One day in 2005 I stopped by a music library in Copenhagen. Here I came across an album with a laughing skull on the cover. The album was made by a band called HateSphere. I turned the cover and realized to my surprise that the members of the band were Danes.
I like heavy metal, so I took the CD home and listened to it. On HateSphere’s website I discovered that the band was on tour that month, and that the purpose of the tour was to promote their new release: the CD I’d found in the library.
12 days later I went to Berlin to spend the last four days of the tour with the band.
One day in 2005 I stopped by a music library in Copenhagen. Here I came across an album with a laughing skull on the cover. The album was made by a band called HateSphere. I turned the cover and realized to my surprise that the members of the band were Danes.
I like heavy metal, so I took the CD home and listened to it. On HateSphere’s website I discovered that the band was on tour that month, and that the purpose of the tour was to promote their new release: the CD I’d found in the library.
12 days later I went to Berlin to spend the last four days of the tour with the band.
When I arrive at Columbia Club in Berlin where HateSphere is playing that evening it’s three o’clock in the afternoon. I find four of HateSphere’s five members, Anders, Mikael, Henrik and Peter, in the canteen. But the band’s front man, Jacob Bredahl, is missing.
“I have been out of bed. But then I decided to lie down again”, he says in a hoarse voice when I find him in the corridor on the upper deck of HateSphere’s tour bus. Jacob’s just got out of bed and is putting on his pants. Inside Columbia Club he lies down again.
The party the band had after the concert the night before was the wildest yet on the tour.
When I arrive at Columbia Club in Berlin where HateSphere is playing that evening it’s three o’clock in the afternoon. I find four of HateSphere’s five members, Anders, Mikael, Henrik and Peter, in the canteen. But the band’s front man, Jacob Bredahl, is missing.
“I have been out of bed. But then I decided to lie down again”, he says in a hoarse voice when I find him in the corridor on the upper deck of HateSphere’s tour bus. Jacob’s just got out of bed and is putting on his pants. Inside Columbia Club he lies down again.
The party the band had after the concert the night before was the wildest yet on the tour.
In 1951 the US Air Force built Columbia Kino as a service to all US personnel stationed in Berlin. Back then Columbia Kino was a cinema. Today the building is called Columbia Club and is one of Berlin’s leading venues in terms of soft and hardcore rock.
Henrik, one of HateSphere’s two guitarists, is counting aloud the seconds on his cell phone as they approach seven pm. The two ladies running the canteen have told the band not to touch the buffet until it’s exactly seven o’clock. Henrik is not pleased with this – still he’s not heavy metal enough to dare remove the lids from the pots until the digits on his cell phone show nineteen-zero-zero exactly.
HateSphere is scheduled to go on stage at seven-thirty pm.
Henrik, one of HateSphere’s two guitarists, is counting aloud the seconds on his cell phone as they approach seven pm. The two ladies running the canteen have told the band not to touch the buffet until it’s exactly seven o’clock. Henrik is not pleased with this – still he’s not heavy metal enough to dare remove the lids from the pots until the digits on his cell phone show nineteen-zero-zero exactly.
HateSphere is scheduled to go on stage at seven-thirty pm.
Jacob seven minutes before he’s going on stage at Columbia Club. He has deliberately chosen not to have dinner before the concert for fear that he won’t be able to keep the food inside.
The mosh pit is the name of the area just in front of the stage where you don’t want to go during metal concerts if you’re too limp wrist to return a knock out.
After the first song, Jacob is on top of his hangover. Above, he’s in the process of spewing his demons in the form of white froth over the edge of the stage.
The German music press is lapping it up.
During the 28 days that HateSphere has been touring Europe, the band has given 27 concerts in 12 countries. Every night the audience’s response is the same.
From left: Signe, Peter, Deichkind and Anders. That day, Signe has traveled from Denmark to Berlin to spend a couple of days with her boyfriend, Peter, who – apart from being a passionate fan of the Danish football team AGF – is the second of HateSphere’s two guitarists. Deichkind is HateSphere’s German roadie.
The photo was taken right after Deichkind introduced HateSphere’s drummer, Anders, to the German word for dangleberries.
From left: Signe, Peter, Deichkind and Anders. That day, Signe has traveled from Denmark to Berlin to spend a couple of days with her boyfriend, Peter, who – apart from being a passionate fan of the Danish football team AGF – is the second of HateSphere’s two guitarists. Deichkind is HateSphere’s German roadie.
