- On behalf of Let's Rock publication i would like to thank you very much for having us with this interview. HolyHell is a growing band and people might not know very much about you. Please tell us a bit about how the band was started.
Francisco Palomo: Well, everything was started around '98, when Maria started developing the idea of having a band with classical influences and heavy metal music at the same time. She started working on Magic Circle Music with Joey de Maio as a producer and from there onto 2005 there was a period of development and looking for the right people to fill in the band, then in 2004 or 2005 things started to get together.
Joe was recording in Magic Circle Music for an artist called Jack Starr. Jay has been playing with Joe for a long time. I was already involved in Magic Circle Music with some demos and stuff. And at that time we had Rhino as a drummer, who was part of the Magic Circle family. So that's how everything started developing.
Unlike any other more current bands, we did not start by releasing an album right away and then touring, we actually started playing right away, doing live shows, with some festivals and after that we started developing the sound of the band, after all these experiences live. The sound started crafting on stage, which is a little different than you would normally do with every band, where you develop the whole concept first and then you release the albums and start touring. It was basically the opposite way.
And from then, we started doing a couple of tours with Manowar, Rhapsody and other bands. We released an EP in 2007 as a preview of what the album would be. And in 2009 we released the full length album. That was actually the first time we played here in Romania at B'estFest. Now we have a new EP coming out which is also a preview for the next album, which will be out in a couple of months, in the fall.
Joe was recording in Magic Circle Music for an artist called Jack Starr. Jay has been playing with Joe for a long time. I was already involved in Magic Circle Music with some demos and stuff. And at that time we had Rhino as a drummer, who was part of the Magic Circle family. So that's how everything started developing.Unlike any other more current bands, we did not start by releasing an album right away and then touring, we actually started playing right away, doing live shows, with some festivals and after that we started developing the sound of the band, after all these experiences live. The sound started crafting on stage, which is a little different than you would normally do with every band, where you develop the whole concept first and then you release the albums and start touring. It was basically the opposite way.
And from then, we started doing a couple of tours with Manowar, Rhapsody and other bands. We released an EP in 2007 as a preview of what the album would be. And in 2009 we released the full length album. That was actually the first time we played here in Romania at B'estFest. Now we have a new EP coming out which is also a preview for the next album, which will be out in a couple of months, in the fall.- How did you get your inspiration for the album?
Francisco Palomo: In this case, for "Darkness Visible", for the lyrical part, HolyHell has a very specific conflict, which is a duality between darkness and light or good and evil. That is something that Maria has always had a lot of interest in. In this case that is still the topic of the album. There are songs that have a little bit more personal point of view, whereas on the first album we were telling stories that were outside of a personal experience.
And in the musical side, HolyHell has a very specific sound that was developed over all these years playing. The difference now is that it's heavier, it's a bit more technical, but it still sounds like HolyHell, the sound that we developed over the past 7-8 years.
And in the musical side, HolyHell has a very specific sound that was developed over all these years playing. The difference now is that it's heavier, it's a bit more technical, but it still sounds like HolyHell, the sound that we developed over the past 7-8 years.
- What other musicians do you admire or have influences from?
Joe Stump: 
We'll have to answer for Maria. She has a wide variety of influences. She loves Ronnie James Dio. She also likes old school rock stuff like Pat Benatar and stuff, Barbra Streisand as well. And she's classic in training, so she has a variety of influences as far as her vocals go.
We'll have to answer for Maria. She has a wide variety of influences. She loves Ronnie James Dio. She also likes old school rock stuff like Pat Benatar and stuff, Barbra Streisand as well. And she's classic in training, so she has a variety of influences as far as her vocals go.- What about your influences, what do you like ?
Joe Stump: I love classical music very much, baroque and romantic composers, Bach, Vivaldi, Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven. And I love Deep Purple, Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth, Jimi Hendrix, Gary Moore. And I love old different schools of metal: Accept, King Diamond, Dio.
