Metal Punk Inferno

LONDON NEOCRUST five-piece Sewer Trench have been creeping around in the gutters of the underground for over a decade, during which time they've evolved from being a rough and ready deathcrust band into an outfit capable of constructing more complex, brutal and intricate material that drip with the kind of sardonic nihilism reflected in song titles such as 'The Poisonous Tide Haunted My Dreams, Washing With It The Corpses Of Everyone I've Ever Loved'.

They've been through numerous line up changes, the latest of these being the addition in 2023 of Contract Killer bassist/vocalist and Lithuanian beer monster Arnas on guitar, who cut his teeth in now defunct and much missed London crust trio Chain Of Panic. Arnas' arrival seems to have triggered a new phase in the band's development. I took a trip down into the sewer to see what they had to say about it.

To get a bit of context, we started at the beginning. What were they thinking when they started the band? What was the motivating factor?

"There was never a clear aim," reveals Kez, "I had just presented crust music to Marc (the first vocalist) who got excited and we thought of making a band, called an old friend which we played together back in Brazil. The initial aim was just do punk with simple songs and direct lyrics like Discharge, it developed into something else as members changed, Alex and I are the only ones since the very beginning, but Hadley is in everything we released too and has been responsible for the majority of songs, at least all lyrics, we do since Optimism."

Alex: "I joined just to practice drums while the guitarist of Dgorath was away, saw an ad saying drummer needed for blastbeats and dbeat, since it's the only thing I can do, I though what the heck and here we are..."

Nowadays you seem to be the kind of band whose sound defies categorisation. How would you define it?

Kez: "Crust? Emo crust? Death crust? Stadium Crust seems to be the one we are the most keen on now. Bunch of divas."

Arnas: "Emo-crust"

Alex: "Used to be out of tune crap, now it's union of Orchid and Ekkaia (pun intended)"

Kez: "Earlier; Discharge, Driller Killer and Skitsystem. Now Ekkaia, Ekkaia and Ekkaia."

Arnas (sounding like a man with a clear agenda): "As long as I am in the band, mostly Ictvs and Ekkaia."

Alex: "Slayer, Slayer, Ekkaia, Madame Germen, Slayer, 1349."

Kez: "The older stuff is shittier, now it's emo."

When asked to pinpoint how the early stuff compares to what they're doing now, Alex could hardly be more succinct: "It was shit, now it's better."

So how do you think the arrival of Arnas will affect the sound going forward? What made you think he was the right replacement for departed guitarist Loz?

Kez: "Arnas was already keen and wanted to move towards to a more ‘’neo-crust’’ kind of thing. He was sharing a place with Deano, now he has already written one song for us, so he is leaving his mark and he is really cool, everyone likes him. I’m not really sure why Loz left, there were some personal drama with someone that culminated on him leaving the band. He is now putting on some good gigs with cut and run collective."

Alex: "Arnas is a nice guy, and sometimes being a good person is more important than having chops. He likes Ekkaia so he fits right in! The last guy also likes Ekkaia but he left the band for some unknown reasons (to me at least)"

Sewer Trench's songs are now fairly sophisticated constructions compared to the old stuff. Where is all of that coming from?

Hadley: "Alex and I do the bulk of the songwriting, but everyone has written or co-written at least one track. I also write all the lyrics. Stylistically, my main influences are J R Hayes and Davey Havok, I guess, but content-wise, it's more about whatever's going on in my life, or interests me at the time. Some of it's political, some isn't."

As far as lyrics are concerned, what would you say are your main preoccupations? What are you trying to get across specifically?

Hadley: "I don't know if I'm trying to "get across" anything lyrically. The lyrics are relatively abstract. I generally go for a creepy, unsettling vibe. I guess if I'm trying to get anything across by that it's that everything is fucked. Maybe I'm saying you should try to do something about it, but it's really not that explicit. I'm not your dad."

What about politics?

Hadley: "Sewer Trench, as a band, are antifascist and always have been. I don't think that resolution has ever waxed or waned in any significant way. There have been members who have been more and less dedicated to that cause, but as a band, that's always been our political stance."

Alex: "Antifascist forever, anti most things. No speed, no punk."

One thing you're not averse to is investing your creativity into other projects. What side bands do you all have on the go at the moment:

Hadley - "Body Throne, Carthage Must Be Destroyed, Closed Hands, Dgorath, Revival"

Alex -"Dgorath, Monad, Monadth, Satlan"

Deano - "Body Throne, Secreum"

Arnas - "Contract Killer, Labartu."

You define yourselves as mostly neocrust, but it's undeniable that a dominant strain of grindcore runs through your sound. What do you consider to be the best kind of grindcore, old-school or the more modern kind:

"Define 'modern' and 'old school,' " challenges Hadley, "Where is the cut-off point? Is anything after 2000 modern? 2010? Is "Prowler in the Yard" modern? I certainly know people who would say it is and people who wouldn't. Is it a stylistic choice, like raw production vs more clean production? Political vs party grind?

Obviously I like what I would consider "the classics" more than newer records, because the old stuff was what got me into it. I don't know if I can say its objectively better, but I personally prefer grindcore rooted in punk and hardcore than the more metallic stuff. I think that puts me in the "old school" category."

Arnas: "I prefer old-school grindcore, but new-school grindcore is good as well; hard to answer this question."

Twelve years is a long time. Looking back, what have been your best and worst experiences?

Hadley: "Best experience - shooting a firework out of my arsehole

Worst experience - shooting a firework out of my arsehole"

Kez: "Best experience - shooting a firework out of Hadley's arsehole.

Worst experience - "sleeping with Spooks and missing an orgy in Bulgaria coz we trusted the most sober."

Arnas: "so far worse experience that I fucked up intro of one song playing live, still carrying shame of that. Rest of it is mostly fun."

Alex (showing again that he is nothing if not concise): "Best experience is touring, worst experience is touring."

And if that doesn't sum up the predicament of every single band that ever walked the earth, i don't know what does. So, aside from the usual anal pyrotechnics, what's next for Sewer Trench?

"We're just wrapping up writing our second album," confirms Hadley, "which we're planning on recording by the end of the year. Also potentially a few dates in Europe in the Autumn."

These days bands come and go with depressing regularity. We've recently seen the demise of Cabecas Cortadas and The Chain Of Panic. How much longer is Sewer Trench going to last?

"Sewer Trench never dies," Hadley scoffs, "we just smell like we have."

Kez concurs: "Sewer Trench will never die. Sorry."

Arnas: "Probably forever."

Alex: "Until we drop dead or become vegetables."