Weedian has released “Trip to England,” a new compilation featuring over 150 underground Heavy Music artists. The album presents a wide range of styles within the underground scene, from Heavy Rock to Doom and Sludge sounds.
“The Old North.
I’ve been asked by the good folk at Weedian to write a few words about our humble scene here in the north of England. Heck I could write a whole book, but I’ll try and keep this brief.
I was excited when Weedian reached out for a track from my band: Gain for their upcoming ‘Return Trip to England’ (probably not the title) compilation. I was more excited when asked If I knew any other bands that could be considered. I immediately sent messages over to Swim The Witch, Gods of Hellfire and The Bear Around Your Neck for their input.
In fact, it got me thinking about how I was turned onto this music. Aside from the natural British diet of Sabbath, Deep Purple and Zeppelin records my folks owned, I was as much into dance music (which was massive here in the UK during the 90’s) as I was heavy metal. I was still a fresh-faced teenager and it was Paul from Gods of Hellfire and his friends who first put me onto bands like Electric Wizard, Burning Witch, Goatsnake and Dozer in the early 00s, though I followed my passions and proceeded to go on and spend the majority of my 20’s working in Electronic music, I would always find time to keep up with the then underground ‘stoner / desert / doom’ scene. In fact: in my first photoshoot as Gore Tech I proudly wore my bootleg Electric Wizard shirt, a sort of nod to the true heavy sounds that I would listen to when not making Drum and Bass music.
Fast forward to 2015 and I’d returned from my adventures in techno land of Berlin back to Manchester in the North of England, I was asked by some friends if I wanted to play bass in a new project, this was around the time we saw the big return of ‘doom’, Sleep had re-released dopesmoker on Southern Lord, the documentary ‘Such Hawks, Such Hounds’ was being viewed hundreds of times, Desertfest in London and Roadburn in Tilburg were the must-see festivals so I agreed and we wrote a handful of tunes and this was the start of Gain.
With this new band came a whole new set of people and places, a scene I’d not been around to see build up until I joined a band and got out there. One such person and place was a chap in his late 60’s called Barry. Known also as Barry the Blackwood Baptist. He had a location out in the Lake District called ‘Fellfoot Wood’ and Barry loves to put on shows. He has limited access to the internet and lives the entire year out in these woods in temporary structures but he had his finger very-much on the pulse of the underground music scenes of the UK. Having worked with him previously on other events, he invited Gain to come and play a show, we ended up playing almost every event after that, carting our gear up these dirt roads out into the woodlands to play shows right out in the most remote part of Cumbria. Here we met many other bands, promoters and artists, subsequently we realised quite a few of these bands were also traveling up from Manchester including The Bear Around Your Neck.
So with Barry’s blessings we started to host North X NorthWest events, similar in style to Fell Foot, but here in a 200 year old pub on the train station platform of Stalybridge in Manchester. At the Buffet bar we’ve hosted plenty of bands including Dead Sea Apes, Sly & The Family Drone as well as The Bear Around Your Neck, Swim the Witch and next year we’ll be playing with Gods of Hellfire.
The genres shift from metal to psych and to shoe-gaze but much like our wider scene there’s no single map for heavy rock, as long as there’s a bit of soul and a lot of distortion we’re happy to be part of this scene in our own little way. Additional thank you to Zach our synth player for putting me onto The Bear Around Your Neck and Chris our vocalist for shedding light on Swim the Witch.
