Winners of the Bournemouth leg of Metal 2 The Masses, heavy hitters To Obey A Tyrant, are now looking forward to delivering some devastating deathcore at Bloodstock. Paul Castles tunes in for some south coast savagery.
ZT: So guys, well done on securing your ticket to Bloodstock by winning Metal 2 The Masses in Bournemouth – How confident were you feeling on the night?
We were feeling pretty confident on the night as were all the bands that played, we had the support of a sold out crowd behind us, faces new and old, also we were still super pumped from playing Tech-Fest the night before which helped. We gave it our all and had a rad time.
ZT: How did you find the whole M2TM process?
It was good fun overall, the whole process seemed pretty streamlined and really represented itself as an excellent opportunity for up and coming bands to put themselves out there, whether that be winning the event or just partaking in the build up to the finals. It was definitely something we didn’t want to miss out on.
ZT: Were the events well supported?
Absolutely, all the shows leading up to the finals consistently had a really good turn out which only got better as the shows progressed. Being from Bournemouth ourselves, it was amazing to see such a strong level of support and engagement from the locals not only towards us, but to the other bands who absolutely crushed it as well.
ZT: How well do you know Bloodstock?
We’ve always seen Bloodstock as one of the main pillars of the UK festival scene, and personally it’s always been one of the bigger goals on the bucket list for shows we’d want to get our name on. Of course having the opportunity to engage with a whole new crowd of listeners is insane to us, but on top of that, Bloodstock consistently put on some massive names which we are super stocked to be sharing the same stage with.
ZT: You’re on a roll with festivals this summer, having just played Tech-Fest – how did that go?
Tech-Fest was a crazy experience, another bucket list show for us. We’re no strangers when it comes to playing shows, however Tech-Fest was the biggest event we’d had the pleasure of being a part of and gave us a strong level of insight on what to expect at Bloodstock. On top of that, it was awesome catching up with some of the other bands having just done a small tour leading up to Tech-Fest.
ZT: So the album Omnimalevolent is out, are you pleased with how it’s been received?
Omnimalevolent was definitely a wild ride having been our most ambitious release at the time, both in style and effort required. Ultimately, Omni opened up a lot of doors for us regarding shows, merchandise, and overall fan engagement, however the potential to do more leading up to the release was definitely there. Regardless, I can safely say that we’ve all learnt so much from the release of Omni and are ready for the next release to completely one up any of our previous works.
ZT: A dozen tracks is a lot, did it all come together well?
Initially we were shooting for less, however like most bands in the modern metal scene, Omnimalevolent is the product of a lot of free time over lockdowns. When it came time to whittle it down, the selection process became super difficult as we really vibed with all of the tracks, but ultimately decided to keep most of them. It’s not super conventional by today’s standards of singles and EP’s so we likely won’t be doing a project that big for a while for the sake of being more consistent.
ZT: What is the priority for the rest of the year, writing or gigs… or both?
I think it’s safe to say that we’ve definitely played loads of killer shows this year riding off of Omnimalevolent’s release, however now it’s all about writing. We don’t want to lose any momentum going forward and we want to keep the listeners listening, because the level of support we’ve had from them has been insane, so we owe it to them to not keep them waiting.
ZT: To what extent is Bloodstock going to provide a platform for To Obey A Tyrant to reach a new and wider audience?
We all believe Bloodstock will be a huge step up for us, particularly being on the New Blood Stage where a lot of people go solely to enjoy new bands they likely haven’t heard before. TOAT is quite a medley of genres, so there’s always something in our sound for everyone.
ZT: You’re playing on the New Blood Stage on the Friday what can fans expect to see?
Fans + new potential fans can expect to see tight jeans, bald heads, long hair and an array of extreme, relentless vocals bound in heavy down tuned guitars and devastatingly crushing drums. We urge all deathcore/death metal fans to check us out as there aren’t that many DC acts this year.
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