BAND SPOTLIGHT: High On Fire favourites, as chosen by the UK's finest doom bands

Through six full-lengths and a number of live releases and EPs, HIGH ONFIRE are an unmistakable force in the realm of heavy metal, influencing many and attracting hordes of avid followers, some of which include many of the UK’s fast rising doom scene.  Today we have invited a number of them to choose their favourite tracks from a band that has inspired others and attracted adulation from many more.  Check out their choices below.  HIGH ON FIRE are touring the UK in support of their new album 'Electric Messiah', 

Dates are as follows:

08/10 Academy 2 Manchester UK

09/10 Tivoli Dublin EIRE

10/10 Limelight 2 Belfast UK

12/10 The Mill Birmingham UK

14/10 SWX Bristol UK

15/10 The Dome London UK

Jon Davis, Conan - https://conan-conan.bandcamp.com/

Track name – “Nemesis”

Album – “Surrounded by Thieves”

The art work for this album struck me immediately. Rotoscoped image of a warrior, pure animated Bakshi Lord of The Rings. Matt’s guitar tone, pure Matamp soupiness. Des’s drums like aeons of a mountain forming, compressed into hammer fall precision. This song is High on Fire a top a mountain, slaying hordes of undead, impossible levels of gore and blood streaming down their armour. TOTAL CARNAGE.

Marc Prentice, Ohhms - https://ohhms.bandcamp.com 

Track name – “DII”

Album – “Death Is This Communion”

I was late to the party when discovering High on Fire (from now on to be written HOF) as my first taste of them was when I bought a copy of 2007’s “Death Is This Communion.”  My sole reason for buying was based purely upon finding out that it was Matt Pike from Sleep’s other band. I was lucky enough to get a copy that had a ‘making of’ DVD. Watching the DVD and then listening to the record was enough to sell me. Riffs aside, I find myself attracted to the critical religious, conspiracy and fantastical theme of the song titles and lyrics. Being a fantasy and Sci-Fi fan, I loved the fantastical themed artwork and I’ve always imagined HOF as the Motorhead for Tolkien fans.

My ‘Favourite’ track is, unsurprisingly, from “Death Is This Communion”. It’s the instrumental track “DII”. There’s a part in the making of DVD where you see HOF in the studio creating this song and I think this is a part of the reason as to why I enjoy it. It also it’s great because it has a great heavy riff, melodic solo and a great synth part that plays over the end of a track creating a great otherworldly sound. The tone, mood and vibe on this whole record is great and I think this song captures the feel of this record perfectly. Great instrumental track and an amazing record.

Tam Ali, Awooga - https://www.facebook.com/Awoogaband/ 

Track name – “Bastard Samurai” 

Album – “Snakes for the Divine”

Love this tune due to its pure brutality and atmosphere it creates.  Plus, epic PHAT bass.  HOF’s use of fast power chord movement has certainly rubbed off on us somewhere. When I saw this band live about 12 years ago I was so high yet they totally destroyed my buzz by being so fucking brutal.   I then got a boner instead, maybe it was because of Matt being topless…  Don’t think I’ve ever had a weed boner before.

Jim Swainston,  Black Moth - https://www.facebook.com/themothpit

Track name – “Snakes for the Divine”

Album – “Snakes for the Divine”

“Snakes for the Divine” is a song that for me is the essence of Matt Pike boiled down into eight and a half minutes of glorious riffery. It has quite possibly one of the best intros to a metal song of all time. When I hear those first chords ring out with that epic lick over the top I can’t help of that brilliant Pike quote from Such Hawks Such Hounds about heavy being about “pissed off and being a warlord.” You know you're about to be punched in the face with the riff to follow. This is warlording at its finest and you can just picture Pike taking his axe into battle. It’s one of those songs that makes you just wanna get loose in the same way that The Stooges’ Search and Destroy does. Raw fuckin power!! 

Wes Leon, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - https://mammothweedwizardbastard.bandcamp.com 

Track name – “Bastard Samurai” 

Album – “Snakes for the Divine”

I bought this album whilst stranded in Europe in 2010 when all flights were cancelled because of the ash cloud from the erupting volcano in Iceland and I ended up playing it on repeat due to it being the only cd I had with me for the hotel's cd player. I like the softness of the verses. Something High on Fire don't do much of is go soft but when they do they nail it, & this makes the heavy riff seem even heavier when it comes in. This track stands out for me because of the slower tempo compared to most of the other tracks on the album. I’d say its a good album to be stranded somewhere with. 

