In the current musical climate, sick of being pigeon-holed into stale or stereotypical genres, bands seem to be trying to differentiate themselves by spreading themselves too thinly, desperately trying to offer their sound up as ‘original’ by professing to be all things to all people: “everything from pop to death metal,” promise one band; “drawing from bands as diverse as Iron Maiden and AFI,” claim the next. If you ask me, it’s simply an attempt to appeal to as many listeners as possible rather than a true mark of originality. Enter Shellshock.
Earlier this year, the Esquires audience had already been treated to ‘trance-core’ by the Hertfordshire quartet Enter Shikari, who have currently been enjoying media interest for their original blend of traditional hardcore meets trance and techno; Now, the London-based four-piece Shellshock are the next forward-thinking group to mix traditional metal with another seemingly incongruent genre to create a truly ground-breaking new sound, combining the nineties metal they were brought up on, with drum n bass.
‘It was a conscious decision,’ explains the outspoken drummer James, ‘basically we grew-up on metal but listened to drum n bass and realised how fat, dark and nasty it was and thought, “well if that’s fat, dark and nasty, what’s metal?” Add them together and you have double the fat and nasty, and that’s basically the idea.’ Striving for originality was also an important aspect of the band’s conception explains bass player Jon, ‘it was a conscious decision for us to do something different as well, you know? Like, what can we do that’s not been done? The drum n bass thing with metal just kind of evolved organically.’
But making such seemingly different genres work seamlessly together has been far from easy. ‘We’ve been a few years trying to do it, because when we started it was like, “oh shit, it’s a bit more complicated than we thought!”’ James continues, ‘All of the bands we’ve grown up to and respected are bands like Pantera, Rage Against The Machine, Sepultura, Fear Factory… they all stamped their mark on the music industry by doing something different with their music and not following trends, and that’s something we’ve never been into, we want to set our own bench mark. You can never say you’ve actually done it, but you’ve got to strive to do it.’
The band are also quick to recognise other bands who are trying to break away from the crowd, ‘we respect bands that have the same philosophy as us, like Skindred and Sikth; they’re striving to do something different with their music. People just far to easily accept that there’s nothing new out there you can do and that it’s all been done It’s sad because that’s not the case; you just have to go to a Skindred show to see that. I can write a kick-ass riff, it’s not actually that difficult. There are plenty of bands out there who are fucking good, but don’t really have their own sound - they can write death-slaughtering riffs but it still doesn’t separate them.’
James speaks with a kind of bitterness and disgust about the new generation of apathetic bands that you could easily mistake it for arrogance, but it doesn’t take long in his company, or with the band as a whole, to realise that it’s not arrogance but raw belief and passion that drives them on, as vocalist Ayre explains in his quieter manner, ‘there are a lot of good up and coming British bands at the moment, though the ones that we really connect with are the ones with this sort of philosophy, that you can kind of break boundaries and break rules and not have such a ‘standard’ scene the whole time. It’s something you have to do as a musician, you automatically have to make music and you want to make the best music you can possibly make. You’re constantly delving into your head about what sounds good and what’s going to work. I think people have to actually do that and have that drive inside them, and making yourself different to other bands is a big challenge, you know.’ But it’s obviously caught the attention of those that have come in to contact with the band, ‘the amount of mixed responses we get when we turn up…’ muses guitarist Hops, ‘people see our set they’re interested straight away, they’re hooked, they want to see it – whether they like it or not is up to them, we just hope that they do.’
Much of what Shellshock are about is bringing together the seemingly different; they see no reason why metallers shouldn’t be able to relate to drum n bass, arguing that it is only those not open to embracing new sounds who could fail to understand where they’re coming from. So why, then, do the band seem to attack non-metallers and “chavs” in their new video, ‘Kev’?
James is quick off the mark, ‘well, one question straight back at you: how do you feel about “chavs”?’ We all laugh, but there’s a more serious message behind the music. The band also run their own promotions company, putting on regular metal and punk shows for the benefit of both the bands and their young fans, and have experienced numerous acts of violence from “chavs”. ‘We get a lot of trouble with them at the shows we put on,’ explains Jon, ‘and that’s where the inspiration comes from. I did a show two weeks ago, a punk show, and chavs came down as usual, and my sound engineer as he was leaving got a bottle thrown straight through the window of his van. They throw rocks at the kids and we’ve had kids get beaten up as they’re leaving…’ James nods in agreement, ‘yeah, for the sake that you wear your hair a bit different or you’re in to different music. The irony of it,’ he continues, with his usual level of straight-talking rancour, ‘is that if you get one of these guys by themselves… it’s like at one of these gigs we were running one peeled off from the crowd and we were having a chat with him all night and we got him to free-style MC about all sorts of random subjects and the guy was cool! He had a really good time, it’s just that group mentality that when they get together they’ve got to act like a bunch of fucking animals, it’s just like, why be like that? Why can’t you be a bit more individual and accept people for what they are? It’s a bit more wide ranging than just attacking chavs, its attacking anyone with that mentality.’
So what’s next for Shellshock as they continue to bulldoze their way through as many barriers as they can? ‘Our debut album is being recorded,’ reveals Jon, which the band intend to be a step up from their debut E.P., ‘the E.P. was recorded by ourselves and there was no outside help on it really, it’s totally organic – it’s us and it’s what we do – four tracks that provide an introduction really, but now our recording techniques have improved; we’ve got new equipment and have brought new things to the table…Your debut album is a big thing, so it’s going to be everything we can make it.’ A sentiment that Ayre echoes, ‘there’s gonna be a lot of stuff bottled-up that’s going to come out on this album; years of us playing around the country… we’re gonna throw everything into this!’
So the final crucial question: if it really came down to it, metal or drum n bass? ‘Metal OR drum n bass?’ exclaims James, ‘that’s not fair, that’s like having to pick boobs or bums…’ An…erm, interesting analogy to say the least, yet it illustrates pretty well exactly where Shellshock are coming from, a band truly deserving of being labelled ‘original’ as they forge a pathway through the hoards of stereotypical metal. Watch this space.
The single ‘Kev’ is expected for release as a download single in the next month while the band work on their album; but if you can’t wait that long, you can check out the video at www.myspace.com/shellshockuk For more info, try their official website: www.shellshock.tv