UK’s MORTISHEAD Does It Yet Again

mortishead bs

If there is one thing I can say about this group of fellows, it’s that they literally “walk around winning”. I couldn’t tell you who first turned me on to them but I do remember the first time I listened to Gorenado. Some forever nameless Facebook friend hit me up and said “Check this out when you have time” and I did and I f**king loved it. Not long after that a dude named Richard Nasmyth messaged me on Kiss my heavy metal ass asking if I would share his band’s newest single called Blood Drive. I had to ask him if they were the same band before I listened to it. I was afraid that I was gonna have to tell the poor fellow that an awesome f**king band already had their name. It was them.

Needless to say it melted my face. I began to ask him questions and found out that they had entered a battle of the bands for a spot on Bloodstock’s New Blood Stage. I checked out some of their competition and knew that they were going to win. I knew I had to write about it. I asked for an interview and they granted it. You can read that here. They dominated. You can read what I wrote about the victory here.

Not long after that they told me about another contest they had entered to open for Fleshgod Apocalypse. They won that too, as expected. I spoke with them recently about this victory. The conversation went as Follows.

mortishead fleshgod

D-Rock– So how do you feel after winning yet another huge contest?

Richard–  Tell you what… after this I am done with competitions! This one has been pretty divisive in the bristol metal scene… we have a lot of mutual fans and a lot of people who we are friends with that have voted the other way, and same for them too. We feel a little like a lot of people resent us after winning m2tm (Metal 2 The Masses 2015 which they smashed for the Bloodstock gig)   and this one will probably be the same. Lol.

D-Rock– Well then, I won’t spend any more time on that subject except to say congratulations and I knew you guys would win again cause that’s just what you do. That’s what I wanted to make this about but I will throw my notes away and pull it out of my ass. Sorry guys. Let’s see… I know how big this is for you guys. I wanted to wait a few days before the show so maybe it would get more folk there to see you…

Nick-  Yeah that’s a good idea and will probably really help. There’s a PR guru in you perhaps.

D-Rock– Awe shucks… So what are you doing to get ready? Is it just business as usual? Are you adding new rehearsals?

Nick– We’ve had a bit of a break from practicing / gigging since our headline show / last gig back in November so that we could focus on recording the new forth coming debut album. We’re now, as of the week before last, back to practice so that we can work some new material into the live set and develop a new show. I’ve also been keeping an eye on Fleshgod Apocalypse as they’re currently on a North American tour and they just released their new studio album ‘KING’ back on the 5th. They’re a hard working band so it’s easy and pretty cool online to see their studio diaries and keep up to date in prep for when they get to the UK.

Dan– Pretty sure I messaged Kiss my heavy metal ass though.

Nick– Damn drummers taking all the credit they don’t deserve. HA HA!!

Dan– I know. WTF**k does he do?!

Richard– Yeah Dan you probably did but he thought you sounded like a total knob so he spoke to me instead.

D-Rock– HA HA HA! If I thought any of you were knobs I’d be writing bash articles about you. LOL! I don’t know if you realise it or not but you as a band are following in the footsteps of Dimebag. He won guitar contests until they started asking him to not enter and let somebody else have a chance. Any comments on All Seeing F**k?

Luke–  Lyrically it’s written 1st person from someone granted too much power.

Richard– Drummingly it’s the easiest song we have to play.

D-Rock– Ha ha! Okay, What do you think about the American presidential fiasco we have going on over here?

Luke– Inspired by the political landscape of the UK today. We let a hardline right wing party slip through on a promise that everything would be peachy and they would sort out ‘the mess left behind by the last government who have since made it their business to dismantle every public service on the premise so that we cant afford it any more, slashing funding to the sick and disabled, child protection etc… and scapegoating anyone out of work.

Richard– Now our healthcare system is being torn apart, they tried to scrap the human rights act, poor people are being squeezed, disabled people are dying because the government is trying to make them work, the media has become noticeably more blatant in its “mass mind rape” to quote RATM.

Luke–  The whole country is being chastised like a naughty f**king child by an elitist caste of born to rule who have never known poverty or even an honest days work.

Richard– It’s what happens you go through a financial depression. People start looking for people to blame and scapegoat. It gives rise to nationalism, which is exactly what happened in Nazi germany. Hitler gave them someone to blame. The same is happening in the US at the moment. You have this psychopath trump telling everyone it’s the immigrants and the muslims fault that the country is f**ked. And everyone is lapping it up.

Luke– And as the rich say they are currently dismantling the NHS- perhaps the single greatest social achievement mankind has put together, a symbol of everything right about this country that we look after our own and something as basic as medical care should be free to all whether you wash dishes for a living or are a god damned multi millionaire. But nope – being sold off to the highest bidder for a quick cash bump. Further more they are doing their best to change the system to ensure they keep hold of power. They are trying to pass a new bill that will have the funding of rival political parties slashed so they cant compete , criminalising opponents…  and now they are in, people have seen through the election promises to their true colours but it’s too late.”they have us by the balls.” A trump rally harks back to Germany pre ww2. Scary s**t! He is only a prop to make the other hardline nutcases seem like moderates by comparison.

Dan– Donald Trump is bit Nazi Germany for us in Mortishead.

nazi trump

D-Rock– I once heard an English fellow say that trump meant a fart. What’s up with that?

Richard– Yeah trump is like the word parents teach their kids before they can get away with the word fart.. kinda like “crap” is the precursor to “s**t”