Adam Robertshaw, Barbarian Hermit - https://barbarianhermit.bandcamp.com 

Track Name – “Snakes for the Divine”

Album – “Snakes for the Divine”

The title track of High on Fire's fifth album was the first that really caught my attention and for that reason it will always be a stand out track for me. I was a fan of Sleep and had heard the name HOF but when the album received such critical acclaim in the press I decided to check the album out, and from the off you're greeted by this monster. 

As soon as the epic, Maiden-on-steroids intro kicks in you're hooked in and dragged along for the ride as Pike and co blast through gritty thrash and thunderous groove territories. The guitar riffs and bass lines weave in and out of one another like the eponymous snakes in the title. 

You'll definitely hear the influence of this and other Hire on Fire tracks like it on our new album “Solitude and Savagery”, especially on songs like “Reawaken”. 

INTERVIEW: The Art of NerdGore

Over the course of the last 6 years not only are we striving to cover great music but to cover the wider community involved in the music we adore. It's not just bands, its label people, engineers, and very importantly its artists and illustrators too.

I love a great album cover and visiting the local record store in my teens every Saturday made me notice album covers even more than I had before.  More recently one of my favourite album covers was also for one of our favourite bands at THE SLUDGELORD, none other than Grizzlor and their fantastic debut full length “Disastroid”.   The artist responsible goes under the moniker of NerdGore, a truly gifted individual with an insane eye for detail in his work. And I am beyond pleased that he accepted an invitation to talk to us. I truly hope you all enjoy

Could you introduce yourself and offer a quick bio?  What media do you work in?

My real name is Rich, but I ply my trade as an illustrator under the moniker NerdGore. I grew up in the UK but moved to Australia about 5 years ago. I currently live in a rural town called Bellingen on the East Coast with my wife, three kids and a collection of various animals. My route to becoming an illustrator has been some-what unconventional, given that I had such a shit time at art college that I promptly dropped out, gave up drawing and tried to become a horror writer instead... it wasn't pretty. I didn't start drawing again until I came to Australia and couldn't get a 'normal' job, I posted my efforts on instagram and was blown away by the response and it has just kind of snowballed from there. The vast majority of my work is produced very simply with paper, brush and ink. For colour work, I prefer watercolour over inks, but I also do digital colour with photoshop.

Could you highlight some of the musicians/bands who you've created artwork for and what that process is like?

I'm lucky enough to have worked with bands like Black Dahlia Murder, Municipal Waste, Exmortus, Gatecreeper, Ohhms, Grizzlor, Clowns (Aus), Ratlord (Ger) and others. I would say that nearly all the bands I work for have given me very loose briefs like 'something satanic' or 'a bunch of undead warriors' and this really works for me. I usually respond to that with working drawings and thumbnails and between myself and the client we hammer out a decent working rough. I then light-box my own rough onto larger paper and produce the tight pencils. I normally go back to the band at this point as it's still easy to make changes and then once they're happy I ink directly over the pencils and produce the final illustration. A number of the bands I've worked for, I've already been a fan of and know their music, but if the band is new, I'll always listen to some of their music to get a feel of what sort of illustration might suit them.

Grizzlor, "Disastroid"

In what ways does music influence your creative process? Do you have "go to" bands or albums when working?

I have a slightly odd approach to listening to music whilst working. When producing pencils, I always prefer listening to punk or thrash bands (Early Graves, Venom Prison, Power Trip, Bloodlust, Barbarian, etc) so that I stay fast and loose and don't get too obsessed with detail. Then for inking, I like to slow it right down and listen to a lot doom and sludge, much heavier music (Dopethrone, Chrch, Elder, Hollow Leg, Sunburster, etc) because it requires a bit more patience and a steadier hand. Then again, I often reach points where I overdose on metal and just spend periods listening to old Fat Wreck Chords albums from the early 90's. The pop-punk scene, along with skateboarding, exploded in the UK right when I was a teenager and it was my first proper music love; listening to Snuff, Propaghandi or Lagwagon is like wrapping up in a warm blanket haha.

