Bloodstock Bound: Judgement
As Bloodstock gets closer, we delve deep into the line up to find out more about some of the bands playing the New Blood and EMP stages at this years event.
Today we chat with Judgement
The Razor's Edge: Please introduce yourself and your band mates.
Judgement: I’m Matty, singer and guitarist,
Kieran here, bassist
I’m Herbie, the drummer
And I’m Scott, the lead guitarist
The Razor's Edge: How would you describe your sound?
Judgement: We draw from a lot of different influences like prog, British new wave, thrash, death and groove metal, but primarily I’d say we’re a thrash/death metal band.
The Razor's Edge: How did you land your spot on the Bloodstock bill?
Judgement: By a bloody miracle aha, we signed up for the Manchester M2TM but didn’t get through, then James Bennett referred us to Ian “Fozzy” Paul Forrester in the North East Wales metal scene, who was running the North Wales M2TM in Wrexham, and funnily enough we managed to get through to the finals. I can’t pretend to know why we got through, cause there were some other really brilliant bands in all of our heats; not that I don’t have confidence in us but I wanted to be humble and assume we weren’t good enough I guess? But I guess the judges saw something in us and we managed to win the thing.
The Razor's Edge: How tough was this years M2TM competition?
Judgement: We wouldn’t say it was tough, that makes it sound like it was a bad experience. It was actually very chilled, it was just a case of practicing like we always do and then playing some shows. There were several times where I said to myself “Those guys are well gonna win”, if we had lost I wouldn’t have really felt bad at all, cause there were a lot of acts that genuinely blew me away. For example I really liked Crisis’ sound, it’s nice to hear that British New Wave sound, and Any Given Reason just put on a great, really entertaining show, that’s just to name a couple.
The Razor's Edge: What does playing at Bloodstock mean to you?
Judgement: It’s crazy honestly, we’ve been bragging about it to everyone we know. We are so inexperienced as a band, we did two shows in 2022 and one really tiny house gig for a laugh, then went on hiatus for a couple years and this M2TM was our first set of gigs since we're back. In a way we feel vindicated cause we’ve had a lot of bullshit come up preventing us from being able to really give it our all, but after we got our new guitarist Scott and giving it our all, to win and get to play Bloodstock is like nirvana. We all cried at some point aha.
The Razor's Edge: For people who’ve never seen you live, what can they expect at Bloodstock?
Judgement: They can expect a copious amount of blast beats, skank beats, thrashy riffs, groovy riffs, some massive-sounding hooks, a lot of energy and a lot of growls. I think we provide a little something for every kind of metalhead.
The Razor's Edge: What day are you performing?
Judgement: We’re performing on Saturday
The Razor's Edge: What other bands are you looking forward to watching at Bloodstock this year?
Judgement: Kieran is really excited for Green Lung, Scott is a massive Opeth fan, and Herbie’s not gonna miss a chance to see Amon Amarth again. Me personally I’m looking forward to Igorrr.
The Razor's Edge: Playing the New Blood Stage is just the first steppingstone in a bands journey. What’s next in your plans for world domination?
Judgement: As for plans, we’re trying to get as much of our material recorded and produced as possible, make a release schedule for before and after Bloodstock and then gig, gig, gig. We’ve been out of the game for so long that we wanna jump straight back in and build our sound. We’re also developing some of Scott’s ideas that he’s bringing to the table, and I’m excited to see how that’s gonna develop our sound.
The Razor's Edge: Are you camping with the fans? Which campsite are you heading for?
Judgement: The guys at Bloodstock have asked us to stay in the artist camp so we’re gonna do what we’re told aha.
The Razor's Edge: It’s festival weekend, what’s your food vendor of choice on site?
Judgement: Myself, I would like a Gyro stand. I absolutely fucking love gyros, I’d eat them everyday if I could.
Herbie likes a good curry, so he wants that, a falafel stand too maybe. Scott and Kieran would just be happy with pizza, I'm told.
