Hellripper: Blazing Black’n’Speed
If you’re Scottish, love the Occult and Blackened Speed Metal, AND want an album that Angry Metal Guy (AMG) rated 4/5 - which essentially means your album is exceptional - then you are likely a fan of James McBain of Hellripper. This man literally rips Hell, what have you done with your life?
Hellripper emerged as a spectre amongst the Scottish highlands with one objective: “TOTAL FUCKING MAYHEM!” This one-man project has morphed into a sensational beast that has taken many a stage, most recently Hellripper blazing The Underworld in London for Incineration Fest. Regularly blasting Black Mass Sacrifice and All Hail the Goat in the Heavy Metal HELLadel, we decided to ask James to come in and have a chat with us.
This is what he had to say:
Thank you for joining us in The Citadel, James. You recently crushed Incineration Fest, what was the reception like and how were the English fans?
It was a good day! I always enjoy visiting London, the reception has been great each time we’ve played there and this time was no different. It was good to see so many people come out to see us and the crowd were very energetic throughout! Festivals are always a good place for seeing a lot of people that come from elsewhere or folk that I have only had contact with online! The guys from the ‘Bangers and Mosh’ podcast turned up wearing goat masks and kept them on for the whole set, with one of them joining us on stage during “All Hail the Goat” and treating us to his best “Bez” routine.
What has been the biggest driving force for the evolution of Hellripper?
The biggest driving force for everything Hellripper is simply my enjoyment of doing it! I’m very grateful for the support people give me and I’m glad people like the music!
You had your parents as guests on the first album, what are their thoughts on your musical endeavours? And how many Hellripper shirts does your Mom own?
Yeah, they both provided some backing vocals on a couple of parts! I recorded everything up until 2018 in my bedroom at my parents’ house, so if I ever needed anything, they were happy to help! They’ve both been very supportive of my music since the start! My Mum came to almost every local show we played back when I lived in Aberdeen and helped me pack and send orders.
My Dad would often give his opinion on whatever I was working on - whether a mix was sounding good or on guitar solos etc. My parents both have quite a lot of the merch! No idea how much of it, but I know my Dad still wears the beanie hat regularly and my Mum uses the tote bag!
You picked a fairly semi-obscure historical event for the title and some content on your last album, The Affair of the Poisons. Why, and is the more true-life lyrical themes something we can expect in the future?
It was just an event that had so much to explore, and of course, it fits with the “usual” themes I explore with Hellripper. And yes, I always like to explore real events with my lyrics - more often than not, it’s much crazier than whatever I could think of myself!
The next album is entirely based on Scotland, its folklore and history, so there are quite a few tracks about “true events” within!
What was the first full-length song you learned on the guitar?
I think it was “Sweet Home Alabama”. I used to learn a lot of pieces of songs, but I think that was the first one that I sat down and learned all the way through! I can't imagine it sounded very good though, and I wasn’t skilled enough at that point to learn the guitar solo properly.
I got more into guitar as I got more into metal, so the first song that I learned that probably sounded decent enough was “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. The amount of time it took me to get that “Fairies Wear Boots” type lead part near the beginning was ridiculous!
What was the first metal band you heard and how did it impact you?
Probably Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath when I was really young, but I didn’t really know it was “heavy metal” exactly. I loved music as a kid and would listen to anything! I used to watch Top of the Pops every week and would always be flicking through the music channels on TV. I always liked guitar music and my favourites were usually hard rock or punk stuff.
I really got into metal however when I heard both Metallica and Megadeth at around the same time when I was 12 or 13 years old. I have no idea why, but something just clicked with me and I went out the next day and bought both ‘Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?’ and ‘...And Justice for All’ on CD. That in turn got me more interested in playing the guitar (I had been playing the guitar for a couple of years at that point but had never really taken it seriously) and led me to further explore metal as a genre.
I would go to my local music shop all the time and just browse the metal CDs and buy things with cool artwork and I would be on Youtube constantly trying to find new bands to listen to. I’m still always trying to keep up with new releases whether it be through Youtube, Spotify playlists, blogs/zines, social media or recommendations from people.
Would you rather be in a punk rock band called Knitted Condom or a post-folk band called Rockin Sockin Flockerz? And with Hellripper doing so well, have you had time for your other project Lock Howl? And finally, will we hear any rockabilly versions of Hellripper songs?
