New HATEBREED Album Is 'Pretty Much Done', Says FRANK NOVINEC

In a new interview with Hardlore, guitarist Frank Novinec of Connecticut hardcore/metal veterans HATEBREED was asked if there is a new album from his and his bandmates on the way. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[It's] coming out this year, yeah. Most, of it's pretty much — I mean, it's done."

Referencing the fact that HATEBREED released its first new single in nearly five years, "Make The Demons Obey", last July, Frank continued: "The nice thing about in this era — I was telling somebody the other day that's not in the music business like we are — the nice thing about the way things are rolled out now, I think, is you can drop a single even if you have the whole record done, and be, like, 'All right, now there's all this time', where you can really review what you've done and you could really change something that you didn't like or even make another song and all that. It's not, like, 'Okay, there's the record, there's the two videos. Here's what are supposed to be the singles. And that's it.' So it's nice to be able to drop the single, which we had a great response for. We love the song. As far as the band's concerned, we're real happy with 'Make The Demons Obey'. And we'll probably leak another one here soon. And there'll probably be proper videos coming after that."

Novinec, who joined HATEBREED as a full-time member in 2006, was also asked if he has had any major writing contributions to the band's albums since he became part of the group 20 years ago. He responded: "No. I think I have one riff on one song. It was always [founding HATEBREED bassist] Chris [Beattie] and Jamey [Jasta, HATEBREED vocalist] writing the music. That's it. From day one, it's Chris and Jamey. They're the guys [who wrote all the music] from day one, for the most part."

Regarding how the recent departure of Beattie has changed the songwriting dynamic within HATEBREED, Frank said: "[HATEBREED guitarist] Wayne [Lozinak], I think, is… We all have our ideas about songs. Songs are presented, [and then we say], 'Hey, I think we should change this,' 'Hey, I think this riff should go longer.'

"I'm not a groove dude like that when it comes to writing," Frank explained. "I'm not somebody that's trying to show up and break something that's not broken."

At last year's Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, HATEBREED drummer Matt Byrne spoke to The Kevin Powell Podcast about the band's next studio album. Matt said: "I think this new material is way thrashier. There's always a tinge of metal to HATEBREED. I think a lot of people try to kind of pigeonhole us as a hardcore band, but I think over the years we've just gone way more metal. There is still the hardcore punk vibe to us, but I think the new stuff is way more metal, thrashy, fast, SLAYER-esque, if I may use that term. That's kind of the direction we're going in right now, but there's still a lot of groove to it. It's definitely the heaviest stuff that we've written to date. I know that can be a cliché thing with bands — 'Watch out, everybody. It's the coolest stuff,' or whatever they say — but it's true. It's true. It really is. So I'm excited for everyone to hear the other stuff too."

Regarding what fans can expect from HATEBREED in 2026, Matt said:  "New record, new music. It's a new era of the band. We've had some lineup changes. We dealt with some curve balls this summer, some health stuff. So we're coming out on top, we're grinding through, we're coming out on top. And, yeah — new production. We're just stepping up the show 100% and just forging onward."

Last October, Byrne told Baby Huey of the San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone about HATEBREED's new music: "We just released a single ['Make The Demons Obey'] over the summer. We have a new record that'll be coming out next year — not sure when, but it's about 90 percent, 85 percent done. [We're] still tweaking some stuff, but next year's our target [release]. We released a single, 'Make The Demons Obey'. We've been playing it live. It's very fast. It's heavy. It's HATEBREED. It has HATEBREED all over it. So, it's a lot of fun to play. It's always fun playing the new stuff. We've been playing 'I Will Be Heard' since 2002, so as much as you love that song, it's fun to play newer stuff."

Released in July, "Make The Demons Obey" marked the first taste of new HATEBREED material after the group's "Weight Of The False Self" album which came out in 2020.

"Make the Demons Obey" is everything you know, love, want, and expect from HATEBREED. PMA lyrics, sick riffs, singalongs that will make you bumrush to the front of the stage, and some of the deadliest, most ignorant (in the best possible way!) breakdowns known to man.

"Lots of bands say that their newest release will be their heaviest and I guess we are no different," Jasta stated at the time of the song's release. "We've managed to push the envelope and surpass our expectations. We've become tighter, harder and more vicious than ever. This is the most excited I've been for any HATEBREED release."

"Very exciting things are happening in the HATEBREED camp," added Byrne. "It's time to unleash this beast — new music is here! This is the fastest, most vicious, and most aggressive music we have ever created and I'm pumped for the world to hear it."

When "Make the Demons Obey" was made available, HATEBREED was independent and was still deciding what direction it would like to go regarding a record label. But HATEBREED remained open to all options and ideas. In the interim, they will be releasing singles to keep fans satisfied and will self-fund the upcoming album.

Lozinak returned to the live stage at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California in early October. He was diagnosed with a meningioma in the brain while on tour in Europe but thankfully, it was benign. He underwent a craniotomy — a surgical procedure that involves opening the skull to access the brain — on August 4, 2025.

Lozinak has been a key part of HATEBREED's sound since rejoining the band in 2009.

While Lozinak was away, HATEBREED continued its European and American tours, with touring bassist Matt Bachand stepping in on guitar, and Carl Schwartz of FIRST BLOOD and TERROR joining the group on bass duties.

In April 2025, HATEBREED announced it was resurrecting the beloved and annual "Summer Slaughter" tour for 2025, which kicked off on July 8 in St. Petersburg, Florida and ran through July 28 in Grand Rapids.

HATEBREED celebrated its 30th anniversary with a North American tour in the fall of 2024. Support on the trek came from CARCASS, HARMS WAY and CRYPTA.

HATEBREED has released eight studio albums and has consistently sold out shows the world over. Over the course of its career, the band has gone from playing basements and backyards to being a featured attraction on countless festivals like Graspop Metal Meeting, Ozzfest, Warped and Download.

To date, HATEBREED has sold over 1.5 million albums in North America alone.

In May 2025, Jasta spoke to Into The Necrosphere about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for the follow-up to "Weight Of The False Self" album. He said: "Yeah, I think creatively the ideas are all there, the lyrics are all there, the music's all there. I've been going around taking different meetings with labels."

He continued: "It was kind of funny and cool — I just mentioned in passing that we were free agents, and then that went kind of semi viral or something, because then we got hit up by every label under the sun. And that was really nice to see that there was interest there from all these labels. 'Cause I am one of those people that I really believe that your next biggest, best song is always in you. You just have to get to that point where you can channel it or you can grab it out of the ether. Anybody can do it. You just have to get there, and you have to figure out the path there. And now that 'Weight Of The False Self' is finding fans, I thought, 'Yeah, I could expand on a lot of these topics. But then there was also new topics that I had never touched on before that I had been writing about and riffing out about."

Jasta added: "The real sort of mother lode of riffs that I wrote that I got inspired was right after Milwaukee [Metal Fest], because you get this post-festival sort of slump where you're, like, 'Damn, now what am I gonna do?' And I had to go to Europe right away. But TESTAMENT had given me a guitar — they did a deal with Dean, and they gave me this beautiful guitar. And so I just started riffing out on that guitar as soon as I got back. And I don't know if it just had good energy from the festival in it or if it had a different feel of the neck, but I started messing around with different frets and different placements… But just having that experience and then listening back to 'Weight Of The False Self' and going, 'All right, yeah, I'm ready. I've got enough.' I had 24 topics kind of written on a vision board, and I thought, 'All right, I've gotta narrow those down to 14. Can I combine?' And then I kept going, kept going."

Photo credit: Nicole Noy