DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring Garrow Hill
Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil’s Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It’s not your average desert island and we’ll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.
This week when we arrived at Devil’s Island we find Garrow Hill sat on the beach. The island is far from their home, so how did they end up here and how did they cope with life on Devil’s Island?
Find out now…
Welcome to The Razors’e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don’t worry about it’s name I’m sure it’s not as bad as that would suggest.
You’re marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn’t live without. Which album did you each chose and why?
PG: I’d be clinging to Powerslave – partly for the obvious nod to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, but also because if you’re going to be cursed by the sea, you may as well have a soundtrack that understands the weight of it.
STEW: This question is pure evil. Every band says “we have a lot of influences,” but ours are scattered across decades, genres, and several mental breakdowns. So picking one album feels like choosing a favourite fracture.
But if I’m grabbing one as the ship goes down, something that reflects the dark, heavy DNA of what we do, it’s This Heathen Land. It’s got the riffs, the atmosphere, the occult swagger, the big melodic moments, the heaviness, the storytelling – basically everything we lean into as a band. If the rescue boat hears Mountain Throne echoing across the island, they’ll know exactly what they’re dealing with.
There’s also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What’s your tipple of choice?
STEW: It has to be Maiden. No debate. The only problem is narrowing it down. I’d go old-school and pick Killers.
It’s got that perfect creepy early-’80s energy, and the artwork is iconic in a way that never really gets old, you could stare at it long enough to forget you’re stranded, which is probably the point.
PG: Leviathan — a record that doesn’t just reference the sea, it becomes it. Obsession, scale, and inevitability wrapped in riffs that feel like they’re circling something you shouldn’t name. And the artwork leans straight into the madness with the Moby Dick connection.
There’s also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What’s your tipple of choice?
STEW: I’d love to say something noble like whisky under the stars, but realism kicks in fast on a desert island. So I’m going IPA – something hoppy, citrusy, vaguely convincing as hydration.
PG: Cheap lager – honest in its mediocrity, which becomes its own kind of reliability.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. What’s the merch and for what band?
PG: I didn’t think in terms of “merch” once things went under, but a battered Maiden shirt made it through, already halfway destroyed before the ocean even got involved. Less an item of clothing now, more a reminder of a life before this place decided to exist.
STEW: Honestly, knowing us, it’s stickers, specifically Garrow Hill ones.
When the island sun starts cooking everything alive, we just go full survival mode: emergency application. One sticker per person, turning us into slightly sunburnt walking adverts for poor life choices.
You’re sat on the island thinking “I’m stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity”… who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?
STEW: Dave Murray.
Calm, quiet, unbothered, the exact opposite of panic energy. He seems like the kind of person who’d share supplies without turning it into a ceremony, laugh politely at everything, and generally just not make the situation worse. Which is ideal.
PG: I’d go leftfield and choose Maynard James Keenan.
Because he wouldn’t ask how to leave the island, he’d ask why we ever assumed we should. Slightly quieter insanity tends to pass the time better.
There’s a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?
PG: Has to be Monsters of Rock 1988. It wasn’t just a show or a festival, it feels like a moment stamped into time that everything since has been trying to catch up with.
STEW: It’s a split personality situation.
Non-metal answer: Alchemy by Dire Straits, because the whole band sounds like they’re mentally connected.
Metal answer: Live After Death.
Not perfect, not polished, but completely unstoppable. Maiden at full, ridiculous, world-conquering force. The kind of energy that makes you want to shout things at the ocean for no reason.
You’re getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
STEW: At this point on Devil’s Island, we’re sunburnt, dehydrated, and questioning everything. So I’m sending it to Tobias Forge. If anyone can navigate a cursed island situation with theatrical precision and possibly arrive with an unnecessary level of ceremony, it’s him.
PG: Corey Taylor – because he’s the only one who would read “stranded on a cursed island” and not assume it’s a prank first. And realistically, he’s also the kind of person people would notice is missing and actually come looking for.
You’ve been stuck here a while and food supplies are running low. There’s only one thing for it… which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?
STEW: Sorry, P.G… it’s you. Not personal. Just logistics catching up with optimism!
PG: This is where things get… practical. We’d like to say we drew straws. We didn’t!
Let’s just say whoever suggests “we’ll be fine” one more time is suddenly volunteering!
Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?
STEW: Sebastian Bach.Yeah, he can be chaotic, but his voice and absolute refusal to do anything at less than 110% left a mark early on. He helped shape that idea that vocals can be theatrical, aggressive, and melodic all at once. Along with Bruce Dickinson, he opened the door to that mindset.
PG: Not because he shaped my entire outlook, but purely as a musician and for the way he built his parts through the ‘80s, it has to be Nicko McBrain.
One of the finest drummers to ever leave these shores!
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