Leeched: Home Is Where The Knives Are, Making Worth Out Of Worthlessness

If you’ve kept your ear to the ground over the past 18 months, you may well have heard rumblings of LEECHED. Given their intensely short life span the Mancunian trio have not only forged a unique sound that has become the envy of the extreme underground but have also made an influential name for themselves amongst their contemporaries. For a band with barely 20 songs to their name currently, LEECHED have done more than just make an impact; they’re practically driving the development of extreme music scenes in places like Reading where bands like NEGATIVE THOUGHT PROCESS call their home.

Their first album, the petrifying You Took The Sun When You Left was a capitalisation on the waves made by their debut EP Nothing Will Grow From The Rotten Ground. Now looking to release their second record, bleakly titled To Dull The Blades of Your Abuse, it seems like there is no stopping the groups work ethic. As the band put it themselves: “There’s no point slowing down.”

“We didn’t do anything different, just did it quicker. The ideas formed quicker, we wrote the songs starting around January time, recorded it around April, where the last album took about three months, this one took us two,” is what LEECHED have to say about the writing and recording process for album two, and if this new album is the result of quicker working, then there is even more talent buried within LEECHED than was previously alluded to. This time round, the band sound bigger and even meaner than before, something some wondered even possible. “There’s a good reason that the album sounds bigger and it’s because there are about 20 more layers musically. It’s not just guitars, bass, drums and vocals any more, that’s just like 30% of it.”

Whilst the band grow and deepen musically, the continuation and consistency of their artwork also stands out. Instantly recognisable whilst also mysterious and bleak and unsettling, the LEECHED artwork has become one of the calling cards of the band since they first arrived on the scene. “Having consistent ideas is the oldest trick in the book when it comes to marketing. Every album cover is a photo, and each picture ties into the overarching meaning of each album.” With a broken deer skull staring straight into the camera as the icon for 2018’s You Took The Sun… and a wilting flower for To Dull The Blades, LEECHED want each image to tie into the overarching themes of their work. Their debut was all about “aggression towards a person for dying”, whereas this time round “the flower is all about wilting in the face of psychological abuse.”

Both of those themes are among some of the darkest and most poignant topics available for discussion. Anger towards death is more common than anyone cares to mention and is one of the hardest reactions to deal with, and there is already an ocean of comments and research on the effects of abuse on a person’s psyche. “The whole thing is based on real life events, since from the beginning, from the first EP. It’s not fantastical. These are events that aren’t uncommon. It’s real for a lot of people.” LEECHED tend to never shy away from what makes your skin crawl, or your stomach knot up and your knees freeze in fear. This isn’t your standard extreme music schtick. This is real life experiences tied up in a package that is designed to make you feel uncomfortable and scared, the same way a deer freezes in fear in front of oncoming traffic. “A lot of people don’t want to believe this is real. It’s challenging, LEECHED take what people don’t want to talk about and rams it right down your throat.”

There is more uniqueness to LEECHED than just their music, message, and artwork. The very ethos of the band is to not only violently shake up whatever tree we all feel comfortable clinging too but also to write the heaviest, darkest music possible. The aforementioned reputation LEECHED have built for themselves in such a short amount of time is testament to the need for a band like this; for a band who want to strive to create a lasting legacy not only in sound but in everything they do. When asked about whether they’re aware of the waves they’re making in the scene LEECHED assertively reply with “kind of, loosely. Someone has to be the leader.”

And leading they currently are, with LEECHED mentioning that the impending tour in support of To Dull The Blades… will have ideas that are six months in development, with the clear intention of this tour being to assert LEECHED even higher in the pecking order of true British extremity. But more than the impending tour, the new album is a clear step in a direction unique to LEECHED, as their sound broadens, deepens, and grows. “The main thing about LEECHED is trying to break into it’s own genre. We always try to create that uniqueness and call it our own.”

This seems like the talk of a band who want to create a legacy for themselves, but also of a band who won’t wait for anyone to tell them their worth. They know who they are, and what they want to become. “We want to do that and then take it even further. This band in the future will be mainstream, or at least what it stands for will be.”

Intensity and bleakness are the names of the game when it comes to LEECHED, if that wasn’t already abundantly clear from this article or indeed from their incredible music. Whilst the trio’s music will have you believe everything may be pointless, the very lack of point is one of the strongest things going for LEECHED. Without a point anything can make anything their muse. They bathe in the nihilism of modern society and channel it to create something that forces those who are willing to listen to assess their own pain, anger, and negativity in a world where nothing really matters…according to LEECHED anyway. In a time when everyone has something to say LEECHED want to drag you into the deep end by your hair and see if you survive. Rather a cleansing plague more than a breath of fresh air, LEECHED are one of the most potently creative and thoughtful bands around right now and a band that embody everything about extremity.

To Dull The Blades Of Your Abuse is out now via Prosthetic Records.

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