As Bloodstock gets closer, we delve deep into the line up to find out more about some of the bands playing the New Blood and EMP stages at this years event.
Today we chat with Void Below
Please introduce yourselves.
We are James, Brad, Kyle, Looke and we are Void Below
How would you describe your sound?
We play Lovecraftian death metal with a hint doom!! we have a mixture of fast paced riffing but throw in some groove, some slow pace atmospheric sections and some technical parts too!!
How did you land your spot on the Bloodstock bill?
We reached out to the Bloodstock and they were kind enough to offer us a slot, it was a huge shock and an honour.
What does playing at Bloodstock mean to you?
It’s a massive honour to be able to play and especially that its the 25th anniversary edition which makes a whole new level of special.
For people who’ve never seen you live, what can they expect at Bloodstock?
You can expect high energy, great banter, crowd interaction & pure raw heaviness!
What day are you performing?
We are playing the Friday of festival
What other bands are you looking forward to watching at Bloodstock this year?
Nevermore, Sepultura, Cryptopsy, Celestial Sanctuary and the list goes on!!
Playing the New Blood Stage is just the first steppingstone in a bands journey. What’s next in your plans for world domination?
We are currently working on our debut album behind the scenes which we plan to record in early 2027 and who knows!!
Are you camping with the fans? Which campsite are you heading for?
Sorry not camping with fans as we’ll be in the artist campsite
You’ve gotta keep hydrated at Bloodstock, what is your drink of choice for the weekend?
If anyone knows us or seen us live, you’ll probably see lots of empty boxes/cans of Stella Artois!! its our ultimate gig fuel hahah
Steel Druhm can never get enough rancid, rotten death. That’s probably why I had a large-capacity rotpit installed on my property, and why I maintain front-row seats at the local autopsy theater. Thus, I welcome what Canada’s Coprolith bring to the charnel house on their Putrescence debut. This is scuzzy, lo-fi, low-I.Q. death for the creeps who worship the vomitorious sounds of Autopsy, Grave, Incantation, and older acts like massively underappreciated Finnish maniacs Demigod.1 Taking many crucial cues from early Autopsy, Coprolith blend harrowing doom with blistering OSDM, and everything feels filthy, infectious, and corrupted. It’s a moldy oldy recipe, but in the hands of some truly sick twists, it can still fuck up your shit, as it does here.
You won’t spend much time wondering where Putrescence is heading either. Opener “Sentenced to the Grave” rips the band-aid off, along with a good portion of healthy flesh, as it brings a teeming, writhing mass of moist and gruesome death metal to life. Melding mid-tempo caveman grinding segments that feel massive and unstoppable with doomy plods that crush your will to thrive, this is like a leaden dead weight on your puny shoulders, but there’s a vibrancy and energy to it even when things are stuck in the meat mulch. Some well-timed upticks of speed with blastbeats and cement-mixer riffs keep you alert and following the funeral program. Add some utterly inhuman, reverb-heavy death croaks and vomit noises, and you’re in the grave business! I especially enjoy the eerie harmonies on the song’s back end. The title track is more of the same, informed by gruelingly meatheaded grooves and ponderous doom marching. The guitars offer just enough variety to keep things interesting, spiked by rabid flare-ups of aural violence.
The album centerpiece is the 7-minute “Defiling Incantation,” which Coprolith certainly do with gusto. It’s a lumbering, unwieldy piece of death-doom that recalls the best moments of Incantation and Winter without copying them, and there’s a dark, sludgy, blackened edge to everything that feels evil and unsettling. How do you follow something like that? With a hyper-aggressive piece of scummy, molten death that could have been on Post Mortem’s classic Coroner’s Office release. “Birthed by Remorseless Flames” packs top-notch Neanderthal power chugs and keeps things heavy enough to liquefy and evacuate the contents of your bowels. This is one of my favorite death ditties of 2026 because it feels olde, bold, and heavy like a two-ton anvil dipped in shit, duck fat, and motor oil. I don’t even care that it almost hits the 6-minute mark because it’s just so greasy and unappetizing. At a skinny 34 minutes, every track is morbidly a beast. Bloat is carefully avoided through well-timed tempo shifts, and even the longer cuts avoid feeling too long. The production is deranged genius, essentially recreating the horrific sound of Autopsy classics like Severed Survival and Acts of the Unspeakable. It’s grimy, smutty shit-muck, but damn does it hit the feelz bone with a 10 lb. sledge. There’s enough filth-gunk in the sound to please any hardcore death metal elitist, and you can still hear what the band is actually doing!
