
Official press release:
The world's most infamous death-metal/grindcore band fronted by a parrot is back!
Reptilian Records (Easy Action, Heroine Sheiks, Cutthroats 9) has announced that their 100th release will be none other than
Hatebeak's, Number Of The Beak on June 26th.
This monolithic release, which is beautifully mastered by
Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed) will be issued on CD, cassette, as well as limited vinyl runs (including 300 on a special Bird Shit black/white/clear color mix). Featuring a sure-to-be controversial cover by artist
Stephen Kasner, one side of the vinyl collects all of Hatebeak's long out-of-print EPs from 2004-2007 while the other side features six never released songs, the first new avian-metal to surface in eight years.
Stream Hatebeak samples here:
Hatebeak formed in Baltimore, MD in 2003. During their initial existence, they were a studio project shrouded in mystery. In recent years it has become public knowledge that Hatebeak was the brainchild of Blake Harrison (who is now in Pig Destroyer) with Mark Sloan (The Index) and Waldo, a 21 year old African Grey Parrot. Within months, the first Hatebeak recording Beak Of Putrefaction surfaced on Reptilian Records.
The public reception quickly went from metal underground oddity to national news as programs like The Howard Stern Show and outlets like The A.V. Club covered the band. The band's logo was a parody of the Hatebreed logo, and the single cover was a blatant rip-off of Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance, which quickly earned a cease and desist order and was re-issued with Waldo obscuring most of the original picture. Refusing to perform publicly for fear of traumatizing Waldo, the human members went on to other projects while Waldo went on to do album reviews for Decibel Magazine, so Hatebeak went underground until the time was right. Now, as The A.V. Club summed it up, Parrots have long been relegated to menial communication: echoing sentiments about popcorn and crackers or, at best, doing adorable covers of other people's terrible music. But now it is the parrot's time to shine!