#RoadToBOA2018 – Autocracy

As ever, we’re going to try and cover every single Jäger, New Blood and SOPHIE stage band before Bloodstock kicks off on August 9th. Your chance to check them out and start planning which bands to get there early for!

Trust us when we tell you that this is bound to result in some frustrating clashes because, as ever, there are some great bands on these three stages.

Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!

Autocracy – Hobgoblin New Blood Stage, Sunday

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

As a band we are from Leeds as that’s where we are based, although we all come from surrounding areas in Yorkshire.

How long have you been playing together as a band?

We’ve been together around 2 years, however there have been some line-up changes along the way, we have recently brought Joe on board as our other guitarist and around a year ago the lads brought me (Mark) in as the vocalist. We are very happy with the line-up now though and can’t see it changing from now on.

Where does the name of the band come from?

The name stems from the meaning of a singular, absolute power. We want to be a driving force behind the metal genre and community, and we want to bring our music to as many people as possible. Besides that, we just think it sounds cool!

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

We strive to be diverse in how we approach each song, we try to not constrain ourselves to a particular genre, but I think overall if we had to put a genre to it…we would be melodic death metal. The songs blend heavy riffs and sweeping guitar solos, with guttural dynamic vocals. We think each song has something surprising about it that people don’t expect, a song may drop suddenly from a thumping breakdown into a quiet clean section, then change direction completely and bleed into a melodic bouncy riff. We try to keep people on their toes and excited.

What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?

Energy and excitement. We always have a good time on stage and try to not take ourselves too seriously, everyone is there for a good time, and we think the excitement we feel on stage is shared with the audience. That and we think we have a bit of something in our music any metal fan would enjoy.

Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?

A few of us have and we definitely think it’s the best festival for any metalhead; so many good bands and an amazing atmosphere to boot. For those of us that haven’t been, we are absolutely over the moon to be playing after hearing from the others what it’s like.

Did you enter M2TM thinking you could win it? Which region did you win, or did you come through other channels?

We won the Burnley M2TM region, and can we just say…what a cracking little venue Sanctuary is, absolutely amazing support for new upcoming bands from both the staff and the audience. I don’t think any of us thought we would definitely win, the lads entered last year with the old line up and managed to get into the finals if I remember correctly so we thought we had a good shot, but there are so many great bands every year that work their asses off for this. We genuinely thought it was incredibly close a few times throughout the competition, and we made a few mates throughout the competition that we will be gigging with in future, which as far as we are concerned is always the main thing you take away from things like this.

What sort of setlist can we expect?

We will be playing most of our EP Awakening, however we are currently working on a new song to play at Bloodstock to ramp up the pace and heaviness of the set. Expect something heavy, technical and diverse.

Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?

I think I can say for all of us that we definitely don’t want to clash with At The Gates, they have been a big inspiration for us and we definitely don’t want to miss them.

What are you working on at the moment?

We are currently working on our next EP, the new song we are currently writing in time for the festival will be a part of it along with the others we are writing over the coming months. We have a fair few gigs lined up too and some merch in the works so we are always keeping busy.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

The craziest thing I have ever seen was at Download Festival where Joel O’Keeffe from Airborne climbed the scaffolding to the top of the stage playing guitar and head banging in the pouring rain (untethered) grasping the scaffolding with his legs, dangerous…and absolute craziness, but what a show that was!

Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Red Bull, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!

I think coming from Yorkshire a good ale is the way to go, and as its part of M2TM I reckon we have to go with Hobgoblin Ale!

Autocracy: facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube

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