Band: Finish What You Started
From: Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Their formation story:
(Sam, guitar): "I moved up to the North East after COVID and met Josh (vocals) at the first DIY show I attended in Newcastle. We bonded over a ton of music, particularly the heavier end of hardcore from the late '90s, and that night decided to start a band. We did it purely for fun but after playing a bunch of local shows and honing our style a bit we realised we had something cool to build from.
"Eventually, Jay (drums) and Brett (guitar) joined which pushed us even further as they're both stupidly talented musicians, then Safeenah (bass) jumped in recently and smashed her first show after only playing bass for a handful of weeks. Everyone is on the same page in terms of influences and it definitely comes across live and on the new material."
Their sound in their own words:
"I guess our foundational bands would be stuff like Shattered Realm, No Retreat, Death Threat, Six Ft Ditch, and later-era Cold As Life. However, there's touches of Clevo style stuff like In Cold Blood and Integrity, a lot of Japanese hardcore too from the likes of Dyingrace and Loyal to the Grave, as well as a big helping of more brutal death metal like Internal Bleeding, Dehumanized and Pyrexia.
"People have called us a beatdown band, which is fair enough, but we're always conscious to maintain elements of classic hardcore in the mix, skank parts, d-beats, and whatnot as we love all that shit and it keeps it interesting. Finish What You Started is pretty much just a love letter to that era of heavy hardcore from the late '90s, I could go on about bands we love but that's a good overview."
Latest release info:
"1.9.1 (our EP we just put out) is comprised of a mixture of material. 'Shot on Sight' we've been playing for almost a year at this point, whereas Jay (drums) sent in a full demo of what would become 'NE Metal' this past boxing day out of the blue, they all encapsulate exactly what we want to achieve with this band.
"We did everything recording-wise 100% DIY with Jay handling all of the engineering, mixing and mastering. All we wanted was for it to feel like something from the late '90s with the super scooped guitars, ultra aggressive vocals and totally live, unedited drums.
"The artwork was done by Xavier from Simulakra and Gridiron, he absolutely nailed the vibe we were after with the cover and it really ties the whole thing together. We've also got tapes coming out through Death Farm records on the 5th July too which we're psyched about."
Future plans:
"Our only goal at the minute really is to play shows. We're definitely wanting to go to other cities and branch out a bit but either way we're just happy to be playing and getting our name out there in the UK scene."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"The North East has heaps of great hardcore bands, it's a really diverse scene and everyone's doing their own unique style. Check out Bloodfury, Liminal, Long Goodbye, Devil's Grip, Spit, Wise Up, Mortsafe (RIP), A Life Less Ordinary, Sulfur, Aggrieved, Prozpekt, Gylt, and Ceaseless Hunger.
"There's great underground shows happening all the time here, mainly centered at the Lubber Fiend in Newcastle. NEHC is a really welcoming space with a bit of something for everyone and loads of new bands popping up all the time."
Finish What You Stared on social media: Instagram
Tagged: finish what you started
