Loathe: Metal At The Creative End

As historically significant to British culture as Liverpool is, you probably won’t find mention of a thriving underground metal scene on the city’s Wikipedia page: which makes the almost guaranteed future success of nu metal meets metalcore outfit LOATHE even sweeter. Their multi pronged, iron toothed musical attack pulls influence from almost every aspect from not just heavy metal, but music as a general landscape. Accentuated by new record I Let It In And It Took Everything – these Liverpudlians have already outgrown the moniker of heavy metal.

It’s interesting hearing how eloquently vocalist Kadeem France and guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe talk about the music industry, they seem ahead of their time. Even when the two speak about the challenges of being a heavy metal band in an area not known for a burgeoning desire for the genre, they do so with an exciting nuance of intelligence. Kadeem even makes mention that he feels the band have already opened doors.

“The fact that there aren’t any bands doing what we’re doing in this area in a way helps us out so much because I almost feel like we’ve created our own mini underground scene. And there’s a lot of bands that I know of now that are influenced from us, and it’s so sick to see. Coming from Birmingham might have been easier because there’s more of a thriving scene, but I feel like we’ve kind of started our own in a way.”

This is still him being modest though, straight off the back of their debut full length record The Cold Sun, it was glaringly obvious: no one sounded like LOATHE. Their morbid, metal intensity when fused with the sonic vibrancy of DEFTONES makes for an atmospheric realm of metal which is more or less untouched – there’s nothing quite like it.

Erik is quick to point out just how much pride they take in the fact that people are going into I Let It In And It Took Everything and can’t quite be certain exactly what they’re going to hear when they press play. “The fact that no one can predict what we’re going to do adds to the mystery and the excitement. Even for myself when we’re going into writing, it’s exciting not knowing what’s going to come out at the end, because we didn’t expect it [I Let It In And It Took Everything] to sound like this. We had an idea, but it came out so different to what we were expecting.”

Let’s make no mistake though, the air around the band has changed dramatically in the last five years. LOATHE have gone from an act full of promise to one of the bands that are being looked at to take British metal forward, they can’t afford a slip up. It’s been on the bands mind, but Erik insists they haven’t allowed it to dominate their every thought. “It was definitely something that was on our minds, but it wasn’t a constant. People are expecting a certain level of quality, but it didn’t influence any decisions we made in terms of how we thought certain things should sound or anything like that.”

I Let It In And It Took Everything is anything but a slip up though, and it takes the band’s expansive brand of heavy metal and furthers its variety. From the opening bell to its closing knock out blow: it’s an album that sits on plains of atmospheric ingenuity. From SLIPKNOT to THE 1975 and everything in between: the range of influences on this sophomore effort borders on unfathomable. And as metal’s youth brigade continue to experiment and push boundaries it begs the question: is there anything that’s off limits in metal currently?

Erik quips, “I would never wanna hear anything ska,” he laughs before diving further into detail. “People are bored of hearing the same shit all the time. We knew that we wanted to fill the void of what we were missing personally, so we went ahead and did what we knew we wanted to hear, taking influence from things we liked that we thought would accompany each other well.”

The band’s obsession with creating the kind of brand they themselves enjoy being a part of stems from their highly flammable desire to continue climbing ladders. Kadeem doesn’t even think for a second before shooting down the idea that the band are content with what they’ve achieved thus far. “No, we’re honestly nowhere near where we want to be right now. This is just the beginning.” But it’s not until Erik chimes in with a “be cool to play an arena” jibe that you get the full picture of just how driven this band are, as Kadeem follows that with: “I’m not even satisfied with that, I want more.”

It’s refreshing to come across a band that ooze passion, and love for the industry with every breath they take. LOATHE aren’t a brand new concept, the band have existed in some form (previous name OUR IMBALANCE) for several years now. You’d understand if their hearts were beating a little slower for metal these days, but this couldn’t be any further from the truth. “I wake up and I check everything to do with the band,” Erik states. “It’s the only thing on my mind, the one thing that I’m connected to constantly: what the bands going to be doing, what the next movement is, how many views we’ve got, it’s literally the main thing in my life.”

Even if you put aside the band’s shopping list of qualities for a moment, in LOATHE we have a band that take the music business seriously. It’s almost like they’ve lived their lives to intentionally remove the possibility of being able to fallback on a plan B, this has to work, and it will work. I Let It In And It Took Everything is likely to be looked back on as a watershed moment that pushed the outfit forward, for that they have themselves to thank. Liverpool has done mass amounts for music in general, now it’s about to give metal some potential new superstars.

Do you think people are more likely to “GET” the band if they see you live or hear you on record? 

Kadeem: That’s a good question, we are really atmospheric and theatrical through record, but live it’s just a different level, because you’re in our music, experiencing it, do you know what I mean?

Erik: I think we sound better live.

Kadeem: Yeah, same. I’m more of a fan of our live sound than on record – so I guess you could say we are more of a live band.

Previously in interviews you’ve spoken about how happy you were just to be booked on festivals as big as Download, 2000trees etc. As time has gone on do you feel like you’ve earned your place in these slots? As opposed to just being lucky to have the chance? 

Kadeem: I think it will always be that [a shock], but at the same time I feel like we have worked a lot to get where we are. And sometimes regardless of the situation we do sit back and think like: WOW, this is actually our lives [laughs] it’s crazy. So it’s a bit of both then really I think.

What’s it like being a part of a roster such as SharpTone Records? When you’ve got company of so many other up and coming, great bands, do you feel like you HAVE to stick out? 

Erik: Sticking out is the best thing in my opinion. That’s the main reason we love it [SharpTone Records] so much because the amount of variations of the bands on the label – we DO stick out. I don’t want to make it sound like we’re blowing our own trumpets, but you can tell that we are unique. If we’re on a label that’s wide and varied in terms of what’s going on but we still stick out: that’s the best thing we could ask for.

Your new record I Let It In and It Took Everything is throws a lot of curveballs musically, how important is it to you to be unpredictable? And not allow people to go into your records knowing what they’re going to hear? 

Kadeem: It’s very important to us, we never like to write the same thing twice. And that’s something that was very apparent when we were writing this album. We have a lot more new influences since we wrote THE COLD SUN and I think that fully shines through on this album.

Erik: I think as well, the fact that no one can predict what we’re doing adds to the mystery and excitement to what we’re doing. Even for myself: when we go into writing something, it’s exciting not knowing what’s going to come out at the other end.