So when a label or artist commissions you to start a fresh piece of work, what is the process for you? Do they come to you with pre-conceived ideas at all?

As above, it is generally a loose brief but most bands have a good idea of what they want and just allow the illustrator to fill in the details. I did have one experience where the brief was super tight and detailed and it was probably my least successful piece of work. It caused a lot of redrawing and tweaking and made it hard to keep a lid on all the changes. I'm sure there are illustrators that excel at this type of brief, but I think my best work comes when I have freedom to use my imagination a bit and invent some characters or worlds.

Are there any artists, visual or otherwise, who distinctly influenced your style, medium, or process?

The absolute single biggest influence on me as a person, let alone illustrator, would be the British comic 2000ad. I'm the proud owner of a near complete collection (they recently passed issue 2000...), have Judge Death tattooed on my leg and it is absolutely at the top of my 'people-I-want-to-work-for-bucket-list'. 2000ad is fairly legendary these days and its cultural significance is well documented, but for me personally, it was an art training course. From the age of 8 I was copying whole pages of art from my heroes (Mike McMahon, Simon Bisley, Steve Dillon, Glenn Fabry, Colin McNeil, etc) and it's most significant creator, Pat Mills, shaped many of my opinions towards authority, religion and the environment, although I didn't really appreciate it at the time.

In terms of process, my first exposure to how comics were made was from Conventions in the UK and I would hang around at the art booths of all the 2000ad guys. In those days, it was much more informal and you could watch them doing stuff, have a long conversation with them and show them your art work. I got great advice from guys like Henry Flint, Siku, Greg Staples and Peter Doherty and it pretty much meant I was set from an early age to pencil everything and then ink using brush or dip pen. I still work like that now.

Who are some of your biggest influences within your field?

Instagram is running shit hot at the moment with amazing artists. It's actually quite scary how many good artists just appear out of nowhere each day on Instagram, definitely encourages you to keep raising your game. One of the guys who impresses me time and time again is Scott Wygman, he's an awesome dude who recently did a killer cover for a GWAR comic book and his work is steeped in Heavy Metal and RPG gaming, but also draws influence from Anime and stuff like Calvin and Hobbes. It's hard to exactly describe his style and it is very unique, but one scroll through his feed always encourages me to loosen up and stay imaginative (check him out @darkwizard­_bezerker).

The most metal artist I know, is without a doubt Daniel Shaw(@shawillustrations). His work is incredibly detailed and dripping with everything that is cool about underground metal illustration, from decaying skulls, to vomiting priests, to haunted graveyards; this guy can draw it all. His work really influences me to push the detail and never settle for short-cuts and just draw the fuck out of everything. Lastly, the grand-daddy of all Metal meets Gaming illustration; Skinner. This guy has been a massive influence on my work. When I first moved to Australia and was sitting around doing nothing, a feature in Pork Magazine on him was the thing that got me back at the drawing desk. He definitely influenced me to just draw shit that I loved or found funny and make art for the enjoyment, rather than to spin a buck.  

You're quite obviously a big metal fan. Was album artwork always an aspiration for you? What were some of your favourite covers growing up, and do you have a favourite from your own portfolio of work at all?

I am a big metal fan, but I would say that I'm a late convert. I was much more into punk as a teenager and came to metal in my mid-20s. Because of that, I don't have that deep connection to a lot of metal album covers that you would forge as a teenager. However, there are a lot of parallels between a lot the fantasy stuff that influenced me as a kid and heavy metal. One of my single favourite pieces of artwork, is Michael Whelan's painting Stormbringer which I remember vividly from my dad's Michael Moorcock collection. Of course, this later became the cover to Cirith Ungols great album Frost and Fire but I knew it first from the Elric book. Alongside that, I used to hang out in video shops as a kid and the amazing covers always stuck in my mind. Stuff like Deathstalker by Boris Vajello blew my mind and also influenced many a heavy metal album cover. Then, as always, it comes back to 2000ad... so many of those artists started out doing album covers; Simon Bisley's Mortal Sin cover and an near unknown Kev Walker doing Autopsy's Mental Funeral cover.

