Interview: Offal Fest
Interviewed by: Patrick O'Reilly
This weekend seems the brutal Offal Fest return for its third installment. So we caught up with the Offal Fest team - Sam, Jack, Jake - to talk all about iy.
The Razor's Edge: Hi Offal Fest team, with just a few days to go how is everybody feeling?
Sam: Hey Patrick! Nice to hear from you again! At the moment I am personally filled with a lot of excitement for this year's edition of the fest! And I'm sure that sentiment is shared!
Jack: Absolutely bricking it, but insanely excited too, thankfully all the nightmare hurdles are now sorted so the last thing to do is mostly panicking about what we’ve forgotten
Jake: With this being my first Official Offal Fest as part of the team I am more than excited for the fest! A lot of hard work goes into these festivals so it’s always great to see it all pay off.
The Razor's Edge: What else is left to do to get ready for Offal Fest?
Sam: I cant let too much of the behind the scenes info go, but in my mind really all that's left is for people to queue up and party to some crushing riffs!
Jack: Ordering myself a case of Monster to slam back over the weekend to stay alive.
Jake: Besides going through the checklists and making sure everything is covered, I will be practicing my sets as I play teo days of the festival along with helping out so I have a lot to keep myself busy this week!
The Razor's Edge: Talk us through the line up, which bands are you all particularly looking forward to, which bands may surprise people and who is the number one band not to miss?
Sam: There's so much on this year with a great spread of acts from all over the UK, Europe and America! As for bands that may surprise I would say Putridity for the Un-Initiated haha and outside of our three amazing headliners (Skinless, Wormed, Defeated Sanity) I would say people shouldn't miss Cerebral Effusion!
Jack: Skinless is a big one for me, they’re the band that got me into extreme music many years ago when I was still in high school! Outside of that I can’t wait to see the chaos of 55Gore & Plasma and the pure crushing riffs of Cerebral Effusion
Jake: For me personally I have to say Cerebral Effusion are the band I’m looking forward to the most, it’s like watching musical magic watching these guys play so I think they will surprise a lot of people and also blow some minds!
The Razor's Edge: As well as the usual smorgasbord of slam and brutal death are there any other genres that will be represented at Offal Fest?
Sam: We tend to keep our genre families close, so outside of Brutal Death and Slam, we have a mix of Deathgrind, Goregrind and a smidge of Oldschool Death metal!
Jack: As Sam mentioned, mostly outside of BDM & Slam it’s grind!
Jake: Yeah the main genres people tend to be more familiar with is slam / brutal death, but we definitely cater to the more underground styles such as death grind & goregrind which really blends well with the whole festivals aesthetic.
The Razor's Edge: How was the process of booking bands this year? Did you have an idea of who you wanted ahead of the festival?
Sam: I would say that this year being three days now instead of the past years of being two days has allowed us to branch out a bit more. We usually end up brainstorming an ideal list of bands that we personally want to see and then go from there! Also allowing for band submissions that get checked by all of us allowing us to discover new bands from around the UK.
Jack: I was talking to Skinless for around two years before we finally convinced them to play! Outside of that we tend to have a lot of back and forth over the year discussing bands we’d love to see, going over submissions and dealing with rejection when “bands that make the snare go pong” can’t play
Jake: Because I joined the team after the festival were announced I have not had much input on the bigger acts but I’ve helped the lads decide & choose some of the smaller bands, but even without my input the guys have put together an incredible lineup once again
The Razor's Edge: Who would be your dream bands to book if money and resources were no objects?
Sam: I think i speak for all of us when i say Devourment, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Disconformity, Infernal Revulsion hahaha in a pure reach id also love Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Morbid Angel, the classics!
Jack: Devourment, Dying Fetus, Final Resting Place & Last Days of Humanity, all day every day! We managed to get Skinless and that was my biggest bucket list beforehand.
Jake: Dying Fetus 100%, Devourment, maybe some more international bands like Cephalotripsy, Gorevent, Abominable Putridity.
The Razor's Edge: What merch do you have available for the fest this year?
Sam: I'll let Jack take the lead on this! But we do have some amazing festival merch options from ourselves, Unusual Horror and our Festival Sponsors (New Standard Elite, Morbid Generation, Pathologically Explicit, Brutal Mind).
