For more than twenty-five years, Spanish doom metal veterans HELEVORN have carved out a place of their own on the international scene. I’ve followed the band for a long time, and I have to admit that with every release they grow stronger, darker, and more evocative. Their latest album, “Espectres”, is a striking achievement—one I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who cherishes atmospheric and emotionally charged doom metal.
For this interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with Josep Brunet, the band’s vocalist whose unmistakable voice has become one of HELEVORN’s defining trademarks over the decades. Here is what he had to say.
Warm greetings from the Czech Republic! HELEVORN has been active on the scene for more than twenty-five years. Could you now look back at your beginnings? What was it like back then? Was it easy to find support for your music in Spain?
Hi there! Sometimes is easy to forget our beginnings, you know, twenty five years ago, six recording, some line-up changes, especially lately, but always looking forward to do what we love and especially to find the best way to express our feelings through music, and we found out the easiest way to do it playing Doom Metal.
Nothing is easy in Metal, but we have found a proper support and we feel lucky to finally have the chance to headline a Tour in our country and have some venues sold out, so yeah, so happy.
This year you went on a concert tour to celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary. How did everything turn out? Did your shows include any special surprises for the fans?
We played for the first time in France, Andorra and the south of Spain, in Portugal after eighteen years and in some cities where we have never played before, so it went very good. We try to make always something special, and we thing that we did it introducing some special songs in the set-list with some live contributions.
What made you decide to dedicate yourselves specifically to doom metal? Which bands had the greatest influence on you in the early days? Were they, for example, some Spanish bands that are not so well known in the rest of the world?
In our case Doom Metal is the best way to express how we live the human tragedies and how we face the hard challenges that we have in the present and in the near future as human beings. So, we need to play music and this genre give us the chance to do it. We grew up listening to the classic ’90 English Doom Metal bands, that’s easy to get it, and those bands were our main influences to start our project. There no so many Doom Metal bands in Spain, but we would mention our buddies of GOLGOTHA, without any doubt.
For many years you worked with the Russian label BadMoonMan Music, which was part of the renowned Solitude Productions. How do you look back on that collaboration? I must admit, it was through BadMoonMan that I first discovered HELEVORN…
It was good for the band to work with Solitude Prod. They always belief in the band and they edited three of our five albums, so they did a good job. A lot of people discovered us due to the importance of this label in the underground scene.
There have been frequent lineup changes in HELEVORN. What was the most common reason for that? How much did it hold the band back?
In fact we didn’t have any lineup change over twelve years, and just one change in twenty years, and it was our secret to keep the band alive, but it changed in 2020 when we needed to replace two original members otherwise the band would have died, and the rest of the band didn’t want finish making music.
It was so hard to get out of the hole in 2021 when the former drummer left the band, but in 2023 we started again with a renewed lineup until nowadays. Now we feel very good, with a stability and with a lot of future projects.
How stable is the current lineup of HELEVORN? The latest album “Espectres” turned out really well – I would even dare to say it is your best album…
Oh, thank you, we feel that the new members did an amazing job and the most important thing, now we all work hard in the compositions, not like in the past where just two people did it, and that’s why the songs in the new album ‘Espectres’ are a bit more worked. A new drummer has just joined us after a year working with a session drummer, so we can say that we are a sextet again.
Josep, on the new album you’re working wonders with your voice. Is training still important for you?
Appreciatte it. I must admit that sometimes I feel that I’m unable to do what I did some years ago with my voice, so I work very hard to do my best in the vocal lines, especially in the clean voices. Training is basic and also have a good producer that guides you and pushes you all the time to sing in the best level.
In the song “Children of the Sunrise”, Thomas Jensen from the band SATUNUS appears as a guest. How did this collaboration come about? Have you known each other for a long time?
We toured with SATURNUS over Europe in 2015. In 2019 they came to Mallorca to present our fourth album ‘Aamamata’ and in 2022 we toured again with them over Europe.
We are very good friends and we love them as brothers and I always knew that Thomas would like to perform in a Helevorn song, so I asked him and he said ‘yeaahhhhh!’. This is a very special song, dedicated to children and their ability to change the world. We just only need to listen to them and learn. You released the album “Espectres” exactly a year ago. What kind of feedback have you received on it? Has your audience grown? In my opinion, your music truly deserves great support…
This past year has been great for the band. We felt that, indeed, we have grown and we are able to be on top of the major Doom festivals in Europe, and that’s awesome. The reviews of ‘Espectres’ have been amazing and this album means a lot for so many people so that’s wonderful for us. Well, we have a lot of support, maybe we would love to enter in the European Metal Festivals, but we are ok.
An integral part of HELEVORN’s music are influences from classic gothic rock. For example, the song “Signals” is one such case. What is your relationship with bands like THE MISSION, THE SISTERS OF MERCY, THE FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, etc.?
Oh, it seems that you did your homework 😉 Yeah, I love these bands. I would just add CHRISTIAN DEATH to the list. Well, is not a secret that Gothic Rock has influenced to us in many ways, you just need to listen to the band or the song that you mention. The drama of Gothic music is without any doubt what I need to express the majority of things that I need, specially singing and playing live.
As I’m preparing this interview, I’m looking out the window and it’s autumn and cold all around. But over there in the Balearic Islands, it’s a beautiful 24 degrees! Are you fans of warm weather, or would you sometimes trade it for a Czech autumn? 🙂 Can the weather also inspire you more deeply, for example when writing lyrics?
Indeed, the weather determine us in a lot of aspects in our lives, but we have also an amazing cold winter and sometimes it snows in our mountains. Anyway, the weather is an inspiring thing, but we have a lot of things that inspire us even more than if it’s cold or if it’s raining, so, that’s a simple anecdote. But yeah, I would trade your soft summer for our extremely hot one, that’s a fact.
How is doom metal perceived in Spain? Does it have its own fan base, or is it strictly a minority genre?
I think Doom Metal is perceived equally in all the countries around the world, like the most underground subgender into Metal, but like all the minor things in the world, the fan base is very strong and loyal and people who really love Doom will always support you, and that’s great.
I like that your music respects the roots of the genre, yet at the same time sounds current and modern. Would you say this is the direction that best characterizes your musical journey?
I agree. The Classic ’90 English Doom Death Metal is in every note of our music, but of course we have always tried to bring our music in our own vision, specially after twenty five years, where we can say that we are moving in different styles but you can figure out easily when you listen to HELEVORN, I guess…
What are your upcoming plans? Could we expect to see a HELEVORN concert in the Czech Republic someday?
We are working on some gigs in 2026, not so many after a very good 2025 in terms of concerts.
No plans to como to Czech Republic, at least for now. We have played four times in your country, last time in 2022 with SATURNUS , ESOTERIC and POEMA ARCANUS and it would be great to play there again soon. Hopefully!
Are you already working on new songs? When can fans expect the next album?
Yael, we are always working on new ideas, but right now we are so busy preparing the 25th anniversary concert in our hometown, Palma, on January 10th, where all the members that formed part of the band will play one or two songs. It will be a very special night! We will try to release the next album before 2030 😉
Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you lots of luck, good health, and above all, inspiration. As for me, I’ll definitely be spending my autumn with the “Espectres” album…
Likewise. Thank you for your questions and good luck!
ALL