As for my own work, I think the original Corehammer t-shirt I did is possibly my favourite. It was early on when I started getting commission work and it took me ages but the response to it was great. Corehammer is a blog and facebook group that focuses on Tabletop Gaming and Hardcore Punk music and by doing that shirt, I got to meet a whole bunch of cool people who I've stayed in contact with. I've since done a bunch of shirts for them (and their sister arm DungeonPunx) and we are always planning all sorts of stuff from zines to RPG supplements.

There have been several blogs and articles calling attention to appropriated or "repurposed" artwork, generally taken without credit to the original artist, specifically in the world of "music artwork". Could you speak a little about the current attention to this issue and your feelings on artistic credit in general?

I'll try not to get too ranty here, haha. I really don't like shit like this and, to me, it ties in with the rise of digital art. That's not to say digital art is bad, just that it has provided a whole set of tools that make it easier than ever before to rip people off and make money off someone else's hard work. For years, people have been influenced by other artists and my drawing board has a ton of art books around it so my all my art heroes are within reach if I need a shot of inspiration. But, actually copying artwork directly and re-skinning it as something new is fundamentally wrong and entirely pointless. With stuff like this, it just confirms to me that a lot of people aren't interested in learning how to draw and that speed has overtaken everything. Personally, I think a lot of time saving and cheats that can be done with photoshop, etc skips out essential steps that make you a better artist; sure, Google Sketch Up can do perspective for you, but if you learn how to do it, then only your imagination can limit you. The end result might not be perfect but it will have a ton of personality and character and that is way more important.

Do you still have anything left that you want to achieve in your chosen art form? Maybe a group you would like to do a cover for, or another artist that you would love to collaborate with?

I feel like I've only just scratched the surface to be honest and there is heaps I'd like to achieve. As for an ultimate art goal it will always be 2000ad and more specifically Judge Dredd. If I could work on even just a one-off 5 pager in 2000ad, I would die a happy man!

Finally, where can fans view and purchase your work? Feel free to promote any musical/film/literary/etc. projects you're involved in as well.

The best place to find me is on instagram @artofnerdgore  

Thanks for having me!

Artist info: facebook || Official

TOP 16 ALBUMS: The Sour 16 for April 2017

Telekinetic Yeti

Yes, it is that time again O ye lover of riffs, “The Sour 16” returneth.  You know the drill by now, each month, you the reader are unwittingly compiling a list of the top 16 records of the month, covering all genres of metal.  Is it not a chart, in which reviewers or contributors extol their opinion about their favourite music.  To put it simply, “The Sour 16” are the records that have been trending the most at The Sludgelord Headquarters.

The results are compiled based on page views alone and calibrated into the list below.  All reviews can be viewed by clicking the artwork and we have included album streams wherever possible. (Total views since their publication are highlighted in red)

16). Necrowretch – “Satanic Slavery” (438)

For something so embedded with crust, rust and cadaverous unmentionables, it is an incredibly refreshing, riff-dense monster of an album, almost ebullient in its putrid malevolence.

15). Witchapter – “Spellcaster” (521)

14). Hawkbill – “Self Titled” (578)

Track by track these rusted broke-down tractor boys weave a landscape that is reminiscent of the groovier parts of Grief or perhaps an even more slowed down and swampy take on some Weedeater.   With a natural emphasis on groove and natural timing and feel, this album moves like a sloth with a spliff in its mouth.

13). War Brides – “Regrets” (585)

Chicago bruisers War Brides raid the vaults of the noise rock greats to create a compellingly ugly debut LP in the shape of “Regrets”. It is a quick and dirty shot of addictive mayhem, channelling the nastiness of its influences to fine effect and offers hints of evolution into a stranger beast over the course of future releases.

12). Cowardice – “With Condolence (599)

the sound is relatable and as tender as a fingernail wrenched from its bed. It drifts between aching sadness and violent bouts of self-disgust. This stratum of emotional, chemical and physical self-destruction is the calling card of genuine, heartfelt sludge, and “Without Condolence” is definite rap on the door.

11). Ohhms – “The Fool” (600) 

 

10). Kenoma – “The Tides will Prevail” (611)

Kenoma are firmly focused on the metal side of the post-metal equation for the most part of “The Tides Will Prevail” and manage to create huge, enveloping sound constructions reliant on intricate interlocking guitar parts rather than a phalanx of effects pedals.  The albums extended gestation period has produced an absorbing set of finely honed post-metal behemoths.

