PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
PlanetMosh is proud to be sponsoring the main stage at the fourth incarnation of Monsters Of Rot, which takes place in Letterbreen, County Fermanagh, on Saturday August 16.
The festival brings together some of the best extreme metal bands on the island of Ireland. As part of our build up to the event, we will be interviewing all of the main stage acts, starting with the mighty Fuckhammer. Under the PM interrogator’s spotlight, vocalist Andrew ‘Baggy’ Bagwell…
How would you describe your style of music?
I’d say its straight ahead sludge metal
Who all is in the band and how did you come together?
[There’s] myself, Ross on guitar, Johnny on drums and Dave on bass. Johnny and Ross had a few ideas for songs, asked me to jam some vocals, 2 weeks later the first ep was recorded.
Do you have any material available?
Our first EP, ‘Hammered to Fuck’ was available on CD – but is now sold out. You can still get it via digital download on Bandcamp though, and there may be some copies left on Play, Amazon, etc. The second release, ‘Fucked’ is also now sold out on CD digipack, but we are about to put a clip case version out, due to demand. Those tracks are on Bandcamp too….
What about future recording plans?
We just started writing some new songs, and have two tracks recorded. One song will appear on a seven-inch vinyl compilation due out at the end of the year. I think there’s ten bands from all over – South America, Europe, etc, – playing death, grind, sludge on it… all short songs!
Have you played with any of the other bands on the MOR bill before?
I don’t think Fuckhammer has played with any of them before. Not that i can remember
What other bands on the MOR bill are you looking forward to seeing?
I was looking forward to Owlcrusher – but they pulled out! It will be good to see Zombifed and Putrefy and to check out some of the other bands we are less familiar with…
What is your assessment of the current state of the Irish metal scene? Is it in a good state of health? Are there too many bands and not enough venues/promoters, or is there a good balance between the two?
I think there’s a fair amount of decent bands about of most sorts of sub genres. Dublin, with a bigger population, can support plenty of gigs; Belfast on the other hand struggles with attendances at shows.
Is there enough support for the metal scene in the Irish media? Or is that important?
I’d say that it’s largely irrelevant. Media types are normally incredibly ill-informed, ill-prepared and seriously out of touch with the likes of metal. In Ireland, especially, the media are just on that whole celebrity, X Factor, Big Brother, reality TV and other utter trivia bandwagon, and its of more importance to them. You can nearly guess the sort of press that would be presented and cringe at the questions asked and articles that would be presented while hiding behind the sofa with embarrassment if local media tried to support metal and metal bands.
Is social media more important that traditional channel (ie newspapers/radio) in communicating with your fans and attracting new ones?
Social media is a good additional channel for spreading the word, as are review websites and blogs. There’s still a lot to be said for a well-placed flyer or poster though to advertise shows and releases. The impression I would get is that newspaper and radio coverage of such things is kind of limited locally and unlikely to add much to getting the tunes out there. [But, I] suppose every little helps though.
Outside of the bands at MOR, what other Irish bands would you recommend PM readers check out?
Okus! Best Irish band I’ve heard in quite a while. Total crust/grind with killer tone, lethal riffs and top songwriting. Definitely check them out.
Apart from your instruments (obviously), what is the one essential item you always carry when playing a gig or festival?
If at all possible a decent bottle of red wine. Possibly even two.
Finally, MOR is a week after Bloodstock: do you think a festival like BOA would work on the island of Ireland?
In short – no. That’s not to be negative, but there’s a considerable less amount of people living on this island and the percentage that like metal and extreme metal is fairly low. Ireland has already had the like of Day Of Darkness festival that ran for a few years: two days, camping, decent international bands. [But] they struggled to break even each year and had to eventually admit defeat…
You can find out more about Fuckhammer at https://www.facebook.com/f666hammer and you can download their first two EPs from http://fuckhammer.bandcamp.com/
For more information on Monsters Of Rot, including tickets, visit http://monstersofrot.com/
Tomorrow, we interview another of the PlanetMosh Stage acts, Dead Aeon.
