created. So that’s normal. But this time it was really difficult for us because we finished the recordings with the final mix and master around July, so it really felt like ages until we could release the album.”
“Chaos was the very last song we wrote for the album,” Shakey Sue adds about the album creation. “I’m quite an over-thinker when it comes to lyrics. I never understood those people who were saying ‘yes, I just wrote the lyrics for the songs on the bus’ like yeah I’m really not like that. I mean, I’m also writing lyrics on the bus but not finishing more than a half line on a bus. But when we arrived at Chaos, I already felt a bit free because I got to say everything that I wanted to. It is a topic that I could talk about for ages because it is about the moments when you’re just done being a victim, whatever the situation is. It is very straightforward but it’s all about that energetic bond. So I like the song because I think that it’s really special.”
It’s always fun seeing what people are listening to, especially within the music industry. Having that support from a fellow artist or band, no matter how big or small they are, is very important. Shakey Sue mainly listens to a lot of women in rock and metal, and discusses the importance of their support in music. “It is very important that women support each other. Whenever we are doing a show in our hometown, actually we’re doing it every year in Budapest. If we do that, and we are the ones who can organise the show, it is always very important to me to have bands where there are also female musicians playing. It doesn’t matter if they’re a singer or if they’re playing an instrument but I think this is important because if we are not supporting each other, no one else will do that. I really like the female voice so when it comes to what I like to listen to, there’s definitely a lot I like on my plate.”
“There’s a lot of bands with female singers I love,” she continues to say with excitement and passion about the topic. “For example, I’m like a huge fan of THE MARMOZETS from the UK. I’m a huge fan of THE DISTILLERS as well, they’re the band that made me want to be part of this whole thing, start a band. I can listen forever to any PRETTY RECKLESS album. I love WALLS OF JERICHO, I love IN THIS MOMENT, I really like JINJER. This is really like my taste in music, and I’m always impressed by women who stand on the stage with that strong, rocker attitude. When I saw bands like THE DISTILLERS or WALLS OF JERICHO for the first time when I was young, I realised that ‘oh, I can do that as well’. It was so inspiring back then, so that’s why I am always honoured to support bands with women because I think that this is also something that the younger generation needs to see and hear. So that they become inspired to be part of it and normalise women in metal.”
With the album’s release on the horizon, THE HELLFREAKS have a lot of plans to promote the record with many shows and music videos coming down the pipeline, as Shakey Sue describes to close out the interview. “We’re going to release the next music on the same day when the album is released,” she says, detailing the upcoming plans around Pitch Black Sunset. “This next music video, the song is also one of my personal favourites from the album. There’s still a lot happening once the album has been released, not just physically but also online so we’ll be promoting hugely across there. Of course we’re also putting together a tour and playing festivals but I can’t reveal these just yet. All I can say is that we are on it and we will reveal it all soon.”
Pitch Black Sunset is out now via Napalm Records.
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