Band Interview: Wardomized

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are very pleased to bring you an interview with Northern Irish, death metal/grindcore band Wardomized! Questions were answered by the guitarist, Eddie Cross. Their latest EP, Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree is out now and you can read our review here.

1. Give us a little bit of background about Wardomized. How’d you get going?

Wardomized started back in 2014. Me and our vocalist Steve wanted to start a Hardcore Punk band and me and our original drummer Luke were in another band we weren’t happy in so we left and started Wardomized together with Steve. Over the time with that line up we slowly went towards a more grind sound which me and Steve continued with the new line up!

2. In our review of your EP we called you death/grindcore…is that how you’d describe your sound?

Yes totally. We have a lot of influences thrown into the mix especially stuff way outside the box like Deftones and Nirvana for example but our aim is to be a Grindcore band. With something a little different on the table. With ‘Forced To Eat From The Apple Tree’ I think we nailed our sound and it’s probably the most Death Metal thing we have done. A lot of Morbid Angel worship going on but we foremost always look towards bands like Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Extreme Noise Terror, Magrudergrind, Agathocles, Discordance Axis, Wormrot, Assuck… I could go on forever!

3. Tell us about the debut album. How have you got here?

We have been working on the album for the past year now. Me and Mike, our bass player, are heading to finish recording guitars and bass early April then we just have vocals left to record. Then we will be finally ready to unleash this madness! Its took a bit longer than expected in a way because all of 2018 we were flat out playing shows. We started with a mini France/Belgium tour with Mutilated Judge and AxGxI in January and the rest of the year done the rounds across Ireland promoting ‘Forced To Eat From The Apple Tree‘. We also added a new member, Alessandro who is doing dual vocals with Steve now.

4. What helped inspire you when it came to writing?

A lot of the music I mentioned before. Also the fact we get on so well in the band. We play a lot together and work together so well. We are like family, we share all our problems with each other and turn it into music. I think a lot of us are constantly writing as we are involved in other projects too. Me and Steve have a new Crust Punk project being debuted maybe this month and Mike and Ale have a black metal band called Neamhni and Deane our drummer has a new punk band starting sometime this year.

5. What can fans expect from it? Forced to Eat From the Apple Tree was a hell of an EP.

Thank you! We were really proud of that EP, Michael Mckeegan from Therapy? had found us online and posted an article about his favourite heavy bands from Northern Ireland. He mentioned us and about how he enjoyed ‘Forced To Eat From The Apple Tree’ so we asked him if he wanted to guest on the upcoming album. He loved the idea and we worked together and wrote a song called ‘Give Me Hope, Give Me Water’ which he plays bass on.

We have also really embraced our Hardcore Punk roots on this album which really shows. You can tell its the same band from ‘Forced To Eat From The Apple Tree’ but its fresh sounding with a lot of risky experiments to our sound going on. Especially the whole Deftones influence we spoke about haha! Still even with all that it will be our fastest and most vicious release yet.

6. With it seemingly being impossible to make money from being in a band + the glut of metal that exists now thanks to streaming, how do you guys stay motivated to make music?

We really don’t care. We are in it for the passion and have slept on bus station floors and barns in the countryside. As a unit, we love it and the more Grind, Hardcore and Death metal bands, the better!

7. Talking of which, do you think you’re benefitting from the streaming/YouTube age or is it more of a hinderance?

Physical releases will always be cooler but yeah, realistically it has. Bandcamp and stuff really helped get our name out there and gave people somewhere to hear our stuff and now we are on mostly all major streaming services. It’s easy to find newer bands like us but you gotta do both. To cater to both sides of the spectrum.

8. Tell us about the rest of 2019. Where can people see you play?

We have some unannounced European dates and UK dates hopefully ready to go soon and more dates in Ireland with the release of our album. We recently hit Cork a month ago which we will be back too soon. Hopefully going to be a mental year for us!

You can order the EP now over on Bandcamp and find it via most major streaming services. Find out more about the band as well as keep up to date with news by liking their Facebook Page! You can also check out some of their videos onYouTube.