HATE ETERNAL's RUTAN: 'I'm Finally Doing What I Really Want To Do'

Blistering.com recently conducted an interview with HATE ETERNAL mainman Erik Rutan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On the group's new album, "I, Monarch", signaling a new era for HATE ETERNAL:

"The whole spectre of the band was different for this album. The first thing is that I'm no longer in MORBID ANGEL anymore, unlike when I was made the first couple of albums. So in that regards, HATE ETERNAL albums always had to take second spot. MORBID ANGEL was my priority, and I had responsibilities that I had to oblige. So it was only when I left MORBID ANGEL that I was really was able to focus on making HATE ETERNAL everything that I wanted it to be. I never really had the opportunity to do that in the past. Going into this album, we wanted to maintain the integrity and the sole of what HATE ETERNAL represents, but diversify the musicality into realms that I had done previously in bands like RIPPING CORPSE (of which Rutan was a member from 1987 to 1992, with their sole release being 1991's 'Dreaming with the Dead') and MORBID ANGEL, but also some newer things that we wanted to interject. Focusing solely on HATE ETERNAL allowed me to dig deep into every possible aspect of what I wanted to do into extreme heavy music. I don't want to say we were picky, because god knows I'm picky enough as it is, but from the beginning to the end of this album, everything was really planned. There's definitely some improvisation going on solo wise and in a few songs structuring wise, but we had pretty much had everything mapped out. We did a lot of pre-production recording, and since I owned a recording studio, that helped out a lot. We recorded god knows how many practices. We also overdubbed those, and did little pre-production recordings. So by the time we actually went into the studio, we had dropped two songs, taken out riffs and done so much revamping and reworking of the songs so that when we did enter the studio to record the album, we had like ninety-five percent of the album mapped out. It was almost schematically planned out. It was just great to do this album. This was the first album where we really came together as a band to interject ideas and work on things as a whole. In the past I kind of crafted everything, and it wasn't as much worked as a band. On 'I, Monarch', I wrote the majority of the material, but everybody had their input into everything. And to me, that represents the definition of a great band. It's a democracy, not a dictatorship. That's what we really tried to go for on this album. We worked on this album six to eight months before we even tracked. It's probably one of the best experiences by far in my recording career. And that's from every aspect. We took our time, and made sure that Earache Records understood that we were going to take the time, and that they shouldn't set release dates until we were ready. I think the final result shows what happens when we really put our minds to something. I really wanted this album to diversify and highlight the musicality of what we're all capable of, yet keep the intensity aspect of what HATE ETERNAL represents. That's what people like about us, and probably what some people don't like about us."

On upcoming touring activities and other projects:

"We're touring the U.S. for six weeks as headliners with KRISIUN, INCANTATION, INTO ETERNITY and ALL SHALL PERISH. Then we'll be touring Europe with BEHEMOTH and NILE in September. From October through to December, we'll take two months off because I'll be producing the new CANNIBAL CORPSE album at my studio. But then come January, we'll be back out on tour in the U.S. My whole life lately has been planned out. I recorded eleven albums in the last year in my studio, so I've been busy doing a lot of things for my studio, as well as my band. We'll also be shooting a video in around a week and a half for the title track, 'I, Monarch'. And then there’s the tab book for HATE ETERNAL and the instructional guitar video that I'm working on. I'm just trying top accomplish as much as I can. I've been around a lot time, so I’m just happy that things are going the way I had hoped they would eventually. It's been sixteen years of working towards my goals, and it's with minor steps at a time that has gotten me to the point where I'm finally doing what I really want to do. There's nothing I would change for that. It's just such a great time right now for me personally, and the band. I have a lot of hopes and prospects for this band, so we're doing everything we can to fill that."

Read Erik Rutan's entire interview with Blistering.com at this location.