With ‘Sons of the Abandoned’ being the first Bloodhunter album not being released through a Spanish label. the album might just give a larger worldwide audience the chance to get acquainted with the somewhat unconventional, but always accessible melodic death metal of the quintet. Vocalist Diva Satanica gives a look behind the curtain.

“What is really clear to me is that the songwriting team of Dani (Arcos, guitarist), Guillermo (Starless, guitarist) and I works much better now”, she says. “It’s the second time with Guillermo taking part in the writing process of the album, and it’s been great, because he provided the band with a different approach. He comes from the hard rock scene, and he doesn’t enjoy extreme metal at all. It all worked out really well, because he understands how to make these pieces fit together.

I think the previous album was quite dense. We were working with difficult techniques to prove what we were able to do in terms of skills. This time, we thought: let’s give everything a natural vibe, let the music flow, and just go with the vibe. At some point, we were just writing songs for the sake of being creative, and enjoying what we were doing, not thinking about needing to write an album. And I think that was key.

I will always say that if I was not the singer, we would be a different kind of band, a different music genre altogether. If you don’t listen to the vocals, we could be a power metal band, or a heavy metal band. Our influences vary quite a bit. Dani loves classic heavy metal much more than extreme metal, Guillermo comes from hard rock, and Adrián (Perales, drummer) comes more from the alternative and progressive metal scene. Having them all together makes the dream team, haha!”

A Seal of Quality

For ‘Sons of the Abandoned’, Bloodhunter worked together with prominent Danish producer Tue Madsen. “We have been thinking about working with him since the very beginning”, Diva laughs. “Because he is a great producer. Some of our favorite albums have been produced by him, so we thought that having him would be like a seal of quality.

Of course, when we recorded the first album, we weren’t really sure what we were doing. So after that, we wanted to do something kind of good, let’s say, to take things to a higher level, to work with someone who deserves this huge respect. It felt like this was the time to try. He was super easy-going. He accepted the challenge, and it was amazing to work with him.

The first time you work with someone you don’t know at all, even if you know how they work, is always kind of difficult. But his suggestions to improve what we were doing, to help us raise the bar, were extremely welcome. For us, it was like: he’s the guy who knows much better than us. So we were always super open-minded, and in that sense, it wasn’t that difficult at all.”

The Rhythm and the Intention

“For me, the question in my mind is always: what can I do to make something better, or different? How can we try other things? Because when you’re a growler, you don’t have so many options. It’s not like being a clean singer, where you can play around with melodies and harmonies. It’s easier to write something more diverse. I’m always worried about doing the same thing all the time.

That’s when I started to focus on notes or tones first. Because the range is not super wide when you’re a growler. Once I managed to do both, I started to think about rhythm. When you growl, the rhythm and the intention is very important. I wanted to do something kind of different in terms of dynamics, and that’s when I started to pay more attention to drums instead of the guitar melodies. I feel like we have created something a bit more complicated, but not too studied.

Also, I tried to listen to other music genres, like hip hop and Latin music, working with phrases, words, and doing something more related to the dynamics of the words used. That was my main task during the last few years. I’m happy with this direction, because otherwise, I would be singing the same phrases over and over again.

I could hear it myself: I was singing on the same pitch all the time in the past. It was pretty flat. That was horrific. When I listen to the first album now, I think: oh my god, that was me? How could we make this happen? Haha! But you have to start from somewhere, and that is all part of the process.”

Many Different Methods and Teachers

“Obviously, for me, recording albums with Bloodhunter is a huge challenge each time. I feel like I need to be on the same page as my bandmates, who are amazing musicians, and I always feel like I can’t let them down. I have to work as hard as I can, because otherwise, it would be like the music is on one level, and the vocals are below that, haha! It’s not good when you have something like that on an album.

I remember the first time I entered the studio, to record the first album, and it was a mess. I had no idea what I was doing, I got sick, I had a huge sore throat. It was Christmas, and the last day of the recording sessions, I was not able to do anything. I couldn’t even sing one word. I was kind of frustrated: man, this can’t work like this. People go on tours for one or two months and they are fine. They record albums and they are fine. So I’m doing something wrong.

I had my struggles with vocal coaches before. Because I tried many different methods and teachers, an nothing worked for me. I was kind of upset. But I only wanted to learn from the real metal side, and that was a huge mistake. Because I needed to learn from the basics.

Once I started working with a different vocal coach, who was a melodic singer, he understood what I needed and what I wanted to do. That was amazing for me. Since then, I started to improve, and to understand much better what I do, and what I needed to change and improve.”

How Everything Works Inside

Most of Diva’s vocals are in English, but she has appeared as a guest vocalist on Spanish-language releases by the likes of Leo Jiménez, Mägo de Oz and Legado de Una Tragedia. “When you sing in different languages, the feelings change completely”, she says. “English is much more in the nose, for example. Spanish is more like a chest voice.

