It’s that time of year again, when in the run-up to Bloodstock we endeavour to interview every band gracing the Sophie Lancaster, New Blood and Jägermeister stages from 8th – 11th August 2019. This means you’ve got a chance to read up on all your favourite bands set to play over the weekend and decide which new ones you’ll want to check out.
As ever, we’re predicting some horrible clashes because, true to form, there are some great bands across all three stages so you should start planning who you want to see.
Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!
Zealot Cult – SOPHIE stage, Friday
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Limerick in Ireland.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
In the current band around 11 years, and we have played together in other bands going back nearly 20 years!
Where does the name of the band come from?
A zealot is defined as a religious fanatic, back in early times they would have had authority, they would police people and had no problem killing for their beliefs. A cult is pretty explanatory so the two words work together to make a very death metal band name. We feel it suits the music and the lyrical themes of the songs.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We are simply an old school death metal band who take influence from the late 80’s early 90’s Florida scene. We think we bring our own personality to the genre; we’re not reinventing the wheel but we believe we are not generic either. Much of modern death metal to us sounds sterile and over-produced – we wanted something that sounded like a real band and that had actual songs rather than just a collection of showboating riffs.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
We think our live shows are tight and focused. We aim to blow your heads off with death metal done the way it should be done. A solid fist to jaw.
Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
No this will be our first time playing Bloodstock so we’re pretty excited.
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
We found out a few months ago. We played a few shows in England in February this year, and made some s from those shows. One of those s led to us playing Bloodstock. We were actually blown away that we were asked to play. It was quite a feeling.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
The setlist will draw heavily from our current debut LP Spiritual Sickness with one tune from our previous Karmenian Crypt EP release. We’ve picked a setlist that focuses on the faster, more aggressive material with a slightly more relaxed song mid-way to give people a needed respite from the madness.
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
To the best of our knowledge we will not be clashing with anyone as we are opening the Sophie Stage on Friday morning. So that’s pretty sweet.
What are you working on at the moment?
We are currently writing new material and are in discussions with a Canadian band about the possibility of doing a 7″ split. We’ve a few more live shows this year – playing the 2 Irish dates with Memoriam and playing with Dread Soverign and Malthusian in December.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Unfortunately for legal reasons we can not comment on that at this time!
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
All being seasoned alcoholics we’ve all usually been gargling a while before we play – but maybe a shot or two of Jäger to get the blood flowing would be our main choice.
Zealot Cult: facebook | bandcamp
