Powering their way down the rocky mountains from the Mile High City of Denver, Colorado, thrash metal masters Havok have reasserted themselves as a musical bulldozer possessed by an insightful and evocative lyrical conscience with the recent release of their new studio album – V.
V, in this case, is used in its Roman numeral form as the number five, recognizing that this is Havok’s fifth studio album. Their first, Burn, came out in 2009, followed by Time Is Up in 2011, Unnatural Selection in 2013 and Conformicide in 2017. It is the second of the band’s albums to be released on the Century Media label and the first album to feature new bassist Brandon Bruce, who joining band founder, vocalist and primary songwriter David Sanchez (who started the group in 2004), drummer Pete Webber and lead guitarist Reece Scruggs, both of the latter whom joined in 2010.
The new album, V, was the first time Havok worked with noted music industry veteran Mark Lewis, best known for his work with Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder and many other top metal acts, who engineered, mixed and mastered the record. Sanchez said it was a great step for the band to work with Lewis as he encouraged a great deal of experimentation and thinking outside of the box both in terms of compositional elements to the song, as well as for sonic reproduction and recording.
“It was a good experience working with Mark. We learned a lot and luckily Mark was down to using some of the tonal experimentation that we wanted to do. We tried out so many instruments, speakers, microphones and amplifiers – it was crazy how in-depth we went to capture some cool tones. Mark had seen us play live a few times and every time he saw us play, he asked us when we were going to do an album together. So, for this new album, we had a short list of producers that we maybe wanted to work with, and his name jumped out the most to me because he had already expressed an interest in doing it. With all the other people on our list, it would be a case of us going to them asking if they would be interested, but we already knew Mark wanted the gig. We went with him because of that enthusiasm and we knew he would do a good job because he was so keen on doing the project,” said Sanchez.
“Another big thing in Mark’s favour was that he asked me before we went into the studio if we would be cool with experimenting with a bunch of new gear that this speaker company had sent to him. He said that he hadn’t tried them out and asked if we would be down with trying them out. I am also an audio engineer so I nerd out on that sort of stuff and obviously said yes. It’s a lot of work and it takes a lot more time, but the experimenting was totally worth it for me, because now I totally understand what 10 different speakers sound like. It was a pretty intensive audio experience, and it was something we were glad we did because I think the tones we discovered are totally crushing.
“We spend a lot of time refining things. We used different drumheads, different cymbals, different microphones, different guitars, different basses, different amplifiers and speakers. We went nuts with total experimentation, largely due to Mark’s desire to try this stuff out. I don’t think a lot of bands would have wanted to do that they would just say, ‘sounds good, let’s move on.’ I am really curious about that kind of stuff and the band and I were totally cool with putting in the extra days to nerd out about tones and sound. ‘Why not?’ is often a better question than ‘why?’”
Notwithstanding the new addition of Bruce, Havok had been a solid unit for nearly a decade heading into this record, and had more than two years worth of performing, writing, rehearsing and getting to know one another even better before stepping up to the plate to start what would become V. Sanchez believes he as an individual has continued to evolve as a person, as a musician, a performer and a songwriter, and that evolution, as well as the increased experience and proficiency of the rest of the band, is reflected on V.
“I have been listening to a lot of different kinds of music compared to when I started the band. I think that’s made a huge difference in the sound – influences that are not very metal will seep into our music these days, but largely under the radar. A lot of people who listen to Havok probably like a lot of funk and country music, fusion jazz and classical music, but don’t realize they do. I think every time we write an album, we get more experience and practice under out belt on writing a song, which is very evident on this record,” he said.
“We use our practice and rehearsal time to make us better, not just as players, but as songwriters. There are sometimes on V where it goes from one riff to another and at first it was tricky like, ‘oh no, how are we going to get back to that other part?’ But just getting creative and thinking a little outside of the box allowed for some of those cool transitions to happen. When I was a teenager, I am pretty sure I would have just got stuck and not thought of a neat, tricky way to move from part A to part B.
“And I have to say that Brandon has fit in great. He writes cool stuff and he can sing; he can play drums, guitar and piano. He is super creative and was a fan of the band before he joined, so he definitely wants to be here and make a contribution. And we’re all happy to have him.”
There is an insistent urgency to all the songs on V, an energy that cascades through each track not only on the musical performance side of the equation but also lyrically. It is as if Sanchez and his bandmates have a message that is of the utmost importance to listeners – a message that needs to be received, understood and to be acted upon for not only their own good, but for the good of our society and culture.
It is a call to arms, a call to action in the trying times we are currently enduring and an attempt by these musical artists to shake people from their compliance, from their complacency and from their cowardice.