Guitarists A.K. and J.H. throw all manner of vile, befouled riffs at you, all with teeth that go for the nether-regions. The doomy leads are nigh-irresistible and will plant you in the earth like a flag pole. The urgent, in-your-face riffage feels jagged, ragged, and dripping with tetanus ichor. This sounds old as fook, but just as toxic as anything new-fangled being released today. To this nightmare sauce, add the obscene croaks, moans, and wretches of K.D., who seems to be broadcasting from some Lovecraftian dimension you want no part of. These unholy vocals add a whole layer of poo-crust to the already appallingly impure sound. Bassist A.M. delivers a lot of mass and heft to the sound profile, coming forward at times to shake your bladder batter into stiff peaks. All this is undergirded by the reliably massive drumming of A.M., who knows when to pound you into assdust and when to oppress your brain jelly. This crew knows what they’re about and how to harsh your mellows.
Coprolith have the rotten stuff, and they fling it all over the place. Putrescence is a nasty piece of soiled work and a loving tribute to the kings of death and death-doom. If you want to marinate in the medical waste barrel, this is the slurry to soak in. It will give you a loathsome disease, but you’ll enjoy the entire incubation period. That, my friends, is what good death metal can do for you/to you! GAG!
In January, Adult DVD signed to Fat Possum and unleashed an enthralling dance-punk anthem called “Real Tree Lee.” Now, the Leeds band is announcing their eponymous, self-produced debut album and sharing another deranged banger. This one’s called “Cowboy On Aisle Three.”
As Bloodstock gets closer, we delve deep into the line up to find out more about some of the bands playing the New Blood and EMP stages at this years event.
Today we chat with Ka’aper
Please introduce yourselves.
Hey! Thanks for having me here! I’m Evgeny, the singer of Ka’aper. Alex and Timur are our guitarists, Igor is the bassist, and we also have a new drummer whose name will be revealed soon.
How would you describe your sound?
We started as a melodic death metal band, but soon realised that MDM was too narrow for us, so we began exploring nearby genres like doom, black metal, traditional death metal, and some modern influences. We call it dark metal because that’s the only frame we try to fit into. We play dark music without attaching ourselves to any specific genre. If we find dark colours in hip-hop tomorrow – we’ll add hip-hop to our music.
How did you land your spot on the Bloodstock bill?
This opportunity was presented to us through the Metal 2 the Masses contest and our local event agency, Rock Island Events, and we’re really grateful for it.
How tough was the competition this year?
I would say it was tough as hell! The metal scene here in Cyprus is unbelievably strong! Probably that’s why not one, but two bands from Cyprus are representing our island at this year’s edition of Bloodstock.
What does playing at Bloodstock mean to you?
Oh, it’s definitely a dream come true. One of the most legendary metal festivals in the world – and we’re a band that was formed only two years ago, playing there! We’ve proven to ourselves that we can reach any height if we really want it.
For people who’ve never seen you live, what can they expect at Bloodstock?
Pure, concentrated energy. A set packed with our best songs from two albums and several sweaty, hairy guys on stage. Hehe, come and see! I bet you’ll love it.
What day are you performing?
Sunday
What other bands are you looking forward to watching at Bloodstock this year?
So many! Honestly, I hope I’ll manage to watch as many shows as possible. Judas Priest, Sepultura, Testament, Black Label Society, Lamb of God, and especially our brothers from Cyprus – Joakem.
Playing the New Blood Stage is just the first steppingstone in a bands journey. What’s next in your plans for world domination?
We’re going to keep pushing forward and play as many shows worldwide as we can. I’m truly convinced that live shows are the most important part of metal culture. Yes, it’s great to listen to vinyl while sitting in your cozy armchair, but nothing can replace the tribal energy of a good metal show.