9). Aathma – “Avesta” (634) 

Wonderfully straddling the line between a live and studio sound, thanks to the efforts of producer Carlos Santos and the unfailingly excellent mastering work of the ever-prolific James Plotkin, ‘Avesta’ sounds absolutely mighty.  A must-listen for fans of Yob, Baroness, Mastodon and anyone interested in ambitious stoner-sludge metal.

8). Earth Witch – “Out of the Shadow” (661) 

Every track is a winner. Every riff is massive. The production is raw and warm. Everything sounds big. Everything sounds heavy. This is surely exactly the record that Earth Witch set out to create and I applaud them highly for it. Fantastic and heavy stuff and one of the best albums I have heard so far this year.

7). Moloch/Disrotted & Cloud Rat/Moloch  - “Splits” (675)

6). Mage – “Green” (702)

No fuss, no messing about, just good quality stoner/doom of the finest order. Check this album out and check the band out live: I guarantee that you won't be disappointed.

5). Mastodon – “Emperor of the Sand” (794)

this is the best album in a long while from the band, it is accessible without straying that far from the band's template and still finds the band in a modern class of one. Time will reveal just how good this record is, but my feeling is that this one will stand the test of time.”

4). The Obsessed – “Sacred” (959)

Quite simply, I can't find anything on this album I don't like. The best comeback of the year, without a doubt. This record will be turning up in many year end lists, without a doubt. It could even be the best album by The Obsessed, but only time will tell on that one. I can't recommend this highly enough.

3). Artificial Brain – “Infrared Horizon” (1272)

The artwork depicting a mournful android grieving the loss of another android is absolutely devastating as a visual, and that same feeling permeates the whole musical experience.

2). Spidergawd – “IV” (1462)

“IV” is eight tracks that follow the verse-chorus-verse-chorus formula and does so with licks, vocals, lyrics and melodies that are sharp, fast, and poignant. As far as that’s concerned, there’s absolutely nothing to complain about

1). Telekinetic Yeti – “Abominable” (3755)

All in all, the recording has a huge sound and the production is absolutely amazing. It has everything you could ever want and I would rate it as a perfect 10. The album is truly remarkable and is sure to go down in history as one of rock’s greatest debuts. These guys are definitely heavyweight contenders to find their place at the top of the scene

A big thank you as always to our amazing writers, your dedication knows no boundaries and for that I am truly grateful.  April 2017’s “Sour 16” features reviews by:  Richard Maw, Daniel Jackson, Andre Almaraz, Grim Trashcan, Victor Van Ommen, Richard Maw, Charlie Butler, Jack Taylor, Conor O’Dea & Stephen Murray

ALBUM REVIEW: Ohhms - "The Fool"

By: Stephen Murray

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/03/2017

Label: Holy Roar Records

“The Fool” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Shuffle, Cut and Reveal

2). The Magician

3). The Hanged Man

4). The World

5). The Lovers

6). The Hierophant

The Review:

This is not doom. Even less is it sludge. The influence of those genres can be felt, but to understand Ohhms under those terms is misleading.

Three years on since Ohhms' first appearance outside the rehearsal room, it is still unclear who first applied these labels to the band, though there's no doubt that these are labels the group have done nothing to eschew. Speaking outside Camden's Black Heart in 2014 before their second ever gig, the deal with Holy Roar not yet in the bag, vocalist Paul had admitted as much. "To be quite honest I would be happy to be lumped in with the doom thing just because it's different and there [are] elements of doom in [our music]," he had said. And yet, out of the then 30 minute set they had, only eight minutes were described by Paul as doom. He'd timed it. So what are they? "Classic rock, if anything," he'd said then.

'The Fool' is the band's third release and the first that they consider to be a full-length, and the description 'classic rock' still sounds fairer than what is more usually thrown at them. There are definite hints of Pink Floyd’s more reflective moments, along with some guitar work that would not upset the 80s hard rock applecart. Though there is more going on here, and not just Dan working his way through his extensive pedal board of boutique guitar effects, or indeed anything particularly progladytic. Where Ohhms skirt the sludgey-doomy influence, it is filtered through post-something-or-other and is akin to grunge.

