Band: Dead Stare
From: North East UK
Their formation story:
(Sam, guitar): “Basically both mine and Mark’s (vocals) old bands played together a couple oftimes and that’s how we met. I think we originally hit it off talking about Siouxsie & The Banshees for some reason, but when it comes to hardcore our tastes are really close. Specifically, we both love that era of traditionally-minded hardcore from the early-to-mid 2000s,think the Revelation and Bridge Nine Records stuff from that time.
"So, last year Mark’s band Mortsafe ended and I’d also just left one of the bands I was in. I wason the metro back from work one night when I decided to cold pitch him on doing a demo for aband in that sort of style with no pressure to do anything further than that. He was down and as soon as I got home I wrote Bergen House, we both thought it worked and just went from there.
"In our local scene, there’s a bunch of great hardcore punk and a bunch of great heavy bands,but not much that’s just straight down the middle. Musically we just wanted it to sit in that area: fast, hard, and with lyrics that have something to say. I didn’t want any of the songs to have more than 3 or 4 riffs or break the 2 minute mark, that was pretty much all we had in mind.
"Connor from Conviction Records told us he’d put the demo out before he’d even heard it soafter we sent it off to him we thought that would be about it. That was the case until he offered us a spot opening for Terror in Newcastle. As you can probably tell it can’t be understated how influential Terror’s early material is for both of us, so getting offered that show was a dream come true.
"To complete the lineup, we got Safeenah on bass who I’d previously played with in Finish What You Started, and Luke joined on drums who also plays in Cruelty.”
Their sound in their own words:
“Influence-wise we kept it true to stuff like the Terror demo and Lowest of the Low, as well as the early Death Threat and Hatebreed releases. From my perspective on guitar, I was also taking a bunch of ideas from Left For Dead, Path of Resistance, Integrity, and Buried Alive. Overall though, it's just straight up, honest hardcore.”
Latest release info:
“Jay Mills (Long Goodbye, Inhuman Suffering) recorded the demo for us and played the drumson it too. We just tried to get it to sound as live and true as possible with real amps, real drums,no click track, and the majority of it was done in a single take.
"As soon as Mark came in and did the first line of the title track I remember Jay and I looking at each other like, 'fucking hell this is it!' He’s got such a commanding voice which you can hear in all of the bands he’s done, it wasincredible to hear him in isolation like that as a fan of what he does.
"Jay and I have a greatworking relationship when it comes to recording so front to back the demo didn’t take long, we started setting up at around lunchtime and everything was done before tea.
"In terms of the artwork it was a DIY cut, paste and scan job. We chose the eyes to suit the bandname but we also thought it was a nice nod to Verbal Assault.”
Future plans:
“At the moment, besides the Terror show in Newcastle we don’t have much on. Dead Stare is definitely going to be quite chilled out because of family commitments and people being in other bands. However, if anything comes up we think is sick and we can do then we’ll take it. I’m
always working on music so I’m sure there’ll be more stuff on the go pretty soon.”
What other bands from their region should we check out?
“Active right now we've got Burial Plot, Long Goodbye, Spit, Prozpekt, Thrak, Pieces of Eden, Septic Wound, Börda, Inhuman Suffering, Revival Denied, and Seconds Out to name just a few,plus there’s a bunch of new bands on the way with some familiar faces.
"As always massive shoutout to Connor of Conviction Records and Stu from Byker Grave for keeping the scene vibrant, diverse and something everyone up here is immensely proud to be part of.”
The Dead Stare demo is available on cassette via Conviction Records.
Dead Stare on social media: Instagram
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