It’s easy to think that, outside of the industry hubbub of London and the UK’s other ‘major cities’, it’s hard for rising metal bands to make themselves heard. Talk to crushing, groove-heavy death metal machine Triverse Massacre, however, and you’ll find a band not only bringing their pummelling noise to places hundreds of miles away from their Carlisle home, right in the very tip of the north-west of England, but proudly flying the flag for their oft-overlooked homeland.
“The scene in Carlisle is growing all the time, which is great!” beams frontman Liam Stark. “There are some truly awesome bands in and around Cumbria – check out the likes of The Sun Explodes, Seek Solace In Ruin, Falling Red, Thy Demise and Repulsive Vision. And the cool thing is, they span a lot of different metal genres, so local heavy shows are always great to go and see.”
True to their commitment of being proud standard bearers of the UK heavy metal scene, it was Bloodstock Festival that gave the band their biggest platform yet. Staging a Carlisle faction of their Metal 2 The Masses competition that Triverse Massacre won, Bloodstock brought the five-piece – completed by guitarists Chris Kelsall and James Graham, bassist Jason McEwan and drummer Mike Collins – to last year’s festival, giving them the chance to play to their biggest crowd ever and share a bill with the likes of Slayer, Behemoth, Mastodon and Gojira.
“Bloodstock was the dream,” says Liam. “I mean, what more could you want? We got to play at the same festival as fucking Slayer! The stage crew were all incredible and everyone treated us so well, it was amazing, and the crowd was just insane. We’ve never done anything like it before, and it’s definitely an experience that will live with us forever. We still pinch ourselves when we talk about it today.”
As Liam notes, events like Metal 2 The Masses are crucial for the metal scenes in further corners of the UK to prosper.
“Things like that are so, so important,” he insists. “It really encourages local bands to believe in themselves and rally the local scene supporting each other. It also gives you something tangible to aim for, and it shows that you can do more than just play around your hometown area.”
It’s hard to imagine Triverse Massacre not winning over any crowd they play to, in all fairness. Colossal grooves underpin some ferocious death metal riffage that on occasion hits so hard it defies description. Well, almost…
“One site described us as ‘like standing naked in a hurricane or diving head-first into a nest of pissed-off hornets’”, laughs Liam. “That’s a good thing, right?!”
New EP Hades is out now
