INTRODUCING: Grief Ritual
“It just felt like the right time to start speaking out more and being more direct,” offers GRIEF RITUAL frontperson Jamie Waggett. We’re chatting to them and drummer James Broady just a week ahead of the release of their debut EP, and days before the UK, urm… welcomes? a new prime minister, and we couldn’t agree more. A decimated NHS, cost of living skyrocketing, and a government intent on stripping away the rights of anyone who dares not conform to their ideals, bands should absolutely be responding accordingly. In Spiritual Disease, the UK quartet have done exactly that, delivering a statement of urgent, violent intent across five tracks of politically-charged, miserably blackened metallic hardcore which provide a suitably suffocating soundtrack to our ever-more dystopian world.
Billed as their debut EP, the band have actually been around a little while now. They had a particularly busy 2019, racking up over 60 completely DIY-booked shows before 2020 brought with it an familiar foe that forced them to hit pause. “The pandemic happened and that sort of derailed all the momentum we had,” explains Broady. “But we had time to assess how far we’d gotten in the 12 months we’d been a band, and it allowed us some time to focus on what we wanted to achieve with this band and what direction we wanted it to go. I think Spiritual Disease came from having 12 months to think about that while the world stood still. It was sort of a blessing in disguise really.”
It was through this pause in fact that GRIEF RITUAL found their new and decidedly more political focus, with Waggett’s earlier writing having focused far more on their own struggles with mental health. Even with this new vision however, the frontperson is quick to emphasise, “it all kind of links together. We’re trying to support trans rights and things like that where human rights have been stripped away and things are getting passed through parliament without anything being stopped.”
“People can make music about whatever they want because it’s an art form and you can do whatever you want,” they add later. “As long as you’re not harming anybody or being misogynistic or racist, I don’t see any issue with that, but obviously if you are a band who speaks about the issues that we do, you’ve got to be authentic, because then that resonates with more people. And from that hopefully they’ll start bands or or go to meetings and do protests of their own which I think is really important. It’s going to sound a bit cheesy anarchist, but you’ve got to question authority sometimes, especially when everything’s getting so much worse. For me in the UK over the last couple of years it’s just beyond the pale what’s been allowed to happen.”
Naturally, the rest of the band are completely on the same page, with Broady confirming. “Even though it’s not something planned or discussed beforehand, I think because we’re all friends and we’ve known each other for quite a long time it’s just thoughts and feelings that resonate with all of us. We’re all into different aspects of heavy music, from the softer side of the genre to the really extreme stuff, so musically it’s always going to be fairly aggressive, heavy and in your face, and that sort of complements what Wagg has been doing lyrically as well.”
Of course, we spend a fair bit more time on politics as our conversation continues, with Waggett sharing incisively on everything from the rise of Nigel Farage to the failings of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer. We would need another 900 words or so to cover it in any real justice, but their conclusion puts it particularly well: “I do feel like there needs to be a total shift of power in terms of politics because everything we’ve got now pretty much doesn’t stand for anything that it was set out to do. And especially with the Tory party it feels to me like they’re almost trying to set UK worker’s rights back to workhouse ethics where you leave school at 16, you get a job and you work in that job for a pittance until you retire essentially.”
If this piece feels like something of a manifesto, just wait till you hear the record. Spiritual Disease sees GRIEF RITUAL start, or restart, exactly as they mean to go on, with Broady concluding, “I just want to keep on playing as many shows as I can. I want to play Download, I want to play all the festivals… I just want to keep making music, getting our stuff out there and enjoying what we’re doing, which is exactly what I’m doing now.”
“It’s all about us enjoying it,” concurs Waggett. “It’s gonna sound cheesy, but if we can inspire a couple of people to do what we’re doing, the music scene is going to be all the richer for it. And I think that’s important because although we’re a band we also try to collaborate with photographers and other artists to give them a platform for them to then share as well. Collaboration is such a big thing and we’re always looking for people to collaborate with who are on the same page as we are. I think it’s important to speak to like-minded people and share what you’re doing.”
Spiritual Disease is out now via self-release.
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