Hexenhaus is a Swedish technical thrash group formed
from the ashes of a group called Manninya Blade. Hexenhaus is musically
complex technical metal with great vocals, riffing, and drumming. The
band has folded and reformed a couple of times, but is currently
disbanded. Mike Wead and Marco Nicosia have since formed a new band
called Hemisfear, who have signed to Heathendoom Records. Wead is also
the current lead guitarist for Mercyful Fate. Will now talk to Marco who
was and is involved with Fifth Reason, Hemisfear, Seventh Key, Memento
Mori as well as Hexenhaus.
Starting off, What happened too Hexenhaus?
First of all the latest Hexenhaus setup starting with
the album "Deeja Voodoo" was more a studio project and an
actual reunion than anything else. So the band got disbanded after the
Awakening album. Then Mike came up with some ideas 3 years later we
decided to record Deja Voodoo.
Didn't you play on all the following - 1990
The Edge Of Eternity Active 1991 Awakening Active,1997 Dejavoodoo Black
Mark. How come it took so long for Deja Voodoo to come out?
I joined Hexenhaus after the recordings of the Edge
album so it was really too late for me to do add anything to it. At the
time I was really busy learning all the songs for the tour.
Mike Wead thought it could be a good thing to put me on
the album cover cause we were about to do a lot of gigs. I mentioned
earlier that the band was disbanded after the awakening album so that
explains why it took so long everyone was doing other stuff.
What happened too Conny Wallin bass
("Awakening"), Tommie Agrippa vocals
("Eternity"), Nick J. vocals
("Insanity"), Rick Meister guitars
("Insanity"), Jan "Blomman" Blomqvist bass
("Insanity"), Ralph Raideen drums?
After the awakening album we did do a couple of minor
tours and those lasted for a year after the tours things went dead. I
think everybody vanished in different directions. The last thing I
remember about Conny was that he was studying to be a teacher. Mike was
more into his second band Memento Mori and I was doing my own on project
and a cover band...etc. Tommie Agrippa replaced Tomas Lundin only
because we thought the style of the awakening album should fit his voice
better and style. I don't know so much about the other guys.
Thomas Lundin-vocals ("Awakening"
and later), Billy St. John drums ("Eternity" and later what
happened too them and what are they currently doing?
Billy is a father living a peaceful life with his wife.
I haven't heard anything about Tomas, no big projects or anything. He
was very much into some strange kind of blackrock stuff, don't know if
his still into that.
Can you please tell us about Manninya Blade your
prior band before HEXHENHAUS, and what album you released and what label
it is on?
Can't do that that was before my time sorry...
Your new band Hemisfear, can you tell us all about
that and who is in it? Is it similar too Hexhenhaus?
Hemisfear is like taking Hexenhaus into a totally new
direction. But unfortunately the band is put on hold, don't know if we
ever gonna release it or not. The recordings were delayed a couple of
times due to the lack of time. There was also a lot of touring going on
with Mike and Mercyful Fate around the world during this period.
How did Black Mark treat you guys when you where
on the label?
Well I didn't see much action from them.
How did the technicality come into focus with Hexenhaus?
Think it came with our more focused guitar playing and
of course there were a lot of inspiring bands.
Will Hexenhaus ever reform? Have you heard any
discussion about this from Mike Wead? Would you ever do it again?
Well we have reformed once so maybe a second time ha ha
ha. No I don't believe that, we feel there's no market for it. There's
not a lot of funds to put into it. well, maybe as a studio project but
never as a band. But you'll never no, good answer huh?
You have Fifth Reason and Hemisfear happening now,
do you have any other band you are in? What other band's have you played
with? How do you manage too play in 2 bands?
Involving me in different projects is a matter of
priority. Yes I have my own band Seventh Key which will be more
progressive but due to our management we are waiting to make it official
until we get more money from the record deal.
I don't know what is going to happen with Fifth Reason.