Jay Rigney: My influences are mostly Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, anything from Motown to Disco to 80s metal. Especially 80s metal. It's the period I grew up in. Anything with good solid base, and especially good song writing, good melodies.
John Macaluso: My big three are The Who, Van Halen and Rush. My babies. (laughter) :))
- How would you describe HolyHell's music? Where do you think it's inspired from?
Joe Stump: It's a story. I think the music has a kind of a story to it. It's also theatrical, a kind of play, you know what I'm saying?
Francisco Palomo: It's a combination of a lot of schools of metal, too. We have all these classical elements and all these theatrical elements in the band at the same time and we have a lot of elements that come from modern schools of metal.
In HolyHell you can find from classic, 70s, 80s straight up heavy metal tunes, to stuff from neo-classical metal or even some prog elements because we have all these technical parts that most other bands in the genre don't use that much. Thankfully HolyHell has the potential to mix all these elements because of the musicians' capabilities, that it gives you the freedom to go through different genres and make the mix work.
In HolyHell you can find from classic, 70s, 80s straight up heavy metal tunes, to stuff from neo-classical metal or even some prog elements because we have all these technical parts that most other bands in the genre don't use that much. Thankfully HolyHell has the potential to mix all these elements because of the musicians' capabilities, that it gives you the freedom to go through different genres and make the mix work.- HolyHell is a part of Manowar's label, Magic Circle Music, and Joey DeMaio has been quite involved in the band. What exactly is his input?
Francisco Palomo: Joey has been involved since the beginning. He was the producer of the band and he helped us develop in every single aspect, whether it is the songwriting or the perfomance on stage. He has always helped us. He has 30+ years of career, so you cannot deny his knowledge and we have been very lucky to be blessed with it. During the first album he was the main producer and that helped a lot to develop that sound. He'd let us express ourselves and at the same time he taught us how to do a lot of things for which sometimes you need intuition and you need an external intuition to guide you a certain way. And now on the new album he's letting us breathe a little more as a band and helping us produce this album, which is a big honor coming from someone like him.
- In this album how did you come up with ideas for the songs?
Francisco Palomo: There are two stages for the songs. The first part is the song writing. Maria, Joe and myself did most of the song writing. And the second stage of course is when the band gets together and everybody puts that input into the song and that song starts breathing and becoming a living entity. Those are the two most important stages of this process. And of course there's the production stage, which is Frank who is trying to make the bass elements and that's the process where we are right now, of making sense out of this immense amount of material that we recorded.
- This being your second time here in Romania, how did you feel on the stage? How did you see the fans and the location?
Joe Stump: Romanian fans are great, very knowledgeable when it comes to metal, extremely enthusiastic and it was a great experience the first time we were here and it's cool to be back.
- You're very famous for your shredding techniques. How do you work on that? What advice would you give to young guitarists who want to be like you?
Joe Stump: You just have to play. You have to eat it, breathe it, sleep it, live it, you know, and love guitar. Love to play all the time. You don't have to be a genius to realize that the more you play the better you get.
- How long did it take for you?
Joe Stump: I'm still working on it. (laughs) (That's no lie...). I still play all the time.
- Currently you have three more date confirmed, opening for Manowar this summer.
Joe Stump: We're on three more big festivals during the summer. We're playing Gods of Metal this week. Then we've got the Getaway Festival in Sweden and the Music Week Festival in Germany. After that we're going to be back out, I think, in the fall/winter with Manowar on an extensive European tour.
- So your next plans are to promote your new album?
Joe Stump: Yeah, the record comes out in September and then after that we'll be out doing some live damage supporting it.
- Where can the HolyHell fans find more about you and your music?
Joe Stump: On the HolyHell Facebook and http://www.holyhell.com as well.
- Thank you very much for this interview. Do you have any message to send for your fans here in Romania?
Joe Stump: Just thank you for your support and we can't wait to come back! See you in the fall!
