Photo: Tim Birkbeck
Heavy Britain is a rock column that looks into some of the heaviest bands in the UK.
Advertisement
Serena: I started going to more underground metal gigs in Bristol when I was quite young… too young to be legally in the bars where the shows were! [laughs]. I used to go to these shows on my own because I didn't know anyone who was interested in watching local death or black metal. At the time, the scene was a bit of an impenetrable fortress. The only time people would speak to me at shows would be to question my "metal credentials" and why I was wearing certain band shirts. No one took me seriously for a long time.
Advertisement
Yes, I am a metalhead. I used to play in a black metal band. I adore power metal and the only reason I don't play in a power metal band is because I'm not musically proficient enough! [laughs]
Advertisement
The best thing about the UK scene now is all the amazingly talented women within it. I find it hard to use the word scene for this as I think all the band’s sound different in their own rights, and I wouldn't want to describe a gender as a scene. But I love turning up for shows and seeing loads of kick-ass women on the stage, from Ithaca to ETS to Witchsorrow to Monolithian to Venom Prison to Rolo Tomassi. Representation of women in heavy music is blossoming within the UK.Great bands right there. What else have you seen change in the British heavy music scene?
So… right, I swear black metal wasn't fashionable 10 years ago! It was like the least cool, least acceptable thing. No one was interested in chatting about the new Gehenna record. But now it's like the hot flavour! Now it's seen as a good thing if you have black metal influence.As much as I'm all for genres growing and changing, I feel that with stuff like Black Gaze and bands like Deafheaven, a key ingredient of black metal has been lost. It doesn't have the ugliness, the rawness, the defiant and deliberate lack of commercial appeal which is integral to black metal. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy some bands who fall into the Black Gaze genre, like Alcest, and I guess people would argue that Svalbard ourselves have a Black Gaze influence; but it definitely has been an unexpected twist on an outsider art for me. To see cool, trendy people wearing black metal shirts… I did not see that one coming!
Advertisement
Advertisement
Well, it's an extremely difficult time to be a band right now and we are all struggling to figure out what we can do in these different times. We have based our whole lives on touring as much as possible and now that is a very uncertain area. Personally, I am at a point where I desperately need more stability. I always worked zero hours temp jobs to be able to tour and now I have lost my job due to COVID. I feel like I need to prioritise getting on my feet again before we even think about the future of the band, to be depressingly honest with you! On the flip side, we are really amazed by the response the album has received – that has been the silver lining of this year for me, and I am really touched that people seem to love it so much.I read that the title of this new record is a reference to feelings of depression and despair, but also the way that celebrities are wrongly idolised and mythologised after their death. Why do you think we do that? And why do you think it’s unhealthy to do so?
Once a celebrity dies, they cannot let you down with their actions anymore. That blind belief in something pure is something we all need to help us get through our lives. It's a safe form of hero worship.Your faith in a dead celebrity will never be challenged. We revere living celebrities a disproportionate amount, elevating them into godlike status, so when they eventually pass away they become untouchable. It's unhealthy to do this because we are placing an overemphasis on an unachievable bastion of human perfection as opposed to learning to accept and tolerate and understand that people - celebrities and non - can be good and bad people at the same time.
Advertisement
I love the internet. One of my favourite things to come from the internet and social media is the sharing of niche humour - the memes! Remember life before memes? Wasn't it tedious! Now you can have super obscure Simpsons references crossed with other cultures that feel like they were designed especially just for you to make you laugh. In this sense, the internet makes me feel less alone. A lot of the opportunities I've had in life - travelling the world riding rollercoasters as a staff member of CoasterForce, for example - have only been possible thanks to online forums, where like-minded people can meet and share their passions.Online abuse is a small price to pay for something that makes my life a million times better. I think I've definitely got better at selecting how I use social media though. I have stopped following things that make me feel inadequate…Good for you. You had to switch labels following the allegations made against the boss of Holy Roar Records. How did you find a new home for the album?
When Justine Jones left her Label Manager job at Holy Roar Records in light at the allegations made against Alex Fitzpatrick, it was extremely reassuring to see that we were morally all on the same page. We were therefore delighted when she announced she would be starting Church Road Records with her husband Sammy. We have had the pleasure of working closely with Justine for many years now and felt she truly understands us as a band, so it was a no brainer really! Church Road Records worked so hard to ensure the album release could remain on schedule and have been incredibly supportive throughout this unprecedented process. I'd rather not comment any further on the Holy Roar situation, we just want to send our full support and stand in solidarity with the victims.Okay. I noticed you were wearing a Tabletop Tactics t-shirt in a press shot. I once wrote an article about tabletop gaming for VICE. Are you a tabletop gamer? What do you enjoy about it and what have you been playing recently?
Yes! I play [Warhammer] 40K, Space Wolves. Like most tabletop gamers, I love the painting the most! [laughs]. I am also a big fan of watching battle reports, hence the Tabletop Tactics shirt - their battle reports on YouTube are so fun and well produced! I am also a big fan of Magic: The Gathering. I play Modern in local tournaments with a mean green and black elf deck. I've attended the UK Games Expo at the NEC and Warhammer Fest, I love the atmosphere of a big gaming event. I think the thing I like most about it is the fantasy imagery, the immersive lore and that feeling of being mentally absorbed in a game.Awesome. Lastly, what does it mean to you to make heavy music in Britain in 2020?
Making heavy music in Britain in 2020 means you have no job, no money and no hope at the moment! [laughs] Our politicians have decided to label musicians as unskilled and tell us we need to retrain, which is so demoralising it's unreal. Britain seems to hold this attitude that the creative arts should only ever be a hobby and to pursue a career in them is childish - a dream you need to grown out of. The best thing about being in a heavy band is screaming about how much I hate all this stuff!@Jak_THWhen I Die, Will I Get Better? is out now on Church Road Records.