Are you camping with the fans? Which campsite are you heading for?
Actually, we rented a house in Derby and we’re going to travel to the festival every day. We’re from Cyprus (although we grew up in Russia and Ukraine), and I’m afraid several nights in a tent in England wouldn’t be a very good option for our warmth-loving carcasses.
You’ve gotta keep hydrated at Bloodstock, what is your drink of choice for the weekend?
For me – non-alcoholic beer. I gave up drinking alcohol three years ago. A pretty useful decision, but definitely a boring one.
Asking Jadasea about his new album title, Holly Grove, it feels like I’m playing a game of multiple choice. One moment, it’s a poignant tribute to his home. The next, he just chose it because he thought it sounded cool. Kicking back in his friend’s garden on a sunny London afternoon, he settles for something like all of the above, with an emphasis on hometown inspiration and immediate practicality.
Richmond noise rockers Dumb Waiter have turned down the intellectualism and turned up the ferocity on Change, their fittingly-titled sixth record. The first from the Virginia quartet to feature vocals (and from every member, no less!), the members of Dumb Waiter explain that they sought a new method of expression. After five challenging, avant-garde albums, the inclusion of vocals allowed Dumb Waiter to get straight to the point—and you’d better believe they have plenty to say without sacrificing the interesting, non-conventional approach to heavy music they’ve employed for nearly 15 years.
New song “Drip,” which you can stream below, is a perfect representation of that balance. Guitarist Nick Crider and drummer Nathaniel Roseberry throw down aggressive vocals on this specific track, taking aim at the passage of time and at current events discussed later in the article. If you’re already familiar with Dumb Waiter, you’ll notice an uncharacteristic level of restraint in the performances (which also includes saxophonist Tristan Brennis and bassist Keith Paul), making room for the dual-vocal attack.
You can dig into “Drip” below and don’t skip Decibel‘s chat with Crider and Brennis, discussing writing with and without vocals, saxophone in heavy music and getting vulnerable with listeners. Change is out on July 31 via Ossein Records.
You guys changed up your approach to writing and playing music with Dumb Waiter on this album. Can you explain how you were feeling about the music before and how that changed?
TB: I think it was a collective understanding from the band. The previous album Gaust Gists was very much of a covid-incubated album. It felt like we were trapped in a room for a few years writing that final avant-garde album and we got to the end of it, we were happy with it. We started writing the next album and it really just felt like we’re repeating ourselves, which is something we were really not trying to do. It felt like we weren’t sure what territory to cover instrumentally and it was this collective agreement, “I think we’ve got to start talking, start saying something.” It was a rash idea that took form over two years as we bought mics, bought stands, started seeing what it would look like.
Did any of you have experience doing vocals in bands before?
NC: I’ve been in a bunch of bands. Some of them I did vocals in, but it was all metal vocals—screeching, screaming, grunting, stuff like that. I was very conscious of wanting to take the agitated, spoken route and it was definitely something I had to find the tone. It was harder for me… I knew how I wanted the tone to be. It was harder for me to open up enough to not feel silly doing it. Even just in the room full of these guys I’ve known forever, it takes a lot to break out of that. That was a big evolution in the singing for me.
The lyrics can get pretty personal, which is a big difference from writing stuff that doesn’t even have vocals.
TB: I know Nathaniel also did vocals in previous projects like Jefferson Plane Crash but a lot of them are powerviolence or grindcore bands, so it’s trying to extract the confidence that comes with that and break it down.
NC: And he’s the most melodic person on the record now. He’s the one trying to sing and he’s mostly done brutal stuff.
TB: That’s a good point from moving about something that is a subjective instrumental. I would say that the earlier work in some weird ways is still personal but when it’s instrumental, it means something different to every single person who listens to it. I think once you put words to it, it becomes much more relatable much more quickly.
NC: Even then, I found that when we were making instrumental music, I felt like people were getting the point and then I realized that they weren’t at all. Then I realized that even if I say direct things, it’s not coming from my head. Direct lines are still open to interpretation.
