Interview with Hëllridër

Today we are joined by one of the Egyptian metal scene’s most unique-sounding bands, Hellrider (stylized as Hëllridër). The band have been around since 2021, but their first release into existence is their latest single called ‘Speed, Booze, and Rock N Roll’ and it really feels inspired by Motorhead’s Ace of Spades, but if played by a black metal band from the early 80s. The band’s interesting mix of black, speed, heavy, thrash, punk, and hard rock caught my attention, so I had a little chat with the band members to try and get a grasp of what makes their sound as intricate and unique as it is.

• Hello and welcome to Rock Era Magazine, it’s always a pleasure to have an Egyptian band with us, and when it’s a very special and vintage metal-styled band like you I turn into a nerdy fanboy and I start overanalyzing every detail of the music and imagery. With whom am I speaking? And please introduce your members to us.

My name is Mina George and I’m the vocalist and founder of this band, members are Ayman Ibrahim on rhythm guitar, Osama Mohamed on lead guitar, Ahmed Saad on bass, and Hazem Sherif on drums.

• How and when did you guys meet?

Well, I have known Ayman since 2014 or sth, we used to see each other so much when we had plenty of concerts back in the day I knew Ayman because of his online store that provides us with plenty of kickass merch nowadays, and we became close friends in 2017, I asked him to join the band twice and because the genre was somehow new to his ears he didn’t agree at first but when the original guitarist Rami Elsherif left I asked him if he can join and he was cooperative and helped me a lot when this band was just an idea.

I give Ayman the credit for playing all the instruments because btw this was supposed to be a studio band, we never expected the rest of the band to join.

Osama is the second member of our band and he joined firstly as a guest soloist, I chose Osama in particular because of his expertise in playing this genre, especially after he released his first single with his band “Junkdigger” and it was called “The Odds” it caught my attention so much due to the huge Bad Brains influences it got.

Afterwards, Osama became the third member of our band to join PERMANENTLY and I consider him as one of the creative driving forces in this band.

Ahmed Saad is the third addition to this band on bass, we have known each other since 2017 and we used to play a similar style in an old project called “Warhound” which sounded in the same vein as Midnight and early Sodom (Obsessed By Cruelty era) back in 2018 until 2020 and he played both guitar and bass but unfortunately, this project dissolved before the inception of Hellrider.

Ahmed joined as a session member but he didn’t take time to prove his worth because of the great chemistry we shared between me and between him and the rest of the band and due to his great knowledge of the recording process which helped us not to hesitate to decide that he will be a constant and permanent asset to our wrecking crew.

The last band member we recruited was Hazem he was Ahmed’s friend and he was introduced to the band by Ahmed they jammed together before they both joined Hellrider.

• How does a band like Hëllridër come into existence? Especially with all the (for the lack of a better word) evolution that the rock and metal spectrum has undergone…what made you choose the specific brand and style of music you did?

We chose this specific approach because it is all about the genres that we all love and enjoy, we wanted to merge all these genres in one cup to make a unique sound

I guess it is the first time this scene witnessed such an approach, we never cared about stunts or technicalities, it is all about sounding shocking, raw, relentless, satirical and offensive At the same time we didn’t want to sound generic with a very vocal sonic and visual identity.

I was driven to make this band satirical as much as possible because I’m tired of people who pretend to care and because they sound too cliche to our ears.

Although we have our moments we are talking that seriously about global politics and social issues such as capitalism, apartheid systems, colonial imperialist ambitions to wipe out  the 3rd world and steal its resources….etc

we are serious whenever we want to be without jumping on the bandwagon and without milking such topics just because it is relevant to discuss nowadays.

Als,o we want to revive that D.I.Y spirit because such an economic crisis makes such an approach flourish, I think that’s the most suitable time for punk to emerge.

• A lot of other pages and reviewers and some friends in the Egyptian metal scene call you prototype black metal, others call you punk, and there are some people who say that it’s a mix. While it’s really impractical to define a band’s sound to one sub-genre or style moniker, if you had to sum it up and categorise it, what would you call the genre that Hëllridër plays?
  

We would like to mention that we are all of these styles infused together, you can call it “black rock ‘n’ roll” if you wanted, we are a band that I consider a wet dream to every old school maniac since we have so much influences under our belts such as speed metal, both first and second wave of black metal, doom metal, and various hardcore punk approaches like D-beat, crust punk and traditional hardcore sound.

• I’ve seen a Latin American fan compile a bunch of clips together to make an unofficial video for your song Speed, Booze, Rock N Roll. It was a bit hilarious to be honest. How did you guys react to it and how did it make you feel to have fans that far away from you?

Well this was hilarious and it cracked us up ,the guy who made it is considering  us as one of his own personal favourites which is kinda flattering,to be honest won’t judge because OH MY GOD!!! I can admit that the equipment we used to record this single is even cheaper  than the internet bundle he used in order to make this video,but anyways it really makes us proud that someone from the other side of the planet likes our music.

• So you’ve been together for some time but you’ve only released Speed, Booze, and Rock N Roll so far. Should we expect any more songs in the future? Do you have some unreleased finished songs that the world has yet to hear?

We have plenty of unreleased stuff ofc that we plan to release on a full length and a single then we are planning to release another full length.

• If you had the time, money, and connections required to play any venue or festival in the world, what venue would you choose and why?
  

Obscene Extreme especially when you know it features plenty of metal/punk bands whether they’re grindcore, death metal/punk (ala Nunslaughter), D-beat, Crust…etc. and Nuclear War Now Fest of course, because I consider this festival a household for every single band we admire and consider personal favourites.

• If you could tour the world with any artist or band, living or dead, who would it be

Motorhead and Triumph Of Death.

• What are your future plans and future releases, if any? And will we see you in concert any time soon? I hope I can see you play in Cairo or Alexandria some day.

We have plans to play live performances mainly in Cairo since it’s our hometown. Anyway, we will see the available options, and hopefully, we can hit the stage by the start of the new year.

• What would you advise a group or an artist that are about to kick start their career, especially in our small and uhm…complicated scene?

Start small, do not mainly focus on equipment but mainly focus on your music and make sure it reflects your experiences as a fan, because we are fans of this genre before becoming musicians, make your very own original persona and imagery according to the topics you highlight, don’t look like any other local band, do not raise your expectations especially when you know that our scene suffers like you mentioned various complicated circumstances that I can consider as a stumbling block.

Prepare and rehearse a lot not necessarily in a studio but at home to avoid wasting time and money and when you’re going to jam, prepare the material you’re going to play for the same reason to exploit every second during the rehearsal.

You can make rough demos via WhatsApp conversations.

Listen to and check different styles of metal bands or similar bands within the genre you play to ease the creative process and make it fruitful.

• Thank you for giving us some of your time today, it’s such an honour to be among dedicated musicians who pay attention to their image and the entire state of mind that comes along when you listen to them. Be sure to check out Hëllridër on BandCamp and YouTube. Cheers!