Rising To The Masses: Absolence

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Before the first riffs echo through the fields of Catton Park, we are diving head first into the pulse-pounding world of the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock 2024. So grab your backstage pass, tune your senses, and join us as we explore the stories, inspirations, and the relentless drive of the bands who are rising to the masses! Introducing Absolence…

How would you describe your band to someone who’s never heard you?

We take our music seriously but we don’t take ourselves quite as serious, so your going to be entertained. But most of all you guys are gonna head bang and find out all about the Absolence experience 0 gimmicks, 100% Metal!

Tell us about your band’s origin story. How did you all come together?

Absolence has been around since 2005, Mike and Hateriff started writing brutal headbangers and songs with meaning and energy at their heart. We went as far as we could and family/life took over. Since 2019 a new lineup emerged with Evo and Tom and we evolved our sound and stage show. In 2023 Will joined, adding brutal vocals and energy to our band and the rest is history.

What song would you recommend for someone’s first listen of your band?

Kindred Kindness (Coming at the end of July 2024)

Describe your songwriting process. How do you create your music?

Brutal riffs + plus catchy hooks = song idea. We look for ideas from samples, song styles and melody’s to build upon and add our own flavour to it. Our best songs wrote themselves, others took more time to get ready for a live show. But we love writing groovy and catchy songs so if we find something we can usually make something epic from the process.

How do you handle creative disagreements within the band?

We talk it out when we see each other, we are like brothers. So any disagreements are quickly squashed.

What are your musical influences?

All of the metal bands we grew up with and other music genres, we share our music taste with each other and are always listening to new bands. We love to hear our underground brothers and sisters music and learn from what they do well to evolve and get better.

What’s the story behind your band name?

Haha, “Mike, think of a few band names…” we wrote a load of band names on a notepad and Absolence stuck. Don’t ask me what it means, don’t ask me how I came up with it. It just happened… and no we are not an African drum and bass artist lol.

What’s your guilty pleasure music outside of metal?

As a band I would say it’s Dance and 80’s pop, Merseyside is such a melting pot of music genres and we have grown up with it all.

Tell us about your most memorable live performance or tour experience.

Haha, one comes to mind at our home town venue Molly’s Chambers in Birkenhead. During one of our songs a goth kid tried to do a front flip in a 2 man pit! He fell squarely on his back, it was hilarious.

What’s the most challenging aspect of being a metal band in today’s music industry?

Underground metal promotion and playing in front of small audiences, whether we are seeing less and less people wanting to go out or people just don’t know about your show, it sucks playing to an empty room.

Any advice for other aspiring metal musicians?

Stay classy, learn and listen to yourself. Always evolve your sound on stage and equipment so people can hear the best of you.

What’s next after Bloodstock for the band?

After the gig, drinking a metric ton of JD!! After that we will get more songs out and set our sights on continuing the plan on being one of the best support acts to larger bands and venues across the UK.

How do you choose album artwork or visuals for your releases?

We try to use local artists and share our vision, but lately we have been using AI artwork with great success.

What’s the most unexpected inspiration for one of your songs?

NO CHORUS!! We are known for our chorus’s so when we decided to write just a pit song with no chorus it was a brave choice.

What’s the best gig you’ve attended as a fan and why?

One of mine (Mike) and I think Hateriff’s was a Memphis Mayfire, Off mice and men and Crossfaith in Manchester. The venue was booming and everyone made the atmosphere so electric.

Have you faced any challenges as an unsigned band? How do you overcome them?

Never make the same mistake twice and make sure you can share responsibilities around the band

How do you stay motivated during creative slumps?

SUCK IT UP, LISTEN TO MORE METAL AND GET OVER IT!

Absolence are set to play The Hopical Storm New Blood Stage On Friday 9th August 2024.