“We’ve never been afraid to share our opinion on social and political issues, that’s been a theme on our records for quite a while. I think on this new record that trend has been ramped up, because we’re trying to get people to wake up and snap out of their television stupors. I want people to think for themselves. That’s one of the main goals I am trying to accomplish by yelling lyrics into people’s ears, to get them to wake up. There are far too many people who are not thinking about the truly important things, and who are instead allowing themselves to be distracted and entertained. If enough people were to start thinking about them, we could change the world in a big way and make it much better than it is,” Sanchez asserted.
“A lot of metal bands seem to be doing that and I think that’s a great thing. Heavy bands like Death, they had a lot of really smart lyrics that were somewhat prophetic and obviously socially conscious. I think any form of music can do that: I think that you have to believe you can change the world, and that goes for music or visual arts, movies, books – writing of any kind. There are all different forms of art that I believe has the potential to change the world for the better.
“That was a realization that I had maybe eight or nine years ago. I came to see that a lot of people are listening to the things that are being discussed in the songs, so I don’t want to waste that opportunity and that precious time by talking about nonsense. There’re enough bands talking about the devil and murder and stuff. I want to talk about things that are really important and try to make a positive difference in some way, if I can. I am not a megastar, I’m not at the top of the Billboard charts, but I know some people are listening to what I have to say, and I would rather say something that means a lot to me, that I think could make the world a little cooler, than talk about the standard metal topics. That’s why a lot of our lyrics are transcendent above myself. I am not just talking about me; I am talking about things that affect everyone.”
The lead-off track for the album V is a perfect example of Havok’s lyrical modus operandi, captured in a phrase that has come to, unfortunately, encapsulate our modern society it’s politics and media – Post-Truth Era.
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to decipher between true things and lies. And I think that is part of the plan of the people who are in power, to try and destabilize people’s mental faculties. I think they are deliberately trying to evoke confusion and just make it to where people want to give up because they can’t tell what’s true and what’s fake. That’s the world that we’re living in right now, and I wanted to say something about it because it’s very dangerous,” Sanchez explained.
“George Orwell wrote his book 1984 a long time ago [it was published in 1949] and he’s been proved to be a prophet not just an author. Some of the things that he wrote about are happening in real time right before our very eyes. And if we’re not very careful we’re going to end up in the kind of world that he warned us about. It, or something worse, could absolutely happen.”
Betrayed by Technology isn’t so much about a Terminator-type scenario where armies of machines try to wipe out mankind, but more about how we have allowed the more insidious aspects of the reliance on technology to blunt our joy, our creativity and our independence of thought and action.
“Ever since I was a teenager, I have though that technology and overpopulation are going to have a very, very bad clash, and I still think that’s going to happen and is likely to happen in our lifetime. We can already see it happening. There are a lot of jobs that people used to do that are now automated and executed by machines. I think at some point that’s going to have a bad fallout for society. But also, I intentionally tried to make it a little bit ambiguous, because it’s not just about the rise of technology taking people’s jobs but also on a more philosophical level of being betrayed by technology with people being so absorbed in their phones and focusing so much on their digital personas. We are basically giving away our happiness to this little computer that sits in your pocket,” Sanchez said.
“There are many ways you can interpret the title of that song. It could be taking your job, it could be stealing your happiness, it could be a lot of these things that have been invented, like television for instance and other amazing inventions, that should have been used to make the entire world smarter. It could be used to make everyone more intelligent, more knowledgeable and deeper thinkers. But that’s not what it’s used for. So, we’ve been betrayed by that particular technology. Mostly, television is garbage and a lot of the things that are on television are literally just programming your brain to think a certain way. They’re not showing these programs to enlighten you or make you a more well-rounded person. Largely, a lot of it is to dumb you down and make you a drone, make you brain dead.”
The subject of cover-ups and conspiracies of silence is explored in the cleverly titled Cosmetic Surgery.
“That song is about cover ups of all kinds. I was really inspired to write that song from learning about Nicola Tesla and understanding the creation of the Federal Reserve and researching things about JFK and 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the Golf of Tonkin and how a lot of our history has been rewritten to save face for somebody. And a lot of things aren’t even just rewritten, they’re just straight up not taught to people at all, because if people knew these things, it would be bad for the system,’ he opined, adding that Merchants of Death looks at the concept of governments using the taxes of their citizens to fight foreign wars.
“We are serving these merchants of death. The song is about how you pay your taxes and they are going to spend your money to go overseas and kill men, women and children you’ve never met; people who have never done anything to you, or anything to your country. You look at America and they spend billions of dollars of money from regular people to go overseas and brutally kill people. It’s f***ing disgusting. But the song, like the theme of the whole album is saying that things are out of control, and that the first step in making change is for people to come to the realization that there is a problem. You’re never going to correct the problem if you don’t know that there is one.”
For more information on Havok, the new album V, and any post-pandemic tour dates, visit the band’s social media accounts, or www.havokband.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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