There they are in good company; though rather different, Germany’s Aleph Null also came in on a stoner tip but sound like the debt is actually made out in the name of grunge and psych rock, and that is no bad thing. To anyone who has been following Ohhms these last few years, this record will feel a very natural and subtle mutation. Paul still has his self-professed “singy and shouty, never screamy” vocals pushed through echo. Not psych rock meltiness, but a big room-feel. Chainy’s restless and nomadic bass still wanders widely in search of home. Max still offers a lyrical range of punctuation and backbone, though has stepped it up on the faster moments in “The Fool”. But despite the ready familiarity of the sound, the word that fell from my lips as the first listen came to a close was “surprising.”

One of the most striking things about this album is not the penultimate track, 'The Lovers,' (which, on first hearing, you would be forgiven for thinking a song penned by Phil Collins for a Disney soundtrack had somehow snuck its way in -- that may read as though it is intended to be a slur. It isn't.) Rather, it is most striking for its echoes of the band four fifths of Ohhms emerged from: The Babies Three.

Before taking on this review I had decided not to wake the dead; to allow Ohhms to be judged independently of that past. But not only do some of the guitar lines seem to recall that heritage, but the lyrics to the album’s closer, ‘The Hierophant,’ are lifted wholesale from File Under Retaliation’s ‘Rotten Apples’. As the lyric says: “Recurring themes throughout my life.”

The original mission statement may have been Swans circa “1984”, but it was never quite to be. Instead there’s something more organic. Ohhms shoot new blooms from deep roots, laying out their generational history as they evolve as musicians.

“The Fool” is available here

 Band info: bandcamp || facebook

BAND PROFILE: Crushing noisecore crew Canvas reform for one-off Ritual Festival appearance

By: Andy Price

 

Picture the scene… it is 1999, record stores still exist in a real way, everyone was very excited about the Y2K bug, and I was a gangly and uncoordinated youth working a shitty temp job in Nottingham. This was great because it meant I could go walk into the town at lunchtime, go to Selectadisc, my favourite record store, and spend the tiny amount of cash I was making on awesome music.

So, back in ’99, I was finding my way in extreme music. Like a blind man at an orgy, I was carefully feeling my way. I’d done the Nu-metal thing (I’m not ashamed. Well, I’m a bit ashamed), and had pushed into more extreme waters, albeit mostly still pretty mainstream ones. Fear Factory, Machine Head et al were lighting my candle, but not quite fulfilling me. I’d formed a friendship with one of the owners of the store and then one fateful Wednesday lunchtime he beckoned me over and placed a CD in my hand saying ‘Andy, you’ll like this. Trust me. Give it a listen and if you like it, you can pay me then. If not, no harm, no foul’. That album was the self-titled early retrospective by Canvas. I put the CD on for the walk back to work but never made it back; I got half way there, turned around and went and paid the man. The album was a revelation, a desperate, urgent, strangled scream from the underground; a mangled noise of instruments that made no sense and yet also made perfect sense. It was absolutely beautiful in its twisted rage.

I never looked back; I picked up the two splits that followed, even the 7”, despite not having a record player. I bought the follow up album, the masterpiece ‘Lost in Rock’ on the day of its release, and revelled in it. Canvas opened my eyes to the underground; both in terms of metal and hardcore. They are the gateway that got me to Converge, Botch, The Dillinger Escape Plan and significantly my eyes were opened to the UK underground, and bands like John Holmes, Medulla Nocte, Iron Monkey and Hard to Swallow… I devoured all of this music mercilessly; it influenced me massively and still does. I can honestly say that without that first Canvas record, I may never have found the music that I know and love today. 

This is one of the reasons why Canvas were important; they started out in that hardcore scene and bridged the gap between metal and hardcore, and kind of opened up everything, especially when they started picking up real media coverage. They were important because they led hardcore kids to metal and vice versa; they are important now because their recordings are seminal. They feel as fresh, exhilarating and powerful as ever, with a level of invention that is still staggering, especially on ‘Lost in Rock’. In hindsight that record started shaping my love for diverse and technical music like Meshuggah; just listen to the groove and dizzying rhythms of the opening track and you’ll see what I mean. If the band had been able to hold it together a little longer, that record would have been huge, and might have helped them break out of the scene they found themselves in. As it was it seemed to sink a little, almost without trace, which is criminal. It’s a labyrinthine and almost uncomfortable listen, but thoroughly compelling and a constant well-spring of inspiration.