Jack: On the Offal Fest stall we will have the standard array of T-Shirts, Longsleeves & Hoodies, but we’ve branched out this year into shorts, “herb” grinders, skate decks and an official hot sauce from our good friend DeanOfTheDead - We’ve also released an awesome CD box set with 55Gore that will be available to purchase and an insane list of goodies from our friends and festival sponsors that Sam mentioned above!
Jake: The lads have pretty much covered everything what we will have, but just to add there will be brand new 357 Homicide and Disgracing merch!
The Razor's Edge: Sam, how many bands are you playing in this year?
Sam: I have opted to stay off the stage this year hahaha 😉 stay focused on running the fest and having a great birthday weekend. But Jake is playing with 357 on the Friday! And depending on when this goes out, something extra might've been added from the other guys.
The Razor's Edge: Describe the atmosphere at Offal Fest
Sam: Riffs, Beers, Sweaty, Mosh. Haha thats all i can really say. It's always a fun community of people and everyone looks after each other. One big Brutal Family.
Jack: Sam has summed it up absolutely perfectly, the brutal scene in Manchester is an amazing place to be a part of and we’re honoured to help platform it!
Jake: Always an absolute vibe, from start to finish it’s always a relaxed atmosphere, just people, friends and bands all having a good time and enjoying extreme metal together how it should be
The Razor's Edge: Why do you think Manchester and the North West has such a thriving extreme metal scene?
Sam: Manchester has always been a thriving city for music, and since Covid struck, we have been hungry for something more than what we had. And the amount of new bands and musicians that spat out has created this amazing scene of brutal enthusiasts.
Jack: Because London sucks - But in all seriousness, bands like Ingested have helped to put a name for the Manchester underground extreme scene, so many awesome bands are coming out and we’re loving having a stage for them!
Jake: Bands with big names are definitely a help, but I’d honestly say the promoters are what keep the scene alive, without these guys there would be no shows for the bands we love to play, and they would be less frequent, Rancid Offal, Hammerhead Events, UKSF events, BlastsxDread promotions & kings of the north promotions - all these guys are killing it with consistent local shows and it’s honestly the kind of positivity our scene needs!
The Razor's Edge: How have sales for the fest been? Are tickets still available?
Sam: Ticket sales have been amazing for this year! But Jack knows more about that than I as he is the king of analytics on this team!
Jack: Absolutely beyond my wildest expectations, Saturday is 100% sold out, as of writing this there’s only four Sunday tickets left and around 100 for the preshow, it’s going to be a crazy one!
Jake: As Jack said, they have been going crazy, I’m sure two days are completely sold out which is actually incredible
The Razor's Edge: What other festivals have you all attended this year/are going to attend?
Sam: This has been a great year for shows. Festival wise I have attended Grind after Death, run by our good friend Doctore Metallus, Flesh Fest run by our own Jake Gamble. We all also made it out to Berlin Desecration Fest earlier this year also!. As for the rest of the year, I will also be attending Deathfeast Open Air in Andernach, Germany and UK Slam Fest run by Joe Mortimer and team!. If the heart of the cards wishes for it I will also try my best to make Blast-onbury run by our good friend Jason Varlamos of Kraanium!
Jack: I sadly couldn’t attend Grind After Death this year as I was being a little metalcore kid at Slam Dunk that weekend - Outside of that mostly the same as Sam with Berlin Desecration Fest, Flesh Fest (the day I miss a gig run by Jake will be a bad day indeed) and Obscene Extreme last weekend, hoping to attend Deathfeast too and I’ll absolutely be at UK Slam Fest and Damnation too.
Jake: As this year is incredibly busy for me I will only be attending festivals in the UK, my next one after offal fest will be UK slam fest!
The Razor's Edge: Where do you see Offal Fest in 5 years time?
Sam: We have this conversation alot, I would love to be an outdoor camping fest by that time, or striving to be more in the vein of what other fests such as Damnation are doing! But time will tell!.
Jack: Pretty much exactly what Sam said, either shooting for a field full of beer and blast beats, or a Damnation-eque indoor big space festival.
Jake: I couldn’t agree more with the lads, outdoor offal fest is definitely a goal for us and hopefully we can make this happen soon
