Prose meets UK metal band Aghast!

Writing comes in many forms. It bears a variety of fruit, and one such juicy and tasty fruit is music. Music, in turn, takes many guises. It can be gentle, soothing and delicate. And then at the other end of the scale, it can melt your face off, pick you up, shake you and propel you into a gleeful and apoplectic ecstasy. For today’s blog piece, we have the pleasure of talking to the creators of the latter part of this scale of genres. They are a UK band called Aghast! and they came to rock your world.

We got to talk to Sam from the band, who was kind enough to eloquently answer our questions about everything from the obvious writing one, the standard time machine issue; as well as famous people made of ham. Dear Prosers, please be upstanding with your horns of rock for Aghast!

P: Can you please describe Aghast! for those that haven’t heard you?
A: A smooshing together of extreme, grind, thrash, death and black metal that basically ends up right back at ‘metal’, if you will. I guess if Pantera, At The Gates, Carcass, Suffocation and Strapping Young Lad had parts of them removed and put in one jar… we would be the jar.

P: When you’re not being rock gods, what are your occupations?
A: James is a Teacher, Daniel works in Education on the Government side of things. Nicholas works for The Princes Trust and I, well I make films and write things.

P: What inspires you?
A: Everything and nothing in the same breath. Sometimes it’s a book, a sentence, a word, a film. Sometimes there will be an event and sometimes there will be a feeling, an urge. Sometimes the ever creeping mist, ambling atop the river in the early hours evokes something ancient within: nameless, shapeless; formless and sometimes the last piece of bread gets burnt in the toaster…

P: How do you go about writing your music? Please explain the process.
A: I’ll generally come up with a riff or a couple of riffs that work together, usually based on a title. The title of the track invariably influences the feel. Usually these are written on acoustic guitar. I’ll record them and send them to the guys, if they’re into them they’ll start thinking ‘where can this go’. Then Nick and I jam it out at rehearsal and see where we end up with it. The guys will throw in ideas or say ‘that section about ten minutes in was cool, that’s a hook there’. Then we’ll piece it together; make it flow. James will come up with vocal patterns and we’ll work on the arrangement together. Once we have the music, James will finalise the lyrics and we’ll run it a whole bunch of times until the bits that don’t fit fall off. Then it’s done.

P: How is it possibly that four chaps can make so much awesome noise?
A: No idea! Maybe we just get each other? Perhaps that’s it. I’ll write for the guys and I know they do the same. We write tracks for each other at the end of the day and if other people are into it, well; that’s great. It’s innate. I think it comes from playing together for so long you begin to understand exactly what the other is going to do. We’ll be jamming and Nick will do something ‘all of a sudden’ but I’ll subconsciously have known it was coming and I’ll change gear with him. It’s all a bit eerie.

P: If you could turn one famous person into ham, that you would then, as a band, feast upon — who would it be?
A: Now the real questions come. I’d say George Orwell. Dystopian ham, a warning from the pork to come. With Hemingway baguettes. Really succinct ones. And Huxley Butter. Delicious yet sobering.

P: If you could only write one more song, what would it be about and why?

A: I’d imagine it would be about the fact that we’re only allowed to write one more song and that it’s pretty aggravating to say the least.

P: We have an on going feature where we review books that people insist should be read by everyone in their lifetimes. What book would you recommend everybody read before they die?
A: There are a great many. I’m reading ‘The Peregrine’ by J.A. Baker at the moment. It’s astonishing prose; captivating, honest and true. Before that I read ‘The Girl with Curious Hair’ by David Foster Wallace. It’s a collection of short stories and in many ways it reads like an album. Each short with it’s own intent but within the framework of the artists oeuvre. But as a must read? Moby Dick.

P: Do you have an unsung hero who got you into reading and/or writing?
A: Musically, there are bands out there we would counter are unsung heroes that got us writing the music we do. The Forsaken, Nightrage, Glass Casket, Cipher System, King Parrot, The Duskfall, Ephel Duath. Bands that we feel don’t get the recognition they deserve. But also artists like Nick Drake, Lightning Bolt, Coliseum, Venetian Snares, Cancer Bats, Squarepusher, Converge, Karnivool, Kyuss, Misery Signals, Porches and The Secret. We draw a lot from different elements of music. Writers, perhaps Kurt Vonnegut for me.

P: Do you have any fun facts about aghast that you can share with our readers?
A: I think most people who know us know that we formed as a band after we all woke up together in a medics tent at Wacken Open Air festival. I’m half Dutch and had quite a promising career as a TV producer before I quit to go and rescue Orangutans in Borneo. James was born in Tanzania. Daniel is a dubstep producer and Nick is cobbled together from old thatched cottages and snakes’ feet.

P: Describe yourselves in three words!
A: Why only three?

P: Is there one quote, from a writer or otherwise, that sums Aghast! up?
A: “A badly conceived idea from the start” — Metal Hammer review.

P: You climb out of a time machine into a dystopian future with no books. What do you tell them?
A: “We’re very, very surprised you’re all still here. It really felt like we were trying to ruin this place beyond all hope back in 2016”

P: What four items (one each) would be on the Aghast! desert island?
A: Cling film, a gun, one bullet, and a hungry Tiger. It wouldn’t be boring, that’s for damn sure.

P: What’s next for Aghast!?

A: We’re about to release our E.P. ‘Something Else; Something Rotten’ along with some videos. Currently, we’re writing album two. We’ve got a cottage in the middle of nowhere in Scotland all to ourselves in October to piece it together so it’s a cohesive statement of intent. We’ll cut some demos up there and see what comes of it…

P: Aside from yourselves, who would you recommend those who aren’t into metal should listen to as a starter?

A: Conjurer. Beholder. Ad Patres. There’s so much out there right now and it’s so accessible. We all got started with Pantera, so listen to Slayer.

P: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you/your work/social media accounts?

A: All I will say is that we have some things lined up for the end of this year. Exciting things, I think. Amongst them will be our first real music video, our E.P. Something Else; Something Rotten dropping and we’re writing album two as I type this! So be like Carl Sagan and watch some space. Most of our social media; the instagram, the facebook and the twitter are all under the AGHASTKVLT handle. There’s also a youtube channel… which comes under AGHASTOFFICIAL. Fill your proverbial boots, friends.

You heard him, click on the links, check them out. Get your world rocked and your face melted!

Credits

Photo Credits go to Rachael King Photography / Loaded Dimension / Negus Productions and Morgan Sinclair

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Originally published at blog.theprose.com on July 13, 2016.