Olexiy Pasko

Hell:On

All the way from the Ukraine, Olexiy Plasko sat down and took time from his busy schedule to answer some burning questions for Alex here at Metal Temple to give us some insight to the hard work and passion put into his band HELL:ON!
By Lex Mishukhin
January 22, 2014
Interview - Olexiy Pasko (Hell:On) interview
Hi Olexiy, good to have you for this interview for Metal Temple, what have you been up to recently?

Hi Alex. It is always a lot of job after the touring. So I have to solve current work problems and so on. However now we have very great ideas and mood for composing our next album. We already made almost three themes!

Before heading to your band's new album, "Hunt", can you shed some light on your band HELL:ON?

We are an Ukrainian thrash death metal band. The band was founded in 2005 and maybe in two weeks after the last members of the band have joined the collective, we had our first concert at the Ukrainian metal festival Metal Heads Missions. It was very great start! Of course all members of the band played in different metal bands and had participated the gigs so it was not totally new experience. Then we started touring Ukraine and playing separate concerts, then touring Europe and participating European metal fests…And of course composing.

"Hunt"is your fourth full length album since 2006, does it get any easier, I mean the writing/ creation process? 

 I would not say that the creation became easier but it definitely became different. Usually the process of composing was like some guitarist brings certain riffs or even full songs and we combine everything into final track. But now we try to compose everything together. Of course there are some licks prepared at home but in the end even they can disappear because something new and more appropriate maybe composed. Such approach makes the tracks more solid.

I must say that I found this release to be fast and furious, is this HELL:ON's current direction of Metal music?

It is definitely Hell:On's current direction as you can hear . But it is not a rational choice. I think that it is our way of development. If somebody asked me five years ago whether we would play such music I would not reject it but I would not be sure. So now we have this direction and what will be our next it is hard to say for sure. However three new themes have something common with the "Hunt" but still I suppose that they are a little bit different.

Was there a track that made an impact on your in comparison to others? Share some info about what made you proud.

It is very hard question for me. My opinion always changes. We played certain themes of the album so many times that I could not judge them dispassionately. As for the other themes which we do not play during our gigs it is also hard to decide because I listened to the album for a lot of times trying to judge it from every possible point. For now my favorite composition is "Hunt". It carries a lot of albums spirit but I am not sure that it will be the top of my list tomorrow.

"Hunt" features Andy LaRocque from King Diamond fame as guest, how did that collaboration come to pass?

It is rather simple. I listened to his work with one of ukrainian band called Flying and was really impressed. So, I decided if they worked with him, why can we not?? You know, we're big fans of Andy's creation. With King Diamond, with Death and so on. So I just decided to write him to his studio. He answered and.. you can hear the resultJ

In the future to come, will there be anyone else you would like to collaborate with?

He-he you know, there is a lot of musicians we would like to play with and invite to our new records. It is like make child dreams come true. Personally I would like to invite Andreas Kisser, he is great guitar player and big inspiration for me.

Generally, who inspired you to start making music?

James Hetfield!!!! I remember when I heard Muster of Puppets for the first time! It was something. Then I tried to play the fast part of the composition "One" from …and Justice for All on my acoustic guitar plugged into my home amp and didn't believed that such great sound could be done with "ordinary" guitar – there should be some very complex circuitry built into it…It was a long time ago… hehe.

What are your personal ambitions for the future as a musician?

To become such a band which will be an example for other musicians and which will inspire others musicians to play and create. And for me really very important to prove to all over world that Ukraine have a good metal bands.

What about your local Metal scene in Ukraine, what is it like? Are you satisfied with it?

Our metal scene is in a process of development. Of course it is much better than it was let us say ten years ago but it is still underground. I think this is because we still don't have metal culture. I mean that it is impossible to see some video of death or thrash or black metal band on prime channel even not in prime time. Of course internet makes its job but we still need some time. So are we satisfied – no! But we make our best to support it and inspire it.

Anything you would like to tell our readers here at Metal Temple?

See you at our gigs!

Thank you very much for your time, and we here at Metal Temple loved the album and wish you continued success in the future.

Thank you for your attention and interest in our music and activity. Hope we'll meet sometime at some gig!

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