Snake bites: May 2022

It’s fair to say we’ve had a busy few months and if you thought May was going to let up then you’d be wrong. Gigs, recording, planning releases, it just doesn’t stop for us boys!

We kicked off the month in style by playing at Pealie’s Barn in North Yorkshire. Now you may not have heard of this venue but trust us, you will be soon enough. Located on Cockleberry Farm, East Cowton, it’s an 18th century barn that has been renovated into an amazing live music venue using materials found on the farm. The wood craftsmanship on display is nothing short of superb and every room you walk into there’s something that will catch your eye and utter the words ‘that is so cool’. Joe pretty much wanted to move there in a heartbeat so it’s safe to say it has his seal of approval.

Now we weren’t there for any old gig, oh no, it was a very special one indeed. Our very good friends Scruffy Bear, who are also helping run Pealies Barn and doing a sterling job of it if we do say so ourselves, invited us to support them at their ‘Face The Rain’ EP launch. The night was kicked off in style by the very entertaining Horse who was superb at warming up the crowd. We did our thing to a great response from the crowd and then Scruffy Bear absolutely smashed it out the park. Honestly we’re not just saying this, they are without a doubt one of the coolest and exciting upcoming bands around right now and we cannot stress enough how much you need to see them live! We were looked after like kings for the evening and it was simply a wonderful evening filled with good times, friends and banging music.

Back in February you may remember that we made it through the first round of Bloodstocks Metal 2 The Masses competition at Trillians, Newcastle. This month saw us return for our semi final slot alongside Graviter, Usurper, Hokum Bokum, Not Now Norman, Collapse of Colour and BOZ. Bands were drawn on the night and we ended up last, meaning we got to enjoy every other band and witness the absolute quality we were up against. Safe to say when it came to our slot we were very confident the 3 winners had already performed, however we were pleasantly surprised when we were announced as one of the bands progressing into the final alongside Graviter and BOZ. The whole night was absolutely bouncing and you’d have struggled to get many more people in Trillians. The support we had on the night was amazing and we truly appreciated everyone that turned out to support us. The final was up next but not before we returned to the studio to record some more music!

That’s right, as if we haven’t already been recording lots of new music for you lovely people, we thought we’d squeeze one more in before the month was out. This time returning to The Forum, Darlington to record what we consider to be quite a special song. That’s all we’ll say for now but as you can see from the pictures it involved some rather sublime acoustic guitars and a very different looking drum kit. We will say that it won’t be too long before you hear the finished product and we think you’ll be quite surprised and also very pleased as it forms part of a bigger plan which we’ve been working on behind the scenes.

Continuing our busy schedule we headed back up to Trillians for the Metal 2 The Masses final, this time the overall winner being selected by Bloodstock’s very own Simon Hall. We don’t envy Simon’s job one bit as he has quite the trek around the country judging the finest bands around, all worthy of a slot at Bloodstock. If you thought the semi final was good then man oh man did the final take it up a notch! We were joined by the winners of the first semi final, Cast In Tephra, Heist Two-Eleven and Nephilim as well as Graviter and BOZ from our semi. It is without question that every band brought their A-game on the night and the quality was actually so good that Simon chose two bands to go on to play Bloodstock, Cast In Tephra on the New Blood stage and BOZ on the Jägermeister stage. Incredibly worthy winners that we have no doubt will go on to show Bloodstock what the north east has got!

CREDIT: IAN COULT

As if all that wasn’t enough, we had one final last minute surprise gig sprung upon us when we were asked to play Call of the Wild festival! Obviously we jumped at the chance to play our first ‘in a field’ festival but let’s just say it was much more than just ‘in a field’. We were on the Sunday opening slot of the Dead Skull stage and from the moment we arrived we were looked after so, so well. Having never played this type of festival before we didn’t know what to expect but my oh my did we leave with some awesome memories! The pizza, Dead Skull coffee and axe throwing were particularly special but overall the whole festival was just class. It was literally the perfect size for a festival, everything in a 30 second walking distance, always a band on, smooth changeovers with plenty of space, nice big stages, great crowd and toilets that didn’t have to be lifted on and off the back of a truck to be transported to the next festival for annihilation. The Upstaged team absolutely smashed it and everyone they had working with them to bring the festival together were top notch. We saw a lot of friends there both as guests attending, fellow bands and stall holders as well as gaining some new ones after watching our set. It was so good to see everyone having fun in the sun, spending the time chatting to everyone and we can say we left suitably stuffed full of food and faces beaming!

CREDIT: CHARLOTTE SIMPKIN AKA 'GLAMRAT'

As you can see, May was pretty damn good and June is about to get a whole lot better as we will be releasing our brand new single Web of Lies! It’s out June 10th and you can pre-save it on Spotify right now

Make sure to keep up to date on our socials so you don’t miss out on the latest updates! There’s a lot coming your way.

Jamie, Chris & Joe