I caught up with heavy metal musician and comedian Steve Hughes to talk about his Album Eternum “Alone But For The Breath Of Beasts”, Iron Maiden, Heavy Metal, and everything in between.
Steve Hughes, known to the world for the last two decades as the cutting edge stand up comedian who pulls no punches when it comes to how he sees the state of current events, Steve was also one of the leading lights of the early heavy metal scene in Australia when way back in ’82, a bunch of ragtag metalheads from the Western Sydney wastelands began to communicate with the rest of the world’s emerging metal scene.While everyone was into Rose Tattoo, Buffalo, or AC/DC, Steve and his mates went after the heaviest stuff they could get their hands on and finding nothing local to satisfy their hunger, created it themselves. Enter, Slaughter Lord. ‘perhaps the earliest and undoubtedly one of the most legendary of Australia’s extreme metal contingent’ – Brian Giffin: The Encyclopaedia Of Australian Heavy Metal After Slaughter Lord, Steve pummelled his drums for Australia’s most internationally recognized metal act of the era, Mortal Sin, and then moved onto black metal mystics, Nazxul before ultimately landing behind the kit playing with indie rockers, Presto.
| In 2020 things have come full circle for Steve Hughes. Musician, Comedian and back to Musician. Although anyone who is a fan of Hughes knows the two are inextricably linked. Heavy Metal Comedy was the name of one of his official comedy releases after all, but the themes in Steve’s comedy have always been aligned with some of those that are deeply rooted in heavy metal lyrics. Tyranny, globalism, oppression, the NWO, you know, all the good conspiracy stuff. Go listen to another of his stand up releases Conspiracy Realist for more. Steve explains the lyrical concepts behind the songs; “The EP’s lead track, Beyond What You See, is about the Cabal’s efforts in mind control and information versus humanity’s shamanic spirituality. Confronting the shadows and dualism that exists there and realising you are more than the three dimensional existence they will have you believe you are.“ “High On Fire is just pure anger and goes back to the second Gulf War in 2003. It’s my vitriol against the lies and actions of those who led us into that unjust conflict, they were literally ‘high’ on fire.“ “The dark side of monotheism is the topic of Jesus Serpent Blood. How those ‘most holy’ of institutes are rotten to the core and have been infiltrated at the highest level.“ “In Lies We Trust. That’s certainly true right now. Fake news is all around us, people blindly following their leaders, even when they are caught lying to them. The Antichrist is real kids.” “Hail The Godsis my nod to the old school of metal. The originators and pioneers. Those like me who were there at the start. Others have made lyrics from bands and song titles before but it’s fun to do and is for the OG’s like Greg Morelli – RIP. There’s nothing else to it, here’s some riffs, go bang your head.” “The last track is Inverted Reasonand sums up the world in 2020. Mind control, fear, the sense of loss we all face in a number of guises and the physical and spiritual corruption bestowed on us by the very people we ask to protect us.” The artwork on Beasts features Steve with a demonic hand on his shoulder. He explains the concept; “It’s holding up that mirror to society and to ourselves. The idea comes from my mental breakdown and realising that the false self has been in charge for too long. Pandering to what people what from me, from us. You might thing you’re in control but it’s the ego, the demon, that’s steering the ship and you have to take control back, otherwise you’re just headed for disaster.“ As for the title, Alone But For The Breath Of Beasts, itself? “You’re alone, look after you don’t worry about the outside, focus inward, do it for yourself by yourself….no one is coming to save you!” And of Steve Hughes – Eternum as the name of the project? “Eternum was the last track on the first Naxzul album so I named it that. Just like Motörhead was a Hawkwind song, so I guess I pulled a Lemmy!“ Alone But For The Breath Of Beasts is out now via Dinner For Wolves smarturl.it/eternum |
