Goatwhore and Hate Eternal Members Dish About Recording and Touring Together + More

Goatwhore guitarist Sammy Duet and Hate Eternal vocalist and guitarist Erik Rutan, who also produced the newest Goatwhore disc, were guests on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. The two talked about working on Goatwhore’s new album ‘Blood for the Master,’ touring together and more. If you missed Jackie’s show, check out her interview with Sammy Duet of Goatwhore and Hate Eternal’s Erik Rutan below:

Sammy, as a producer what’s Erik’s strongest quality that makes him right to produce three Goatwhore albums?

Sammy Duet: He makes us work really, really, really hard and there’s a lot of producers out there that like to take the easy way out. I guess you can say and you can tell that coming from the music of some of these bands that are comin’ out nowadays. Erik, it’s a right feeling, he makes us work to come out with the right product because I find if we came out with an album that sounded too overproduced, it wouldn’t have the same effect for the music and Erik just knows how to capture our sound. Basically when we work together, he becomes a fifth member of the band.

When a record comes out well, I’ve always heard a band describe a producer in that way. It must be hard when you don’t have a producer that you guys mesh with and it could affect the way a record comes out.

SD: Absolutely, it could destroy an album and luckily my boy Rutan has been doin’ us right.

Erik Rutan: It’s always been my pleasure to work with these guys.

You produce and play in Hate Eternal. Musically, what do you take from producing a band and then going back to Hate Eternal?

ER: Every record I do I learn something new; about things not to do, things to do. I’m always up for experimenting with new things because I feel like every band has a unique creativity to them. So really every record I do, I’m tryin’ new things on purpose because I never want any record to sound exactly the same. I think that’s the big part of the problem of a lot of productions; they sound so similar but to me. A band like Goatwhore shouldn’t sound like any other band -- it should sound like Goatwhore. And Cannibal Corpse should sound like Cannibal Corpse and Hate Eternal should sound like Hate Eternal.

I’m a guy that believes you never know enough about your craft. I’m always trying to get better and learn more things and I take from that every record I do. Producing my own records is really difficult because it’s very hard to do everything, but it’s also something that every record I end I always say, “Man, I’m going to have somebody else to the next one,” but then when I get to the next one I’m like, “Nah, no way.” My whole life, since I started playing guitar, I've always wanted to own my own studio and record my own music and record friends of mine and bands that I respect and admire, and somehow I’ve been able to make that happen. It’s lots of hard work but well worth it.

Goatwhore and Hate Eternal have recently been on tour together. Which is more stressful, being in the studio together or being on the road together?

ER: That’s an easy answer.

SD: Being in the studio definitely because when you’re out here on the road, everybody’s havin’ fun, everybody’s crackin’ jokes; it’s not so much of a high stress situation. We just get up there and we rock’ n’ roll. When you’re in the studio with Erik, it tends to be put under the microscope so to speak. I mean it’s fun regardless, both are awesome but it’s definitely a lot less stressful bein’ on tour with Erik than being in the studio with Erik. I have to say even on the last one, it was the most relaxed we’ve ever been between Erik and the band. We knew what we had to do going into this record ‘cause we know how Erik works and we like the way Erik works. I think we have a pretty good program now, so he’s taken it a little bit easier on us nowadays in the studio.

ER: You know what it is too? We know each other so well that we don’t have to compromise in any way. If I’m workin’ on a guitar sound and Sammy says, “That sounds like crap,” I don’t get out the Kleenex. I just say, “Okay, well let’s do the next thing.” Everything’s out on the table now. When you’ve done three records together (and we obviously have a great relationship as friends), it’s like family. Working in the studio it’s tough but now we just know goin’ into the record that we discuss everything. What do we want to change about the last one? What do we need to make better?

If I was to ask you both, what’s the most metal thing about each other’s band, how would you answer that?

SD: I mean Hate Eternal is just 100 percent metal so that’s pretty much the most metal thing about it - is that it's metal. There’s not really one thing you could actually focus on to say, “well that was metal.” It just is.

ER: With Goatwhore, they exemplify what you would expect from a metal band. They’re music is powerful, they enjoy themselves. Me and Sammy were talking about that today, if you’re not enjoyin’ yourself then what the hell are you doin’? You get into metal to live it, to enjoy it, to express everything that you’ve always wanted to. I mean Goatwhore; they exemplify metal to me. They’re everything that any metal head should enjoy. If people haven’t heard Goatwhore or seen Goatwhore then they’re missin’ a lot, because Goatwhore covers so much territory. They’re one of the best bands out there.

This coming weekend, Full Metal Jackie will talk to Oderus Urungus of Gwar. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.