The photo was taken right after Deichkind introduced HateSphere’s drummer, Anders, to the German word for dangleberries.
It’s 1:50 pm, and Henrik alias Heinz alias Big Man has just woken up in his bunk in the tour bus. After driving all night while Heinz was asleep, the bus is now totally quiet, parked as it is in front of yet another venue in a new city. Until I showed up and started to take flash photos of him, he was enjoying the tour life and the quiet hangover from the night before.
HateSphere’s front man, Jacob, has booked a hotel room in Hamburg for the following day when he’s going to spend time with his girlfriend before the evening’s concert. The Hustler magazine in his bunk and the paper towel on the floor suggest how happy he’ll be to see her.
Recently HateSphere signed a contract with the global record- and distribution company, Steamhammer/SPV. Above, the five HateSphere guys are standing in front of SPV’s headquarters in Hannover, praising the devil at three degrees below zero.
In the meeting room at the SPV headquarters the atmosphere is tense. A couple of representatives of SPV have just mentioned that it may be high time for HateSphere to get a professional manager. Up to now, Jacob has been in charge of the band’s economy and promotion and he’s reluctant to hand over this task to someone else. Besides, the errand boy who’s been sent off to buy the bottle of Jack Daniels that the representatives have promised the boys, is slow to return.
In the meeting room at the SPV headquarters the atmosphere is tense. A couple of representatives of SPV have just mentioned that it may be high time for HateSphere to get a professional manager. Up to now, Jacob has been in charge of the band’s economy and promotion and he’s reluctant to hand over this task to someone else. Besides, the errand boy who’s been sent off to buy the bottle of Jack Daniels that the representatives have promised the boys, is slow to return.
Anders, HateSphere’s drummer, has promised himself to write and send 33 postcards to his girlfriend in Aarhus – one for each day he’s away on the tour. But he’s facing a problem. The last three days he has failed to write her, and now he has got three empty postcards that need to be written and sent before the mailboxes are emptied. But he refuses to suffer from bad conscience. “Hey hey and I miss you and kiss kiss,” he says, shrugging impatiently. “A postcard doesn’t need to contain much text”.
Anders, HateSphere’s drummer, has promised himself to write and send 33 postcards to his girlfriend in Aarhus – one for each day he’s away on the tour. But he’s facing a problem. The last three days he has failed to write her, and now he has got three empty postcards that need to be written and sent before the mailboxes are emptied. But he refuses to suffer from bad conscience. “Hey hey and I miss you and kiss kiss,” he says, shrugging impatiently. “A postcard doesn’t need to contain much text”.
While Anders is writing postcards, Heinz has thrown himself in the seat in front of him and, without thinking, is reaching for one of the creased porn-mags on the table. “Pornography is a revelation”, he says. “I’m happy God gave us pornography”.
Peter has just said goodbye to his girlfriend at the train station and is now attempting with all forms of physical exercises to rid himself of the totally giddy and childish energy that his time with Signe has produced in him.
Those who have ever felt the urge to scream as loud as they possibly could, and finally, reluctantly, have chosen to do so have an idea of what the musicians and the crowd are going through during a metal concert. When you scream, you lose yourself – empty yourself. That’s what…
Two days before HateSphere was going on stage in Hamburg, Peter received and replied to the following email:
Hi my name is Patrick!!! I’m a very big fan from Hatesphere!!! I will come to your show at hamburg on 2.03!! I hope i can get an autogramm from you for my Killing Ep!?!?!?!?!?
Hi Patrick, yeah of course you can get an autograph for the album... as always we will be hanging out in the merchandise stand after and before the gig, so we will meet there.
Peter/HateSphere
Two days before HateSphere was going on stage in Hamburg, Peter received and replied to the following email:
Hi my name is Patrick!!! I’m a very big fan from Hatesphere!!! I will come to your show at hamburg on 2.03!! I hope i can get an autogramm from you for my Killing Ep!?!?!?!?!?
Hi Patrick, yeah of course you can get an autograph for the album... as always we will be hanging out in the merchandise stand after and before the gig, so we will meet there.
Peter/HateSphere
The ‘Killing of Europe 2005’ tour is almost over. Half asleep Peter’s trying to catch up with events in Danish football that he has been missing out on while he was away.
11 days after this photo was taken, HateSphere once again left Denmark to go on a European tour with the world-famous metal band, Morbid Angel.