Got to be the punk band of course! And no, I haven’t really had the time to get other stuff done for the past while unfortunately. I’ve been putting all of my energy into Hellripper, and of course, the better Hellripper does, the more there is to do! I’ve been slowly working on various other projects (including Lock Howl), so things will come, but I just don’t know when yet! And that’s a possibility!
I am interested in doing some acoustic-based stuff and actually recorded a somewhat rockabilly sounding version of “Full Moon Witchery” a couple of years ago for a laugh. It was on an old laptop, so it's gone now I think, but I probably will record some other Hellripper tracks in a Johnny Cash/Rob Coffinshaker type style at some point (not under the Hellripper name though!).
You mentioned you’re a massive football fan, so we have to ask: Celtic or Rangers? …or the possibly soon to be relegated team of your hometown, Aberdeen?
Aberdeen of course! We’ve survived this season, and I think that’s the best I can say right now!
You said you love to connect with fans and that you run the social media accounts of the band. You also have a TikTok, Twitch, Discord, and a Facebook group, some of these rarely seen in metal circles. What role do you think social media has to play in metal, and how has that helped Hellripper?
Social media plays a different role for every band. For someone like myself who likes to interact with other fans of metal and fans of my band, it’s great! I keep up to date with new releases and people give me music recommendations regularly! Social media was always my number one priority when promoting Hellripper, because for the first year or so of the band’s existence, I played no shows and there were no plans to play shows.
Even in the couple of years that followed, the number of shows we played was very small, and usually, relatively local, so social media was the best way to get my music out there! Of course, not all bands want to use social media and it works against some bands to use it. Bands that want to remain anonymous or mysterious or whatever benefit from having little social media presence. But for Hellripper it is a necessity.
What would you say is the biggest learning you had as a one-man band, and what advice would you give to others following a similar path?
Probably how much work you have to put into things if you want to continue to grow and how the “industry” works. When I started Hellripper, I had basically no contacts and had just started getting involved in my local scene a few months earlier so I had no idea what I was doing really or what was required in order to progress.
It really depends on your goals, but my advice for anyone starting a band is to learn how to do as much stuff as you can by yourself. If you can record yourself to a decent standard (even just demo quality), it will be a big help and will save you a lot of money. It’s the same with music videos, graphic design, social media management, show booking, artwork etc. The more you can do on your own, the less money you will have to spend (which can be invested elsewhere (merch printing, travel expenses etc.).
But if you can’t do something to a decent standard (for example, artwork in my case), then get someone that can be involved. Don’t be too determined to do it all alone - sometimes things are definitely worth the investment. Also, focus on the music first and foremost. Don’t worry about getting loads of merch printed or looking for a label or whatever until you’ve got some songs!
Hellripper performs live with some of your friends from bands you’ve previously played with. If they couldn’t join you and time, money, or even the simple fact of being alive were NOT a factor, who would you choose to play with you live?
That’s difficult because I don’t know them as people and that’s the most important part for me! But just based on some of my favourite musicians, I would have Dave Lombardo on drums, Dave Mustaine and Jeff Waters on guitar and Alex Webster on bass.
You have full control of all the media feeds in the world (TVs, mobile, etc) for 10 seconds. What would be your message to the world?
Enjoy life, don’t waste any time and do what makes you happy!
Any updates you can tell us about the next Hellripper album? We've heard about the possibility of bagpipes…
Yeah, it’s almost all recorded! Just a few vocal bits to finish off and it’ll be ready! There’s loads of riffs, loads of guitar solos, and yes, some bagpipes! It’s more diverse than the previous stuff, but it’s still undeniably Hellripper.
You’ve got a killer tour coming up with Gama Bomb, anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that one! It’ll be our first proper “tour” of the UK, and Gama Bomb is one of my favourite bands of all time and one of the bands that I got into just as I was getting into metal so I’m very grateful that they’ve invited us along to be a part of their 20th-anniversary tour!
Other than that, as I said, I’m just finishing off the next album although I have no planned release date for that yet and we have quite a few more shows to be announced shortly! Once I’m done with the album, maybe I’ll get to work on the other projects I have planned. We’ll see!
Thanks, James for chatting with us. Be sure to head over to the Hellripper website today, check the live shows, tunes, and some absolutely epic merch and vinyl! In the meantime, WORSHIP THE GOAT!