Hopefully we will find a label to release the album "within or
without", which is already
recorded and mixed. I used to have a band with some old members of
Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force but we just did some demos, mostly
instrumental stuff.
How did the Active label treat you guys?
I nothing to complain they did what they could do I
think they did some good promo works in couple of big magazines but they
didn't manage to takes us further.
Will you guys ever re-release your HEXENHAUS
albums?
Well I have seen one strange re-release of the Edge of
Eternity album don't who was behind that. But yes of course we should do
that if someone is serious enough to re-release it, just show us your
wallet...
What was it like working with MIKE WEAD?
We do inspire each other a lot and of course we are very
good friends in private. When we don't play music we do a lot of other
things, mostly beer drinking. I also want to mention that Mike forces me
to listen to his Gong albums. "Gong" is a mysterious group
from the early 70's.
So can you tell us how Fifth Reason came into
existence?
Fifth Reason was from the beginning Simon Johannson's
project, the former Abstract Algebra and now Memory Garden's guitarist.
Simon started FR after his time with Abstract Algebra. Tomas Lundin
former with Hexenhaus did all the vocals for the first Psychotic demo.
Later the vocals were later re-arranged/written for Kristian Andren the
lead singer now. Actually, Mike asked Simon to ask me if I was
interested to join the band and yeah I liked it, the style was doomy and
I thought they were cool guys in the band.
I see the band is comprised of all the great talented
members from bands such as Tad Morose, Memento Mori, Street Talk,
Wuthering Heights, Abstract Algebra, Memory Garden. What a list!
How in the hell did you guys manage to get such a awesome line-up?
Yepp you're damned right. But if you look a little bit
closer then u will see that Mike is involved in all those bands in
someway as producer, engineer or guitar player.
Your first album "Psychotic" released in
1997 on Heathendoom Music. How was the reaction too Labels, zines, fans
,etc.
We went cardboard platinum...
Seriously it was good low budget debut album.
How is the label treating you?
The guy at Heathendoom is a very good friend of mine and
I think he did what he could for us.
Any news on the new album?
There's one label who might want to release it.
"Within or Without" - your new
album, who did the cover and could you tell us about the new album?
There's no cover yet but I think we have a lot of ideas
for it. The album sounds in my opinion very heavy and progressive, I
also wrote some songs for it.
When will it be released?
I don't know we are just about to send some promo CD's
to the a label who seems to be interested.
How would you describe your sound?
Progressive, heavy, doomy powermetal.
Any Nevermore/Sanctuary/Forbidden fans in the
band?
Yeah sure, they are all great bands. Simon is a True
nevermore fan!
So what happened with Oscar Tillman on the first
album and how was Marty bass (Memento Mori/Hexenhaus) contacted too get
the position?
Tillman wanted to get more time for his own project.
Firstly we wanted to try out Fredrik and we did do a gig with him but
when we started to record the album, we found out that he wasn't the
right person for it so we asked Marty to join instead.
What are you or your label trying to do to promote
you in NORTH AMERICA - anything at all?
Nothing right now, that's because the psychotic album is
to old. We need to release the new Fifth Reason Album first then we'll
see.
What were some of the influences for Hexenhaus at
the time?
For me it was everything from early Yngwie to Watchtower
and a lot bay-area trash and doomy stuff and a lot of classical
composers.
What was the crowd's reaction too DEJAVOODOO?
Great, some zines thought it was to many guitars solos
on it but nevermind that, there were also some who thought that the
album was not long enough we just wanted to maintain high quality.
What was the release date for that album, and did
you guys sell many units?
I just remember the year was 1997, I don't know the
status of the album. But it seems it wasn't enough to break even. This
is probably the reason why Black Mark wasn't too happy.
It's been a honor, thanks for everything and any
closing comments?
Cheers all! Please check out our official homepage
www.go.to/fifthreason and our management www.Intromental.com
and by the way, watch out, cause there's a lot of helicopters in the
nite...
For More Info
Fifth
Reason CD Review
©2000 Metal Rules!!
Interviewed
By DethHead