INTERVIEW AND EXCLUSIVE TRACK STREAM: Galway noise terrorists Ilenkus engage and decimate with their "Pretty Secret"

 

Formed in 2003 under the name FUBAR, Galway, Ireland is perhaps more famous for producing bands such as The Saw Doctors, rather than intense mathcore purveyors Ilenkus, as they are known today. Deciding upon a name change in 2010 Ilenkus recorded two EPs under their previous moniker, the first in 2004 and the second in 2006.   By 2010 and with heavy gigging under their belts with notable acts such as The Ocean and Rolo Tomassi, the band would record their debut album “Rule by Thieves”.

 

Late 2012 saw the band release a stand alone digital single, ‘Ram’ and an accompanying video. With further tours with the likes of Coilguns, fans had to wait until September 2014 for the band’s second album “The Crossing”, which over the course of five tracks fluctuates from the chaotic to the serene.  'Hunger' their new EP will be Ilenkus's third release and takes their music in a darker and more violent direction, containing four short, chaotic and cathartic bursts of grinding mathcore.   Mastered by Brad Boatright of Nails and Old Man Gloom fame, this third release for the band sees them move in a more chaotically bombastic direction, imagine Botch on crack and you get the picture. 

 

'Hunger' is due for release digitally on 19/10/16, with a limited edition 7" red vinyl to follow in late Autumn/Winter in conjunction with WOOAAARGH, Smiths Food Group DIY, Tjueto Cvlt, Icore Produzioni, Vollmer Industries and Feast Records. Today following the recent release of their blistering track, “Hunny Bunny”,  The Sludgelord is happy to present another cut from the EP with our exclusive stream of “Pretty Secret”. 

 

In addition, I also caught up with guitarist/vocalist Josh Guyett, for a brief interview which you can check out below.  Ilenkus are certainly one of the best discoveries of 2016, so if ‘A nut-grabbing explosion of raw violence…” (Metal Sucks) is your thing, you’re gonna love em too.   



 

SL: Josh, welcome to The Sludgelord could you give us an insight into how you started playing music, leading up to the formation of Ilenkus

 

Josh Guyett (guitar, vocals).  Well we all grew up in the middle of nowhere in rural Ireland, so making music was always a way for us to hang out together. In the mid 2000s we had another band with basically the same group of people, which eventually disbanded and reformed as Ilenkus in 2010.

 

SL: For those of us unfamiliar with your band, are there any bands on the scene past and present that you would use as a reference point band to describe your band, and who to continue to inspire you and push you to try new things?

 

Josh: There’s a bunch of bands that would probably be good reference points for what we’re doing at the moment; Botch, Converge, The Armed. The Dillinger Escape Plan has been an influence on us over the years in terms of their DIY ethic and attitude towards performing.

Not to mention some of the awesome bands we’re listening to right now like Oathbreaker, Sumac, Daughters and Belfast noise/grind crew Unyielding Love.

 

SL: What can you tell us about your upcoming record and where do you feel it sits within the context current music scene

 

Josh:  ‘Hunger’ is a much more concise and direct record than what we’ve done in the past. It’s darker, noisier and more chaotic. We chose to work with people who we knew would understood the aesthetic and sound we were looking for. Aidan Cunningham from Murdock engineered and mixed the record and Brad Boatright [Old Man Gloom, Full Of Hell] did the mastering. This made it a really smooth and enjoyable process.

 

It’s always hard to know where your music sits in the current music scene, but noise and mathcore seem to be having somewhat of a revival right now and although ‘Hunger’ doesn’t sit in either genre, it is influenced by both.

 

SL: What was the mood in the camp going into the recording of the record?

 

Josh: The mood in the band was pretty good, albeit suitably frustrated with the trials of being in a DIY band at the arse end of Europe. There was definitely a feeling of ‘we don’t have time to fuck around, let’s just write some music that’s fun to play live’, which meant stripping stuff back, cutting fat and simplifying. The recording process was then in turn freeing, as we purposefully worked faster and focused on making the music and sound more raw and visceral.

 

SL:  What can fans look forward to from you over the next 12 months? How is your schedule shaping up?

Josh: ‘Hunger’ is released digitally on Oct 19th and our next gig is with UK band Ohhms in Dublin on Oct 22nd. The following week we head over to the UK for two shows - Bristol (Oct 27th) and Nottingham (Oct 28th).  Later in the year there’ll be an Irish tour and a 7" vinyl release of the EP In conjunction with WOOAAARGH, Smiths Food Group DIY, Feast Records, Tjueto Cvlt, Icore Produzione and Vollmer Industries. Then next year we’ll be working on new material, heading back to the UK for more gigs as well as an EU tour.



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