We have our 2nd all-dayer festival North X NorthFest Volume 2 happening here on August 2nd in Stalybridge with a mixed bag of acts, artists and DJ’s including an all women’s Morris Dancing group, DJ’s and electronic acts as well as bands including Blob Halford, Prangers and a return performance from Dead Sea Apes. The scene here still very much holds a torch aloft and with the hard work from the bands, venue’s, promoters and punters it ain’t going nowhere.” — George Flett – Host of North X Northwest and Bass Guitar in Gain | https://www.instagram.com/north_x_northwest_/
Purchase and Stream “Trip To Enagland” via the Bandcamp player below:
Tracklist:
01. Mage – Key To The Universe 05:06
02. Kings of Frog Island – Beyond The Void 06:12
03. Gevaudan – Maelstrom 07:09
04. Desert Storm – Salt Of The Earth 05:35
05. Ba’al – Waxwork Gorgon 08:41
06. Witchsorrow – Demons Of The Mind 06:40
07. Warpstormer – Beyonder 07:01
08. Slabdragger – Dawncrusher Rising 15:15
09. Barbarian Hermit – Del Toro 05:56
10. Duskwood – Legacy 09:07
11. Ritual King – Worlds Divide 07:28
12. Iron Slug – Truth Served 05:57
13. Indica Blues – Inhale 08:52
14. Ten Foot Wizard – Namaste Dickhead 03:52
15. Frog Lord – Collision 04:31
16. Sergeant Thunderhoof – Badon 06:10
17. Urzah – Of Decay 03:52
18. Famyne – Gone 05:40
19. Cold in Berlin – Temples 04:48
20. Red Eyed Cult – Up in Smoke 06:47
21. Ghozer – Moon Boot pt1 06:41
22. Parish – Sisters of the Light 03:36
23. Amon Acid – Toad Venom 06:53
24. Purple Kong – Leaving Earth 07:41
25. Meridian Sun – The Curse 21:45
26. Bossk – Heliopause 03:44
27. Black Groove – Fuck Nose 05:58
28. Yung Druid – Space Cowboy 09:01
29. Psychlona – Jasmine 05:14
30. Church Of Lies – New Plague 04:45
31. Orme – No Serpents, No Saviours 24:13
32. Josiah – Saltwater 05:24
33. Margarita Witch Cult – Who Put Bella in the Wytch Elm 06:46
34. Trippywicked – Hugene Tooms 06:01
35. Acid Throne – The Curse 05:53
36. Wall – Legion 04:42
37. Tellemahooka – 25 Roam To The Peak Of Unknown 07:37
38. Son Of Boar – UFO 12:02
39. Madmess – Widowmaker 07:16
40. 1968 – Tarantula Season 02:51
41. Landskap – Tomorrow’s Ghost 09:32
42. Master Charger – Mass Produced Mass Destroyed 07:41
43. Droner – Medicine 03:36
44. Electric Mud Generator – Winter 13:38
45. Lust Ritual – Countess Hell 05:50
46. Dreadbeggar – Shibari Sigils 05:14
47. Alunah – Celestial 02:57
48. Syncolima – Shipwrecked 05:31
49. Dusteroid – Zorba 06:00
50. Morag Tong – No Sun, No Moon 20:40
51. Gain – Goatsmoker 06:57
52. Moghul – Dead Empires 09:50
53. Lowdrive – Rise 05:29
54. Grand Elder – Grand Elder 09:02
55. Beneath The Divine – Fire In Heaven 07:24
56. Troy The Band – Flesh Wound 08:34
57. Godless Suns – One Spark Of Lilith 07:23
58. Kurokuma – Crux Ansata 05:51
59. Verminthrone – It Always Snows In South America 03:50
60. Pilot The Dune – Judas 06:07
61. Midnight Whiskey Massacre – Satan’s Grin 06:38
62. Bllind Monarch – The Dead Replenish The Earth 08:23
63. Bad Frankenhausen – Baron’s Waltz 04:04
64. Flamebearer – Something Going On 03:50
65. Kill The Witch – Ghosts of Tomorrow 04:30
66. Butcher in the Fog – Man Adrift 07:25
67. Superseed – Give Me Something 04:51
68. Under – Traitor’s Gate 06:38
69. Commoner – Bacteria 07:56
