Hogslayer are from South Wales, and they are a combination of apocalyptic Sludge hatred and even more apocalyptic Sludge hatred. That's a lot of hatred right there for your buck, and you should spend your buck on their debut album, tape only. This is some hardcore shit folks. I'm actually a bit scared of this.
This is probably Hogslayer vs Fitton Inquisition. I might not make it out alive...
FI) Paul, (Fortescue, )Hello! You've been covered on the blog before, but could you give a short history of the band please?
HS) Good day to you sir.
Hogslayer was formed mid 2012 combining two of South Wales, veteran, heavy bands. Zonderhoof, an instrumental beast and Shaped by Fate, who also had a good crack at playing hard. Both of which seemed to end around the same time... thus resulting in a bunch of angry(ish) geezers looking for something to do.. Something real.. Something that matters. People seem to be on our side with this and Hogslayer shows are just getting more fun by the day. We now have a new fella playing the guitar, known as (the) Dead Hand from the South Walian super group HOMOH.
The past year has seen a steady rise for us. With some great supports (Gurt, Hey Colossus, The witches drum, Thorun) and headline shows we’ve been having an absolute blast. We’ve also released a Cassette tape through Dub Ditch Picnic (Canada
FI) Your self-titled debut is pretty nasty, in a good way. What made you decide to go tape only for the release? Will you ever include other formats?
HS) Thanks! We went for tape approach just for a bit of fun and nostalgia really. We’ve been around since man started hitting things hard. Personally I was brought up on mad mix tapes made by my old man so there has always been a bit of love for them since day one. Plus, like a vinyl, you get that more authentic non polished sound, which is what we want. I’m pretty sure we will be releasing “Hogslayer” on more modern formats soon. If I’m honest I’m sick of explaining to the youth how a tape player works.
HS) South of the wall it is slamming at the moment.. There seems to be a nice following for Doom/Sludge/Stoner rock music and it’s growing. There are many awesome bands coming out of South Wales now, such as Thorun, Spider kitten, The Witches Drum, Lifer, Culver, Tides of Sulfur, IronBird, The Death of Her Money and Homoh to name a few. This wave is tidal and it will flatten everything.
FI) Have you managed to tour yet, or is it only local shows? Do you want to tour?
HS) No we haven’t. Not yet.. We’ve been mostly concentrating on building a local following, putting the feelers out as they say. The next step for is to look further a field, with promoters we trust and maybe getting an agent. Who knows we could come and declare war on the north soon. Then a global take over will be on the cards.
FI) I think you have the attitude of Eyehategod, and the slow drone of Will Haven a bit. Do you like those groups at all? Who are some of your main influences?
HS) Yeah Eyehategod are great. Will Haven are pretty cool too.. not totally my thing, but I see where you’re coming from. We just love the classics man. We take what we love and get slow with it. We don’t try to sound like other bands. We are influenced by the lords of heaviness!
FI) What kind of equipment do you all use?
HS) Guitars made of wood and metal (Gibson SG, Laneys Amps, Fender). Marshall Seymour Duncan
FI) For a band as underground as yourselves, are blogs a lifeline at all? Have you had any coverage from the mainstream press?
HS) Yeah blogs are really helpful. It’s always nice to find out about new shit that’s going on around the world. I find that most of the bands I prefer at the moment are very small and still playing in their garage. Blogs like sludgelord save the day! We are yet to have mainstream coverage.
FI) I read that you recorded the album in one go, live. That takes serious balls. Is this so a listener would get exactly what you would sound like on stage? Was that important?
HS) Basically what we did there was booked a day in the studio just to get some tracks down. We decided to do it live as we’re all into the idea of music being real and as raw as it comes. We didn’t really have a limit on what we were going to do. So we turned up, plugged in and got on with it. After the first take we did we decided we’d just record everything we had. The whole day ran smoothly, and we felt that hammering the lot on the first take gives people a sense of what we are.. faults and all. When the day ended we decided to leave it at that. We didn’t put too much effort into mixing. No mastering. The tape is us. As we sound. No frills.
FI) Have you had any offers for a fest at all? It seems more and more heavy underground fests are being put on all the time, usually by bands or fans.
HS) There are a few festivals that I’d like to have us playing next year. Desertfest, Bloodstock etc., any European fests would be great. To be honest we’ll probably play any show going as long as it’s possible. Any excuse for a piss up and a smoke.
FI) Thanks for answering some questions guys. Got anything you would like to say to Sludgelord readers?
HS) Thanks for talking to us! Thanks for reading the interview. Thanks for taking an interest in what we do and hopefully we will see some of you soon.. We are available for booking. Get in touch via our Facebook page
Thanks to Paul from Hogslayer for taking the time to take part in the interview. As ever, show your support to the band by checking them out at the various links. You can buy their cassette here. You can read Steve's review of their recent S/T release here.
www.facebook.com/hogslayerband
http://dubditchpicnic.bandcamp.com/album/hogslayer
http://hogslayer.bandcamp.com/
www.facebook.com/hogslayerband
http://dubditchpicnic.bandcamp.com/album/hogslayer
http://hogslayer.bandcamp.com/
