‘Perseverance’ pays off for Hatebreed
This fall, Hatebreed is marking the 10th anniversary of its 2002 album, “Perseverance,” by playing the entire CD each night on tour.
It’s certainly an album worth celebrating for Hatebreed —which is performing Friday at The Palladium in Worcester — considering what it did for the group’s career.
“ ‘Perseverance’ is our biggest selling album, and it’s the first album we did for Universal Records, a big-time record label,” drummer Matt Byrne explained in an early September phone interview.
“It was the first really big video we did, for ‘I Will Be Heard.’ That song ended up being on the soundtrack for ‘XXX.’ So it was a really big deal in our career overall. A lot of big milestones come from that album.”
In fact, a good case can be made that “Perseverance” was the album that made Hatebreed’s career after a period of considerable upheaval that led to a five-year gap between the band’s 1997 debut album, “Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire,” and “Perseverance.”
The major disruption came from a dispute with Hatebreed’s original record company, Victory Records. The band had complained about spotty distribution of its first album, a lack of tour support and resistance from the label to allow the group to pursue opening slots on high-profile tours.
The members of Hatebreed viewed these specific grievances as symptoms of a bigger overall issue — a feeling that Victory felt Hatebreed had reached its peak and that hardcore bands in general could only sell a certain number of albums.
The disagreement came to a head in spring 2000, when the band decided to abandon plans to record a new CD and instead insist on getting out of their contract with Victory.
Beyond its issues with Victory, all was not smooth and united within the Connecticut-based band during this period. For one thing, there were problems with guitarist Lou “Boulder” Richards, who had to be dismissed from the band in 2002 and, tragically, in 2006 committed suicide.
Byrne, as well, wasn’t a happy camper, and dropped out of the band during the period between the first and second albums.
“When I got into the band, it was a different time,” Byrne said. “It was more hectic. It was rowdier. There wasn’t as much responsibility.
“I think the mindset of the band wasn’t as focused on the business end and musically making it a career,” he said. “So you’re canceling shows with no real reason behind it. There’s maybe flak between me and some of the guys because we don’t see eye to eye on some things. So yeah, it just didn’t feel like a comfortable situation for me.”
But in 2001, drummer Rigg Ross left Hatebreed, and the group (which at the time included Jasta, Sean Martin (guitar), Richards (guitar) and Chris Beattie (bass), approached Byrne about filling in on drums.
By this time, of course, Hatebreed was well into its stand-off with Victory. But Byrne said he encountered a band that was in a far different place than when he had left.
“They were in a good spot,” Byrne said. “They were on the Ozzfest 2001, doing bigger tours. They were in talks with Universal.
Things might happen there. So it became kind of a more serious thing.
“And as all of that was happening, we just kind of worked out our stuff between each other,” he said.
The “Universal thing” was the key development at the time.
The major label bought out Hatebreed’s contract with Victory and put some serious backing behind the making of “Perseverance” and the touring and promotion that followed the album’s 2002 release.
“Our shows were selling out more and more across the country and we started to branch out more throughout the world, too,”
Byrne said. “We did our second time in Europe, we were over in Europe for like two months soon after that album came out. We went to Australia. We went to Japan. We had never been to any of these places.
“When the (“Perseverance”) album came out and started picking up steam, it just opened up the doors everywhere else touring wise for us to be able to get out and show more people what we do,” he said.
There have been a few bumps in the road since “Perseverance,” including a pair of lineup changes with guitarists Wayne Lozinak and Frank Novinec replacing Richards and Martin.
Nevertheless, Hatebreed has, well, persevered and solidified its place as a leading force on the extreme end of rock music. The band is now nearly finished with its sixth studio album, which Byrne said should be released around the end of January 2013. The new CD, he said, has elements of each variation of hardcore and heavy metal that has informed the previous five studio albums.
“I definitely wouldn’t hone in on one specific style that we’ve done or one specific character trait of Hatebreed. I think it’s a nice spread of everything,” Byrne said. “It’s still heavy, it’s balls to the wall, it’s fast, it’s aggressive. It’s everything that a Hatebreed fan will love.”
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 Where: The Palladium, 261 Main St., Worcester How much: $20 in advance, $23 day of the show. Call (800) 477-6849 or visit Tickets.com for more information