Conjurer: Perfectionists At Play
If there’s been any band to emerge from the depths of Britain’s extreme metal underground over the last few years and exceed all expectations, it’s easily CONJURER. Since releasing their critically acclaimed debut album Mire in 2018, the band have set sail on a storybook adventure to the upper echelons of extreme metal.
At Bloodstock Festival 2021, CONJURER play their second show back since ‘the before times’. It’s also their third show at the festival, having climbed the stages like a wrestler for the title. It’s an experience that bassist Conor Marshall is eternally grateful for. “It feels like the end of a journey, and we’d love to keep coming back and playing, but we’ve done New Blood, and we did the Sophie stage in 2018, and now the main stage” reflects Conor, with pride beaming across his face as he adds, “it does feel like we are very fortunate to be able to do that, because not everybody gets to.”
It’s testament to CONJURER’s experimentation with extreme metal and the sheer intensity of their live shows that they can crop up on any bill at any time. Whether they’re hanging out at The Underworld or storming the main stages of Bloodstock and Download Pilot, they’re comfortable with being the chameleons of heavy metal. “It’s something that I think to be honest has helped the band a lot, especially when we were more underground. We wouldn’t just play stoner gigs, we wouldn’t just play hardcore gigs – sure, we’d always be the one that stuck out slightly but we could fit on most bills,” Conor explains, highlighting their diversity as a key for their success. “We can do a Bloodstock, we can do a Download, and we can do an ArcTanGent and hopefully, fingers crossed touch wood, people like it at all of them. There are times where we’re worried, especially with the Download Pilot where we were the heaviest band on there and stuck out a little more than normal, but we’re fine with that.”
Whilst CONJURER are more than happy to hop onto any bill, they’re just as happy to dig into their set song-for-song and make the next set even better. Their set at Bloodstock is marred a little by technical issues, however the likes of Choke and Hadal hit home heavier than ever whilst untitled new cuts come in like a storm in a teacup. For them, it was triumphant nonetheless. “It’s one of those things where if we really want to be pedantic and perfectionist about it, we can go ‘was it the best CONJURER set ever?’ No, maybe not, but it was still great and way more people were there than we anticipated and everyone seemed super into it. Officially, I think this is the biggest gig we’ve ever played!”
It’s only been three years since the release of Mire, and although storming 20,000-capacity festival stages will always be bucket list material, surely they’ve got their sights set on bigger things? Perhaps a follow-up to Mire, maybe? “So album number two, musically, is completely done – done, mixed, mastered and ready to go,” exclaims Conor, excited about letting the cat out of the bag on the industry’s best worst kept secret. “The issue is we just don’t know when it’s coming out. The main thing that’s holding everything back is the vinyl shortage, so anybody who wants to release on vinyl has like a six-month delay, which isn’t great.”
The album they’ve made is the follow-up they’ve always hoped they could make, and for Conor it’s his first proper full-length with CONJURER, but they won’t release any of it until it’s fully packaged. “We’re super proud of it and we want to show it to everyone, we just need to get all the other stuff that goes along with it – we want it to be a proper package and not just botch it because Mire did so well and everyone’s telling us this is an anticipated follow-up.”
Of course, with great anticipation comes great responsibility to deliver. And for Conor, the stakes are higher than his bandmates as this his first true outing with the band. It’s safe to say he’s felt the pressure of performing to the highest level on Mire’s follow-up. “I do feel a bit of pressure with it being the first album I’m properly on, because I don’t want to go ‘cool, here’s my baby’ and people are like ‘we preferred the old stuff, Mire was way better than this” admits Conor, although the assumption that it’ll be anything less than expected seems absurd for one of Britain’s brightest bands, who as it turns out, didn’t plan to take so long to get to album number two. “We never expected Mire to do as well as it did. The plan was to put it out, start writing the next one within a year or two and repeat. We never thought about playing festivals or American tours, like we did more from that one album than we ever expected to do as a band in general”
It’s fair to say that COVID-19 might have played a hand in delaying their follow-up in full too, however it’s something CONJURER see as an advantage. “We’re slow songwriters at the best of times, we nit-pick and we’re perfectionists, so we’ll argue over the tiniest little details. So although the pandemic has obviously been awful for everyone, it really did give us the time we needed to make this record, because we can’t write on the road like a lot of bands can, so to have the time where we have no option but to be in our house and focus on writing definitely helped.”
Whilst CONJURER may have completed the Bloodstock trinity, this certainly doesn’t feel like the last time we’ll see this band brave Catton Park – there’s certainly more to come from these nitpicking perfectionists.
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