Every scene needs its leaders and pace-setters, and the new wave of British death metal is no different. While the majority of new bands vying for the attention of old and new school fans alike chase their tails, trying to hitch a lift on the latest bandwagon – after remembering to visit Toni & Guy first, of course – the task of producing genuinely epoch-shattering and heart-stoppingly brutal metal of peerless quality has been taken on by five young men from the quiet city of Bath. Taking a...
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Every scene needs its leaders and pace-setters, and the new wave of British death metal is no different. While the majority of new bands vying for the attention of old and new school fans alike chase their tails, trying to hitch a lift on the latest bandwagon – after remembering to visit Toni & Guy first, of course – the task of producing genuinely epoch-shattering and heart-stoppingly brutal metal of peerless quality has been taken on by five young men from the quiet city of Bath. Taking a bloody sledgehammer to your preconceptions, Trigger The Bloodshed are, quite simply, the future of death metal.
“When we started it wasn't meant to be super serious and there were no big ambitions other than writing music we love,” says guitarist Rob Purnell. “However as we got the members together we began to take things a bit more seriously and the natural progression was to take things harder faster and heavier than anything we had heard. So we took to playing real blasting straight up death metal and trying to play our music in front of as many people as we possibly could.”
With a dynamic and inventive new approach to brutal metal that belied their relative inexperience, Trigger The Bloodshed formed in September 2006 and within a few months had erupted onto the UK scene, notching up a phenomenal number of MySpace friends and generating a huge buzz among metal-loving music industry folk. Snapped up by Rising Records in 2007, the band – Purnell, guitarist Martyn Evans, drummer Max Blunos, vocalist Charlie Holmes and bassist Jamie O’Rourke - swiftly set about putting their debut album together. Titled Purgation, this ferocious collection of raging death metal anthems finally saw the light of day early in 2008 and was received with rapture and glee by both critics and fans alike. Unlike many of their youthful peers, TTB were clearly the real deal: songs like Laceration, Lovers and Violent Elucidation showcased a genuinely extreme death metal band with a preternatural gift for tapping into the genre’s feral essence.
”Purgation allowed us to do a lot of the things we've dreamed of,” says Rob, of his band’s widely acclaimed debut. “It helped us to get a nomination from Metal Hammer for best underground band, we’ve played Download and we’ve toured with some of our favourite bands, like Suffocation, Dying Fetus and Cryptopsy. But we've progressed a lot since then, especially in terms of song writing and in musicianship.” As 2008 progressed and Trigger The Bloodshed began to get a feel for life on the road, a couple of important line-up changes took place that would further enhance the band’s potency. Charlie and Jamie departed, to be replaced by new vocalist Johnny Burgan and bassist Dave Purnell (Rob’s brother), and the band began work on their second album, The Great Depression. One listen to the staggering depth and destructive power of new songs like Warbound, The Dead World and The Great Depression itself confirms that the new record is an immense forward step for TTB, and one that is sure to establish them as not just major players in the UK scene, but everywhere else on this doomed planet too. When the deathly dust settles, only the true of word and deed will remain standing. On this evidence, Trigger The Bloodshed are indestructible.
“We focus on the music we want to write rather than being hung up on being the heaviest or the fastest,” concludes Rob. “The step up in musicianship has helped create a new album of songs we are very excited about. We’re going to keep playing, getting bigger and better all the time, and then we’ll take over the fucking world.”
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