[Image: Benjamin Paul]
BongCauldron are a metal band. If you haven’t been paying attention recently you will have missed the fact that using just ‘metal’ as a descriptor isn’t really good enough these days. So to avoid any confusion, I ask the band what style of metal they play. Biscuit (guitar and vocals) obliges, “If you could put it in one thing, it would be Sludge. I don’t think we can really be pigeonholed though….we have songs with Thrash in them, but basically we put in what we enjoy, and mainly it’s Sludge. Or Doom.” Ben (bass and vocals) clarifies, “Yeah, Sludge, Doom….Stoner…..riffs, heavy….” Hope that’s cleared up the situation then.
“The thing now,” drummer Jay expands, “is that if something’s slow, they’ll call it ‘Doom’ and then offshoot all these stupid subgenre’s on it because they can’t put their finger on what it is. I think as far as any genre is concerned nowadays which you could call progressive, then Doom’s at the forefront of everything. If you take bands like Space Witch and Sunn 0))), they’re both miles apart but they’re both considered to be in the same genre.”
The Leeds trio released their debut self-titled EP in early 2014, which is indeed packed full of the kind of bass heavy, fuzzed up riffage that is predominantly slow or mid paced but occasionally falls into a headlong Thrashy gallop. Is it fun being a metal band in Leeds? “Yeah, its ace!” says Ben. “It is in this one!” adds Jay, before Ben goes a bit deeper: “yeah, everyone knows each other, everyone’s connected because they’ve been in the same bands over the years or followed the same bands.”
Ben and Jay play in other band themselves, but Biscuit does not: “No, no…too stressful. BongCauldron’s pretty much exactly the only type of music I like and what I want to play.” Whose band is it? “All of ours,” says Biscuit, “when we write something it’s always all three of us. But sometimes Jay will write lyrics…” a drummer writing lyrics? Ridiculous! Jay – “We are ridiculous!” (laughter). Biscuit continues, “When we started it was more just, ‘how stupid could we make the song titles?’ And that’s kind of stuck the whole time, that keeps it fun. Because there’s no point writing a song if there’s not one part that makes me laugh. That’s what ‘Gimp Jig’ (longest track on the EP) is.” So what is a ‘gimp jig’? “It’s all about getting incredibly smashed on any type of drug, and going on a wonderful date with yer Missus and seeing a lot of stuff happen, until it turns out that it was you that did all of it. That’s the Gimp Jig.”
Metal is hugely innovative just now, but I wonder how important it is to acknowledge its past? “Yeah yeah, totally,” chorus all three. I tell them I hear a lot of Black Sabbath in what they do. “That’s the foundation of the whole thing, really,” says Ben. “Yeah,” says Biscuit, “if you don’t like Sabbath, you’re a moron. They invented everything. It’s always going to be there, especially if you play this kind of slowed down, dirty stuff we play. You’ve just got to take that inspiration and make it your own.” Which BongCauldron emphatically do.
Steve Walsh
Originally written for Vibrations
The BongCauldron EP is available from Superhot Records – www.superhotrecords.com
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