For example, when you do a deep growl, your jaw is straight, everything is super closed, and you feel it more all around your face and your chest. When you sing in a high note, everything goes up, like the head voice for clean singing, so you feel all this pressure on your forehead, and everything is super open.

But I think growls have something quite similar to lyrical singing, like people do in operas, for example, because you need to work with your larynx a lot, and everything is super open inside of you. Having this vocal coach in the last few years helped me understand that. The more you understand how everything works inside, how you should feel what you do, the more like you feel like it’s in the right place.”

Discipline with the Instrument

In the meantime, Diva has learned how to keep her voice in shape on tour. “Of course, you need to sleep a lot, drink a lot of water, do your warming-up, eat properly…”, she smiles. “Drummers and singers, we pay the price, haha! No party at all, no talking, especially after the gig: you need to stay quiet, try to relax and chill, go to sleep, until the next day.

Apart from that, you need to build this resistance. So you need to train a lot, do some exercises, practice a lot, take vocal lessons, and have this discipline with my instrument. Everything is part of the same process. If you don’t sleep well, if you don’t have this discipline, you’re fucked.

You also need to think about the method you are following. You have to change some things and adapt along the way in the things you’re doing. When you’re on tour for two months, you are constantly conscious about: I need to play, I need to sleep, and the next day is the same. But then, when you’re not on tour, you lose this perspective, and you start doing other things, which are more urgent. So you need to readjust, depending which side of the story you are on.”

Matching with the Vibe of the Song

Apart from Diva herself, guest singers Fernando Ribeiro (Moonspell) and Laura Guldemond (Burning Witches) appear on ‘Sons of the Abandoned’. “When Dani and I were working on the pre-production of ‘Threshold of Hell’, there was this interlude where everything goes softer, and we were thinking about having a speech with a deep voice there”, Diva explains. “We looked at each other and said: Fernando would be amazing for this part. So we thought: let’s give it a try.

We contacted him, and he was super easy-going. He said: I’m in, I love the song. He sent us a few tracks, with different options, and he allowed us to choose which one was the best for the song. Wow! It was mind-blowing. He has such a great talent to know what’s going on in the song. He’s like a poet to me. He has a magical way of saying things with this power. It’s amazing.

With Laura, it was something similar. She has been one of my favorite singers since before she joined Burning Witches. We had this song, ‘The Path that Never Ends’, which was kind of progressive, super modern, and at some point, we wanted to have some clean vocals, but not something that’s typical for the alternative metal scene. We wanted something more powerful. Fearless.

I thought of Laura, because she has this ability to make everything fit into her own universe, and I think that’s very difficult. Because when you have a song from a different music genre, and you come from the opposite side, it’s super difficult to make everything match. She handled it perfectly fine. It was like the song was meant to be for her. And that was what we were searching for: something that was a big contrast, but could still match with the vibe of the song.

Laura is much better than I, haha! But she did many different things, and we share that passion of challenging yourself, doing different things, with different musicians, different projects, because you learn a lot from that. You can bring those influences into your own past.”

A Common Connection Between Songs

Aside from ten new original songs, there is a cover of Annihilator’s ‘Human Insecticide’ on ‘Sons of the Abandoned’. “We started working with the label some time ago, and someone suggested to do some covers for this album”, Diva says. “He was suggesting a few songs, and we told him we love Annihilator. It’s the perfect mix of technique and the wilder side of the thrash metal scene. In that way, it’s very similar to what we want to do.

Also, the vibe of the song relates to the current situation worldwide. Humanity goes downhill. And it’s always a topic that many people deal with. But I think it’s something important to keep speaking about it. Because nowadays more than ever, we have so many crazy things going on, but we feel like it’s normal. War, greedy people, corruption: we all agreed it’s crazy, and we wanted to say something about it.

So this song fit perfectly with everything. In the beginning, we weren’t sure, because we didn’t have this idea of having a concept for the album. But after we started writing some music, we had this common connection between songs: exploring human behavior, how we repeat the same patterns over and over again. And this song felt like it could match with this vibe.”

A Question of Endurance

Bloodhunter relocated to Madrid, which is one of the hot spots of the Spanish metal scene, but they are originally from the northwestern town of A Coruña in Galicia. “We played in our home town a month ago”, Diva says. “And there are many bands that just stepped down from the scene, because they got married, they had kids, they changed work, and they have other priorities. So that makes it a question of endurance, maybe.

If you give up in the beginning because you are tired or frustrated, nothing will happen, and you will get nowhere. You need to stay strong, keep on working, and never give up. There is no other option if you want to do something. You always have this point in your career where you think: why am I doing this? At some point, you just need to stop and trust the process, work hard, meet other people, and refresh your mind.

The biggest cities always have the biggest scenes. My main thing when I moved to Madrid was looking for different opportunities. Obviously, if you have an amazing project, it doesn’t matter where you live. But if you are isolated from everything, nothing happens. Because a lot of concerts, getting in touch with the right people, developing your own style, meeting different musicians, press, attending shows, you need to learn from a different part of the scene. When you don’t have any input, it’s impossible to grow.”