PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
With Metal 2 the Masses underway in Bristol again – the review of which you can read here – I had a chat with qualifying bands Awakening Hyperia and Ylem Darkul after the show to find out a little bit more about them!
Awakening Hyperia
For people hearing about Awakening Hyperia for the first time, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
You can expect a new brand of metal shaped with bouncy riffs, catchy melodies and energy! We’re a new metal band from Bristol, UK. Catch us around the South West now and the near future – we have HUGE plans.
It’s your first time playing Metal 2 the Masses. What made you decide to apply this year?
We took the opportunity as we are all familiar with the iconic Bloodstock Festival. Many bands we live up to have played there – Trivium, Hatebreed, Whitechapel and Breed 77, to name a few. Thus we think if we got the chance to play it will give us the boost in reach that we need to achieve our goals.
How do you feel your set on Thursday night went? Following on from this, how does it feel to make the Semi Finals?
If we’re honest we thought it was sick; the audience gave back as much as we put in! We feel our tightness as a band has improved drastically and we’re excited to be moving forward in M2TM. We’re working on how we can better ourselves in the semi-finals- get ready for a punishing show!
According to your Facebook, you’ve only been a band for a year or so. Has the last 12 months been a bit of a whirlwind?
It’s been ridiculous! Since our debut video of ‘Breathe’ back in August, we went from nothing to a name that now has good recognition in the local scene. We’ve met and worked with some great people, we’ve pushed boundaries and we’ve achieved goals that once seemed very distant. Catch us playing shows on the ‘Imbalance EP’ cycle, which is all about overcoming once distant goals for this band. We’re ready to play, expand this new brand of metal and give you everything at our shows!
Which three bands do you feel have influenced your sound most?
Avenged Sevenfold , Trivium, Slipknot.
Where can we find out more about Awakening Hyperia?
Our debut video ‘Breathe’ is out now on Vevo and can be found here. Outside of that, we’re also on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play
Finally, what would it mean to play Bloodstock?
This is a rare chance we will take with our best efforts. We’ve always wanted to play a major festival, and this is the closest we’ve ever been. We’ll be working as hard as we can, because playing Bloodstock Festival will make this band. You’d all better be ready for that semi-final show ASAP, because we’re coming for you!
Ylem Darkel
For people hearing about Ylem Darkul for the first time, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
We’re a five piece blackened death metal band based in Bristol.
Is this your first time playing Metal 2 the Masses? If yes, what made you decide to apply this year? If not, what made you decide to come back?
For one of our guitarists it’s his second time going through, but for the rest of us it’s our first time playing. Getting to Bloodstock is a dream so here we are to get there!
How do you feel your set on Thursday night went? Following on from this, how does it feel to make the Semi Finals?
We’re all highly satisfied to be entering the next round; the first round of bands we were up against were seriously skilled. The bar has already been set pretty damn high as well, but we’re aiming to smash it.
One thing that cannot be missed is your curious band name; can you give us a bit of background on what it means?
We were orignally just Ylem but there are a couple artists with that name so we added Darkul. Ylem is the primordial substance from which the universe was formed and Darkul is its counterpart.
Which bands do you feel have influenced your sound most?
Mayhem, Dimmu Borgir, Burzum, Dark Funeral, Emperor
Where can we find out more about Ylem Darkul?
You can find us on Facebook here to keep up with all the lateset gig updates and you can find our EP on Youtube, titled The Amnesiac Art of Human Existence.
Finally, what would it mean to play Bloodstock?
Bloodstock is right up there as one of the best festivals you can play in the world. Not only are the artists incredible year after year, it would be an amazing opportunity to network with and get to know some of our heroes. We hope to see you all at the next heat!
My thanks to both bands for taking their time to respond to me.
