It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are Tortured Demon who play the Jagermeister Stage on Thursday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are all from Oldham, just outside Manchester.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We started playing together at school in 2018, but our current line-up has been in place since January 2020.
Where does the name of the band come from?
We spent a while trying to come up with a name when we first started, but we thought Tortured Demon sounded good, so we stuck with it. The other option was Toxic Goat (we know!), but we’re glad we made the choice that we did.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We base our sound on thrash metal but we are not afraid to take influences from other styles, and we don’t box ourselves into one subgenre specifically. We have thrash, breakdowns, screams and melody all thrown into one package! Our new album is available for free on all the usual streaming services, so please be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.
If you like what we do, consider ing us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Our live show is why we are in a band, and Bloodstock will be our biggest show to date. Our live shows are always intense, and we will be pulling out all the stops to aspire to make it a brutal 30 mins to for everyone who’s there. We’ll probably be the first band on the Jager Stage of the whole festival (time TBA), so we will be looking to break it in, and as the youngest band on the bill we will definitely be bringing something different!
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
None of us have actually attended before, but we would have been coming this year regardless, even if we weren’t playing. To be on the bill is mind blowing for us though!
When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Bloodstock?
It was in April or May. We had applied earlier in the year when Simon was looking for some bands, and we couldn’t believe that he’d picked us!
What sort of setlist can we expect?
Plenty of songs from our new album, In Desperation’s Grip, with more than a few fast-paced tracks to get the audience moving (and woken up on the Thursday morning!)
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
We hope we don’t clash with Ashen Crown (it’s touch and go we think), but we have our fingers crossed! At other times over the weekend we are looking forward to seeing Evile, Venom Prison, Shrapnel, Conan, Judas Priest, Divine Chaos, Saxon, RipTide, plus many, many more.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What are you working on at the moment?
Whilst we are always writing new material, and our next release is coming along, it’ll be a while before we begin preparing to record. We are currently focusing on booking shows and tours for next year to promote In Desperation’s Grip, and we have a lot of killer announcements in that area coming very soon!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Probably at our 2020 M2TM Heat when at the end of the set Jacob ran down to the barricade and held up his guitar… which was swiftly unplugged and snatched by the crowd. It was then ed to the very back of the venue, before being returned to him 5 minutes later!
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
We don’t really need anything to hype us up, as the atmosphere at a gig is more than enough for us. As soon as we hear the first chug of a guitar through the PA at Bloodstock we will be seriously fired up!
Tortured Demon: facebook | instagram | spotify | youtube
