Guest of the Month March 2012: The Defiled

The Defiled are one of the acts that we are funding through British Music Abroad to travel to SXSW in Austin, Texas.

The Defiled are fast becoming the UK’s new favourite metal act – heavy, pounding grooves coupled with remarkably imaginative electronic elements and infectious choruses. After making the bold move of giving away 80,000 copies of their debut full length via Metal Hammer magazine at the beginning of 2011, and following up with a tour of the UK which put them in front of 15,000 metalheads supporting Murderdolls in February, the buzz on The Defiled by March ’11 was unprecedented. A headline tour of the UK followed in May, and the sold out shows left in their wake led to offers for prestigious festival slots such as headlining the Jagermeister stage at Sonisphere and opening the main stage at Bloodstock Open Air festival.

We asked the band what’s been on their stereo – 

Stitch (vocals/guitar):
All i seem to be listening to at the moment is the entire Foo Fighters back catalogue. The songwriting on every album is near perfect. The new album ‘Wasting Light’ has only cemented how good they are and how much of a dent they’ve put in Rock music over the past 17 years and how much of a dent they’ve put in my life. I still get excited with every album release the same way i did when the first album came out when i was a kid.

Other things I’ve been listening to recently are –
Lower than Atlantis – World Record
These guys are gonna get huge in the next few years i think.
Stray from the Path – Rising Sun
Kind of a hardcore band from Long Island NY. They have a very punk rock attitude towards playing which shines through on this record.

The AvD (keys, programming/vocals):
An album I can’t stop listening to is Sonoio’s ‘Red‘. It’s just full of good songs, great lyrics/concepts and the use of analog synths and old school drum machines is done in a refreshing style I have never heard before.
I have to say I’m a proper fan, I wanted to support the cause so I went on the Sonoio website and bought everything they had, I think they call it the “Geek bundle”, it even comes with a little analog synth of your very own!

I’v also been listening to an EP by a London based band called DripBack.  It’s called ‘Inhaling The Ashes’ and it’s just an honest no frills grimy metal EP.   You can properly here the gritty underbelly of London coming through your speakers with this one.

A friend of mine introduced me to a band called Shining the other day and if you are in to black metal and jazz this one was made just for you!  The album is called ‘Black Jazz‘ and it does exactly what it says on the tin.  I like to hear things I haven’t heard before and to be surprised and this album hit the spot on those two fronts.

We also asked the band what they thought about heading over to SXSW –

Stitch:
 
We cannot wait to head to Texas for SXSW this year. I’ve been before playing for other bands and it’s a festival unlike any other. It’s amazing to just be able to walk into small bars and see bands that are small to huge bands playing to 50 people.

The AvD:

Of course PRS for Music Foundation/British Music Abroad has given us the opportunity to go to the states and fly the flag for British Metal and alternative music. We are a bunch of poor struggling musicians and there is no way we would have ever been able to do this with out the support of PRS for Music Foundation. We are so grateful for this and can’t wait to go out there and make everyone back home proud!