70. Longheads – Witches Stash 07:18
71. Phantom Droid – First King 06:20
72. Kunubu – Alchemist’s Curse 07:45
73. Black Orchids – Torture Or The Dream 07:14
74. Regulus – Medusa 04:37
75. King Botfly – Hold on 09:07
76. Eldergrey – superlithic 05:46
77. Voidlurker – Green Ghost 07:27
78. Mammoth Toe – Ok Well Done 05:43
79. Trevor’s Head – Under My Skin 05:20
80. Sunstone – Nag 13:34
81. Dark is the Water – Heavy the Sky 07:11
82. Okay You Win – Ten Year Trip 05:17
83. Spiritual War – An Unexplainable Invisible Force of Nature 04:34
84. Mudlarker – Radio Silence 07:34
85. Cower, Hounds! – Standard Candle 04:41
86. Hursan – New Testament 04:47
87. Fuckjar – Slug 04:20
88. Gramma Vedetta – Don’t Cross The Line 06:09
89. Erronaut – Beyond Sleep 11:38
90. Lords of Form – We Soothe, You Suffer 20:28
91. Slump – Dusk 03:19
92. Nomadic Reign – SiIent Revolt 06:18
93. Kraken Waker – Space Bastard 03:26
94. Ironbird – From the Slave to the Grave 05:19
95. Ironrat – Weed Machine 07:31
96. Black Skies Dawn – Resonate Three Parts 10:22
97. Outrun The Day – Sundown 05:22
98. Herbicidal – Weedbonger 08:02
99. Helve – Guns Heal The Sick 08:05
100. Torus – The Overload 03:29
101. Deathfiend – Watch Them Crawl.wa 03:46
102. Gods Of Hellfire – Space Hulk 05:37
103. Saltbuck – Robot 09:13
104. Crowgod – The Witch 07:43
105. Bury The Burden – Repression Interlude 06:36
106. Jukebox Monkey – Swirl 08:01
107. Dvde – Mother Nature 04:50
108. The Bear Around Your Neck – Mutated Faith 05:22
109. Troll Mother – Battle For Troll Mountain. 11:13
110. Eldergrey – Superlithic 05:46
111. The Ghoules – HouseCreeper 06:01
112. Uncoffined – The Horrors Of Highgate 13:12
113. Catafalque – Possession 10:06
114. The Red Widows – Pendulum 10:06
115. Bident – Oh Fucking Hell 04:53
116. Shred Dibnah – Middle Lane Moron 03:41
117. Shadowvale – Midas 05:30
118. Karellen – Mersum 08:46
119. Hrönn – All the Voices 05:09
120. Kosmogeneia – The Sleeper Must Awake 06:03
121. Slug13 – Love, Hope And Joy 02:40
122. Mehiga – Smoke 04:31
123. Sheena – The Blood 03:30
124. Hora – Revenge of the Fallen 05:38
125. Erth Altr – Graveland of Rising Skeletons 06:23
126. Cattle Hammer – Rotting 11:20
127. Boa Resa – Spectre 04:44
128. Soden – Swim With Turtles 06:09
129. Sonic Lord – The Prophecy 05:37
130. The Death of Money – Haunt Me 06:52
131. Tutherun – Thundertaker 06:15
132. Death Wvrm – Enter 05:24
133. HIGH – My Socks Don’t Match But I Have To Wear This Uniform (It’s Hard To Be The Presdient) 10:19
134. Redfyrn – Another Meaning 04:19
135. SKRAP – Cryptkeeper 03:25
136. Old Painless – Fleetfooted Mankiller 04:03
137. The Family Braincell – Throw it Away 03:01
138. Sons of Merrick – Downwind 05:22
139. Temple of Lies – Teeth 04:22
140. Warlockhunt – Diary Of Hate 05:26
141. Haeze – Window in time 03:54
142. Nomad Lizard – The Darkening 07:32
143. Red Nettle – Dispossessed 03:48
144. Voodoo Black Exorcist – Raped By The Ghost of Susan Atkins 01:51
145. Tuman Duum – Alive In Death 07:03
146. Mufunta – Werewolves On Dust 04:13
147. Solis – Blood Money 06:34
148. Tigguo Cobauc – Inner Desaster 05:51
149. Swim the Witch – That Just About Wraps It Up For God 04:08
150. Toom – Nero 08:54
151. Binge – Wunderpus 08:48