Formed in Warsaw in 2017, Hostia are rarely seen without their somewhat disturbing face coverings (although their desire for anonymity does not stretch as far as the band wearing the uncomfortable-looking bags on stage), which creates an aura of mystery that is increasingly unusual in this know-everything-reveal-everything era. A prolific act, Hostia released an eponymous full-length in 2018, followed by Carnivore Carnival in 2020, the Resurrected Meat EP in 2022 and, finally, the full-length Nailed in the same year. Aided, in a sense, by the enforced downtime of the various COVID lockdowns, the band’s tight focus on creativity undoubtedly aided them in surviving a difficult period that ended a number of other bands, and now it’s time to play catch up on the live front.
With Nailed a vicious, scything beast of an album, we caught up with the band to discuss the challenges of dealing with such dark material in a country known for its religious conservatism. Read on and enter the dark world of Hostia…
The album art for Nailed, despite the imagery, is strangely (disturbingly?) beautiful – who produced it and how involved were the band in the overall look and feel?
St. Anacletus: Yes – we are involved in every aspect of Hostia. All the designing and concept behind it was made by our vocalist – St.Sixtus who is actually a designer (pachudesign). Musically it was recorded in JNS Studio with Paweł Janos Grabowski and Haldor Grunberg. I love the purpleness of it (laugh). We had that colour in our minds for a long time in terms of using it on the album cover so when Pachu’s idea with the tongue came up it fit perfectly. We have kind of Hostia colour universe of gold and purple. I even have two guitars painted that way – one gold, and purple!
You formed in 2017 and have already managed 3 albums and an EP – would this be the normal pace of writing and recording for you, or did the pandemic allow more time to focus on creativity while you couldn’t tour?
St. Anacletus: When I look back on my other bands before Hostia – the 2 year cycle for an album was always natural. It is the same with Hostia, but does not mean that we will have the next album for sure in 2024 (laugh). There is always music playing in my head, so when the album is done I quite soon have a need to do something new. Pandemic lockdown resulted with the extra EP – cause we did more songs than usual. And Hostia album needs to be tight so it was natural to split the material in two. The songs in my head grouped in two wholes. But for now I am still in the bubble of excitement around the Nailed release so dunno what will come next. Time will show!
Relatively few bands have complete anonymity (especially in the internet era) – The Way of Purity and Meads Of Asphodel both spring to mind – and it’s also somewhat contradictory that you don’t cover up on stage: is it more of a press thing, forcing journalists to focus on the music and not a discussion of who is in the band, because clearly you don’t care if your fans know…
St. Anacletus: We are not orthodox about it for sure – exactly how you said. When we recorded the first album, and Pachu created the cover art with the dead popes – I suggested that it will be strange to put our names and faces behind it. It was much more natural to pick the nicknames from the best popes – meaning dead ones and hide our identities. As we all played in many bands before Hostia – we also wanted to have a fresh start – to cut off the past and also make people focus on the music and concept of Hostia instead of comparing to whatever we did before. But the shows are about the energy – and are much more personal face to face – especially in small clubs so we never had the need to hide onstage. You would be surprised how many of our friends didn’t know it was us even after couple years and many shows (laugh). We liked that! It’s about music!
You deal with religion a lot in your lyrics, which seems to have become, after a brief period of seeming tolerance in the early 00’s, an increasingly edgy topic in Poland once more – have you had any backlash over the imagery / content of your music, or have you (so far) managed to avoid too much flak in that regard?
St. Anacletus: It is a totally live problem in Poland and it is getting worse as the ruling party are in bed with the church so both of them are like a totalitarian organised crime group – but above the law and unpunishable. For now we avoided any backlash but the threat is real and we have that above us all the time. I must pay my respects to Nergal of Behemoth here for taking the torch of free speech on him and struggling with lawsuits for hurting religious feeling over and over again. Welcome to 21st century Poland – where you can go to jail for hurting someone’s religious feelings… and the catholic Poles are so easy to hurt… They would even crucify Jesus again if he told them he is jewish cause it hurts their Polish meaning of catholicism. We could be talking about mindfucks like that for hours…
A few years back, I recall that bands like Hunter or Virgin Snatch, would tour around Poland, playing venues in all sorts of out of the way towns and venues, often having an awesome turnout. Here in the UK, a lot of the club scene is really struggling, with many smaller venues closing down. Is that audience and that passion for metal and underground concerts still there, and how often do you get tour the country?
St. Anacletus: The last time we had a bigger tour was in 2019 and then the pandemic happened. But we play some shows last year and it is terrifying what’s going on. Many clubs are struggling but from what I talk to many of them – covid was not as destructive as actual polish ruling party Prawo I Sprawiedliwość (PiS). In short, their main goal, apart from dictatorship, is to steal as much public money as possible and to fuck society in all possible ways. Anyone who tries to run their own company in this country knows how the party simply robs us under completely invented slogans. As you can see, most Poles apparently like to be fucked by them…
To what extent is it a challenge getting outside of Poland? Is it something you are considering, given the international interest that Nailed has received?
St.Anacletus: We get various inquires from other countries, so maybe it will slowly move. First main challenge is to make promoters in other countries want you to play there – cause when you are an unknown band in a certain country it is more risky to invite you. Even if they like your music. Second – are obviously the costs of travelling. But we are open for it and are trying to expand outside Poland. I hope that the great positive feedback we are getting about the album will only help us with that!
Siberian Werewolf is not only a great song, but I love the way that it also provides a darker, slower moment – it makes the rest of the album feel even faster and harder. When writing, is it important to you to think in terms of how the album as a whole flows?
St.Anacletus: Yes. Maybe not directly in writing – cause the music gets out of me kinda naturally and spontaneously. But when it comes to composing the album from the songs we have – then yes. It’s like with the parts of the song – I feel the same way about the album – songs are like parts of the arrangement for the album and all of them need to fit and make the whole together with the right dynamic. This time I wanted to have more slower moments on the album – also because they are more challenging for me to write. I often feel that slower songs are sluggish and not very energetic. But I totally agree with what you said – adding them make the rest of the album feel even faster. So Siberian Werewolf and Little Priests were the ones that despite of being slower keeps the energy and heaviness.
Stone In The Throat is powerful lyrically and deals with a much more personal topic than is typical of Hostia – was it challenging writing a song about the struggles of someone close to you and did it provide you with a sense of catharsis?
St.Anacletus: Unfortunately St.Sixtus would have to answer that. But when he sent me this lyric I was moved by it, and I know it meant a lot to him to write about that.
Looking at other interviews, it’s clear that although you take being musicians seriously, you don’t take the music quite so seriously, is that partly a defence against prying journalists?
St.Anacletus: From prying people in general (laugh). We are like that not only in the band. Keeping the distance and not always being so serious it’s very important to keep your sanity in order in today’s world (laugh). So we are very serious about what we do, but you cannot be too serious. Metal is supposed to be fun! Even if we talk about serious topics. Just take a look around – so many people around have soooo huge pain in the ass about everything… Fuck that. When I spoke to the guys from Paradise Lost – they said that the main reason they are still in the band after over 30 years is because of their common sense of humour. And their music is pure sadness and despair (laugh). You know what I mean?
What’s next for Hostia?
St.Anacletus: Hopefully as much shows as possible!
Bonus question: considering the number of chicken wings on sale, where are all the skulls?
St.Anacletus: In the gutted guts of people on gore grind album covers?