It was not long after Canvas split up that I started playing music, and looking back even my earliest bands reflect the influence that Canvas exerted on me, albeit filtered through the prism of the other musicians I worked with, and my own lack of ability. Experimentation, a lack of compromise in sound and wilful abuse of time-signatures were a good example of this; that has never left me and is still very much part of the sound that I bring to Conjurer.


To say that I’m excited that Canvas have come back together for Ritual Festival in Leeds is a massive understatement. Canvas are in the shortlist of bands that I really have never stopped listening to since I bought their records. Some bands fall in and out of favour as tastes change, but that never happened to Canvas. I only caught the band live once, at a show in London at the Water Rats for the “Lost in Rock” release show but it’s a show that still lives in my memory in terms of the sheer chaos of their live aspect. In hindsight, the setlist was perfect although I didn’t know much of the new material that well. The crowd were up for movement and the band were on fire. It’s in the list in my head of formative gig experiences that influences the way that I play live, along with shows by The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Chariot; the energy and, for the want of a better word, the sheer fearlessness of their performance was exhilarating, and I’ve always used that as a template for what I want to bring to the stage.


I’m excited to see how 15 years has tempered the band and their performance; we’re all older and creakier, but the level of experience on that stage now is fantastic. I’m used to the records now too; I expect the live experience to be heavier and darker. That we get to share a stage with them is mind-blowing to me, I’m so excited to be playing the same bill as them. I’d love to see them do more shows, although I’d completely understand if they want to keep it as a one-off. I think that there’s a whole generation of music fans that should hear these songs; especially given that so much of the hardcore / post-hardcore scenes have converged onto some of the same ground that Canvas stamped down back in the day. I hear traces of the Canvas sound in other bands that are around today; chaotic rhythms, progression and naked experimentation has become far more normal. While we’re making a wish list though, I’d like some merchandise and if we’re really shooting for the stars, a pressing of some kind of discography on vinyl. Chaps, if you’re reading this, make it happen please!


I’d be fascinated to hear new music from this line-up too, but I suspect that might be too much to ask for.  I’ve been sharing about my love of the music the band created since the announcement – I’ve had a lot of people ask questions about where to start with the band. Obviously the answer is ‘all of it’ – especially since the band have been good enough to put their back catalogue up for free download on their bandcamp. That said though, ‘Womb Plague’ from the split with Hard To Swallow is an excellent place to start, or ‘Black Shape of the Nexus’ – both versions of that are great but I love the intro of the version from ‘Lost in Rock’. ‘Unworthy of Perfection’ is great too, all grinding rhythms and brutal vocals. I give up on trying to narrow this down; just go and get the whole lot. Your MP3 player and your ears will thank you for it.

The funny thing is that at the time I didn’t really pay attention to individuals in the band – I was never really that interested in musicians at that time, that’s only come after I started playing music myself – and it’s been surprising to find that I’ve actively followed some of the bands that some of the members created after Canvas ended, including Humanfly, Kings and Amplifighters; I’ve spent time with John and Albert, and Paul across various shows and events. Someone actually had to point out that the Sutcliffe brothers were the same ones that drove my favourite underground band; I nearly fell off my proverbial chair. I have only mildly fan-boyed since. Well, probably a bit more than mildly, but I think I got away with it

In the summer of this year I got the logo for the band tattooed on my leg. Partly this stemmed from a conversation with Dan from OHHMS – he’s a big fan as well and got the same tattoo in the same session. We were playing a show together in Leeds and had gotten talking about Canvas, what the band meant and how much they had inspired us – it seemed a natural conclusion at the time. For me, the tattoo serves as a reminder of how I should strive to create with music, to plough a musical furrow that interests me, but also that I should not hold anything back. These are the lessons I’ve taken, and this is the reason that Canvas remain special and a massive inspiration to me.

No pressure lads.

The Canvas discography is up on bandcamp as pay what you want/free here and Ritual Festival tickets are still up for grabs here with the full line up of the festival included below.