With:	Balazs Keresztesi, Gabor Toth, Mihaly Zsakay, Levente Spicze
Conducted by:	ScreamingSteelUS (e-mail)
Published:	26.01.2018

Harmed is a Hungarian core-tet that formed in early 2017 and just released its debut EP, From Day One, back in December. I sat down, in my own home, to have a chat with them, presumably in their own homes, over the internet and with a couple days' separation. It's an e-mail interview. Anyway, let's see what these folks had to say for themselves.

SSUS: I'll admit that the only Hungarian metal bands I can name aside from you guys are Pokolgép, Thy Catafalque, and Wisdom. I suspect I'm not alone in my ignorance, so you could you give us some background on what the metal scene is like in Hungary?

The scene we live in is a really healthy one! There are a lot of shows made by different groups of people and a lot of bands working hard to get their name out there. The Last Charge, Touch, Apey & The Pea, Omega Diatribe, and Aspects are all hard working bands who definitely help in the scene making it how it is.

SSUS: Do you get a lot of international acts in Hungary? Are there any metal artists that have particularly sizable followings there?

Most bands who have larger followings are the bands who write their lyrics in Hungarian, but there are exceptions of course.

SSUS: Which bands introduced you to metal?

Slipknot has to be the one band that we all agree with.

SSUS: How did Harmed come into existence?

The three of us (Mityu, Balázs, Gabi) played together in different formations, so we knew each other in and out. When our old band split up back in 2013 we took a little break, but since then we all wrote music either alone or with each other in some combination. In 2016, for the first time we were in a room together and our song "Speechless/Deaf" was born. Levi joined us later that year, he was demoing vocals for a project with Gabi and we all knew he's the missing particle. The next month we started building our rehearsal room and wrote music basically non-stop.




SSUS: Are there any major nonmusical influences on Harmed's style?

We love the style of "old" horror movies like The Shining, Hellraiser, and The Exorcist. We all grew up in the '90s, so obviously the early 2000s survival horror games are really close to our heart like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The vibe of all of these different pieces of art are all equally big influences on our music like the different genres of music we listen to.

SSUS: Your Facebook page makes no mention of you having or ever having had a bassist. Is that by design or by circumstance?

We don't have a 5th member, but we do have a friend helping us out as a session bassist on all our shows.

SSUS: You have opened for Jinjer, who are themselves gaining a sizable following, and your debut performance was to a sold-out venue. Why do you think Harmed has attracted so much attention?

We don't really know the answer for this, we only tried to make something different than we previously did with our old bands, music-wise and appearance-wise and somehow people started to gravitate towards it, which we really appreciate.

SSUS: Do you have any major touring goals? Any band you'd like to open for, any country or city you'd like to play?

We aim to take all the opportunities that come our way and play as much as we possibly can. There are way too many bands we would like to tour with or share the stage with even for one-off shows, but if we have to choose only one, that would be Slipknot.

SSUS: Back in December you released your debut EP, From Day One. Can you talk about the inspirations behind that EP?

We wanted to express ourselves and where our minds were at the time when we created it. We all deal with our personal demons and Harmed for us is the outlet of letting them go.




SSUS: All the lyrics for the EP are in English. Is expressing your ideas in English different from doing so in Hungarian, and when you write, in which language do the words come first?

It's not that much different, but definitely easier to start in English from the get-go because we write vocal parts in a way where syllables are a really important part of the process, so it makes much more sense for us.

SSUS: What's next on the list for you? Do you have a full-length in the works?

2018 is gonna be all about playing shows with writing and recording in between. We already started the pre-production process for our first LP.

SSUS: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. What would you like to say to our readers, and what should we expect from Harmed in the future?

Thank you for having us, it was fun! We'd like to say a massive thanks for the support we've received so far, we don't take it for granted. Keep an eye on our socials because we'll have a lot to say in the next few weeks.