What did it look like for Dumb Waiter to write these songs? Had you written these ideas intending to be instrumental and then changed them up to add vocals?
NC: It took a while for us to get the process down and I think you can kind of tell that on the record. We’re throwing so many things in a room and trying to make it work. This was the process of us throwing away perfectly good things. Everybody left the room at some point angry about this thing because we’re trying to cut so much and we’re trying to find enough room to put the vocals in there, and just take a more direct approach in general.
TB: I think if you listen to the full album, it’s kind of like Frankenstein’s monster. There’s cadavers, there’s parts of songs that might have been instrumental ideas. We probably had three or four instrumental songs mapped out before we really made the definitive choice to make this a vocal album. I think we might have completely shelved some of those songs, but there are definitely pieces of them. I know the first track was written and rewritten like six times. It’s definitely the oldest idea.
I would say there’s definitely a good number of these—there’s thirteen tracks and I would say at least half of them, we’d already made the shift and were more intentionally writing the songs with the rest of the album in mind. Fresh riffs with the vocals very firmly in mind.
When you started to write the lyrics, what were you focusing on? Was it personal stuff, the fact that the world is fucked and you had to say something, a combination?
NC: For me, I started being esoteric and very general but as I would write things, I would realize what I was trying to say to myself and lead into that. A lot of it became political for me and a lot of it was trying to digest growing older, friends and family, stuff getting fucked up and stuff being all over the place. I had to lean off the talk radio and news for a while just because I was so angry all the time and you can definitely hear that through the record.
TB: I don’t think we intended for it to be any one thing. It’s just a layer of honesty and you blink and realize we’re not stoked with the state of the world.
The song that we’re going to premiere is the song “Drip.” What was that song like to write, what does it mean to you guys?
NC: That was one of the songs that was pre-knowing the process of vocals. We’ve wrote and rewrote that a million times. My lines—”Paint over the stained glass” is talking about indoctrination and what can we do to change this? Time is limited and numbered.
TB: There are a lot of moments where, in the instrumental history of Dumb Waiter, we give each other way too much intellectual freedom and I think we’re just lucky that, a lot of times, it works out.
You’ve been working together so long that your styles have probably rubbed off on each other.
NC: It’s definitely intuitive but towards the end of the writing process, there was a bit for me to reckon with trying to get everybody on the same page. Maybe we can lean a certain way if this song seems too disjointed.
I think Nathaniel would agree that “Drip drip drip” is the time passing and “Feeling trapped under ice” can definitely be direct or loose, but we’re hoping this thing winds down.
TB: There is that line of “trapped under ice” and I know ICE has existed for decades or more, but I feel like Nathaneil wrote that line far before any current escalation with current ICE.
NC: But then he realized. It was one of those moments where you’re like, “I’m singing this pretty angrily, I am pretty pissed about this word.”
TB: It’s interesting how it took a new life after it was written.
When you guys are writing, a saxophone is a kind of non-traditional instrument to have in rock or metal music. Do you ever feel like you have to balance its presence or the way you’re performing so it doesn’t feel like it’s overtaking the other elements?
TB: I think there’s definitely an intent there. In the past, I think I thought that more. Nick and I, our writing and lyrical content has intuitively leaned into each other. I think our effects patterns and our outputs over the years leaned into each other. I very much know how to play to Nick’s synthesizer-guitar and I know where the bandwidth that needs to be taken up is.
I think this album was a challenge because I was trying to do as little as possible note-wise and busyness-wise, to create as much negative space for the vocals to really shine.
It’s been a couple years since Bullion’s last album, Affection, which featured Carly Rae Jepsen, Panda Bear, and Charlotte Adigéry. In the meantime, Nathan Jenkins has been busy producing records, like Avalon Emerson & The Charm’s recent Written Into Changes. Now, he’s announcing his new LP Nearly.
Back in the day, Radiator Hospital would release new music several times a year. Things have slowed down since then, but Grand Rapids-founded, Philly-based indie rockers are still kicking. Distorting Time, the sixth Radiator Hospital and first for Lame-O Records, will be out in August. A Radiator Hospital album not on Salinas? It’s a brand new era for real.
