Fancy something particularly heavy to kick seven bells out of Thursday so it makes way for the weekend? Well then do we have the Band of the Day for you…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Individually, we’re from all over. I’m (Billy) from South London, Dan and Joe are from up North, Max is from High Wycombe and Lorinc from Hungary, but we’re based in London.
How did you meet?
Max and I met at an Every Time I Die gig and became friends there, then several months later I decided to form a hardcore band to show up all the bands at underground level who don’t put on a good show, and asked if he wanted to join on drums. Dan replied to an ad I posted on Facebook, and after our original guitarists left, Joe was recruited (being a friend of Dan’s) and Lorinc also replied to a new ad.
How long have you been playing as a band?
I think the first band rehearsal must’ve been January 2017? Our first gig was around April that same year.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
From the Lars von Trier film Antichrist. Consider us as pretentious as you see fit.
What are your influences?
The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge. The former for putting on the wildest show imaginable but still playing mind bogglingly complex music, and the latter for being so creative and turning hardcore into an art form. Slipknot are a big influence too, managing to create angry and abrasive music but still retaining some pop sensibilities. I feel we’re still progressing as songwriters, so we might not sound like those bands just yet, more in line with Every Time I Die, Cancer Bats and The Ghost of a Thousand, but I think we’re getting there.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We don’t play low and slow, for a start. Ben Weinman made a point to create heavy music in standard tuning, and while we use Drop D, I still feel we achieve heavy music without resorting to ‘who can tune the lowest’. The reason I got into hardcore was the frantic, chaotic sound of the bands previously mentioned, and while there are some amazing beatdown bands out there, I didn’t want to jump on that bandwagon.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Dan handles all of our lyrics. There isn’t a running theme throughout our material, sometimes it could be something deeply personal to Dan, or just something that is on his mind, but he does try to maintain a positive outlook on everything addressed.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
30-40? I’m not too sure. We’ve definitely played a fair share, but would be great to play in new locations. We’ve played pretty much everywhere in London, we want to see more of the country (and beyond if possible).
And I like to think our live shows are pretty hectic. Other bands regularly comment on how much energy we have and how crazy our shows look, but to be honest it makes me think “why aren’t you putting in as much energy as we are?”. I mean, our shows are still nowhere near as mental as a Dillinger gig, but my goal at each show is to impress people with our stage presence.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Our old guitarist broke his ankle in a mosh pit (that’s not why he left the band by the way!). We’re still at the stage where we seem to dominate the ‘wild’ activity of our shows, but we don’t set out to do anything in particular, we just do whatever we feel like doing at our gigs (which has resulted in trouble before). I think if you have a plan then it’s contrived, and undermines the punk ethos of hardcore.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Joe plays an Ibanez RG through a Kemper, and Lorinc a single coil Fender Telecaster through an Axe Fx, and the contrast in sounds really work well together. I play an Ibanez SR300, mainly due to how light it is, making it easy to play live. Also it’s fairly cheap, so I won’t feel bad when I inevitably smash it up! Max plays a Gretsch Renown Maple kit with a Mapex Sledgehammer snare, and two toms and three cymbals, because he’s all about that sweet jazz aesthetic
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We’ve just released two music videos: ‘Peripheral’ and ‘Big Beat Manifesto’. The videos are on YouTube/Facebook and the tracks are free to download on Bandcamp. We did them ourselves, but we made sure it wasn’t just us in a white room with cool camera work to make up for lack of content. Also, we’re probably less active in the videos than we are onstage, unlike many bands who go crazy in their videos but can’t replicate it at a live show.
What are your plans for 2019?
Talk to Kevin Feige about putting our music in the MCU.
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