The Five Hundred: A World On Fire
Since their inception metalcore outfit THE FIVE HUNDRED have hit the ground running, building momentum quickly and their appearance on Thursday night’s Boardie Takeover lineup at Download Festival in 2019 is exactly why you need to keep an eye on this band. Their debut full-length Bleed Red received a rapturous response and helped them build their profile significantly but this was just the tip of the iceberg for the Nottingham quintet.
It is now full speed ahead onto their hotly anticipated follow up entitled A World On Fire. “Bleed Red was our first album and it was pretty much us trying to figure out what we wanted to be,” explains bassist Andy Crawford. “By the time it came round to recording the second album we were in a much clearer position of where we wanted to be musically. John [Woods-Ely, vocals] had also been in the band a lot longer by this point too. On Bleed Red, John kind of inherited songs which were written with a different singer in mind so this time round he could really show off his talents and take advantage of his range. In my opinion there aren’t many bands who can nail the transitions between being heavy but also being catchy and melodic. This is something that I think we do very well.”
With their foot firmly in the door, the band could really focus on honing their sound and pushing their creative output to new territories. “John is really into the 90s grunge scene like ALICE IN CHAINS, SOUNDGARDEN, that kind of thing and those bands aren’t really deemed as metal bands but we feel that this style fits really well with the music that we write. I write a lot of the material and I definitely play to his strengths and keep him in mind when I’m writing,” discusses Andy. “We’re already thinking ahead about what we can potentially do for album number three! Bleed Red was a very introspective effort lyrically, like what we had all been through in our personal lives but this time around was very different. Mark [Byrne, guitars] is heavily into environmental sciences, his job entails being involved in humanitarian projects in the developing world and is something that he is really passionate about. He delivers flood warning systems on a national level and produces systems which can predict when potential natural disasters could occur so it’s a subject very close to his heart. This time we wanted to emphasise the importance of what is going on around us and bring awareness to the forefront.”
As with most cases throughout the last year and a half, THE FIVE HUNDRED had to work around the obstacles set in front of them. Sometimes that extra level of pressure can spur musicians and make them more determined to deliver. This was certainly the case for the quintet. “We had this album ready to go just after our Download show and all of a sudden the pandemic hit and we put the brakes on releasing it for a while,” admits Andy. “We felt it would be a massive shame if we released it and couldn’t have the opportunity to get out and play some shows to support it. We now have an album release show which is sold out so hopefully this will still go ahead. Due to COVID restrictions and the limitations of numbers allowed to be in the same place we had to kind of think on our feet at times throughout the process. A lot of the lyrics were written during our time in the studio with very little preparation beforehand. It was certainly a different experience. I think for album three we would really like to go back to the old school way of jamming in a practice room and creating songs from ideas as we go along. That could be very exciting to see what comes out of it.”
The restrictions which have been established across the globe has derailed a lot of well laid plans for musicians but thankfully due to the digital age and technological advancements at our disposal this has made it possible for musicians to collaborate even though they may reside in entirely different countries. World On Fire features guest spots by Andreas Bjulver Paarup from the devastating Danes CABAL and long time friend Jeremy Gomez of RED METHOD.
“I’ve been listening to CABAL ever since we signed to Long Branch and I actually went to see them in Copenhagen before pandemic happened. That’s when I knew it’d be a wicked idea to get Andreas involved,” Andy says. “I approached his manager, he recorded it in his studio and sent it over and then we just had to mix it into the track. John doesn’t really do a death metal growl so it was cool to add that into the mix and have a high profile artist involved. Jeremy is an old friend of mine and Marks from when we lived in Gibraltar. We played a show together like 20 years ago and it was really random, I remember we did a THE HAUNTED cover. I asked him if he was keen to work on something together and he was really up for it. They are just cool opportunities that we can look back on in like 10 years time and be glad we did it. Collaboration also opens up relationships too and they are very important for a musician.”
A World On Fire is out now via Long Branch Records.
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