(written by Islander)
Using Juliet as his voice, Shakespeare asked us to ponder “What’s in a name?” But while roses would indeed smell as sweet (or as foul, depending on your tastes) if given some other name, names do matter, especially when a band chooses one that tells you what they’re up to like a hammer landing on your forehead.
The Irish members and former members of Sermon Of Flames, Mortichnia, and Coscradh chose Leadbelcher as the name of the new band they formed in 2024. Now that’s a name! A no-bullshit name that seems to promise unpretentious ugliness and might also make you smile at its cleverness. But Leadbelcher aren’t pandering for smiles with the music on their debut album Heaven’s Bloated Corpse. They’re using it as an outlet for their fury and disgust.
Here’s how Leadbelcher vocalist Matthew Simpson describes what fueled the record’s music and words:
“It is impossible to escape the indoctrination of religion in Ireland, be it North or South. It is in our schools, inflicted upon our children, and rooted within our political parties. It is the constant murmur of segregated communities, and a façade used to justify views soaked in hatred. Prayer does not relieve you of your crimes — some people are not worthy of a saviour. This is transubstantiation to the extreme; this isn’t just partaking in communion with God, it’s eating the entire bloated corpse.”
As that quotation signifies, Leadbelcher are confronting a centuries’ long rot they see in the soul of their nation, and they have channeled that consumption by violence, disease, and spiritual collapse into a savage blend of death metal, grind, and d-beat that the band describes as “dissident death metal” (and, well, they’ve displayed their cleverness there again).
The album track we have for you today, accompanied by a gut-punching video, is “Offalated Yeshua“.
Simpson expels this song’s words in brutal roars, mixed with explosive screams, and the music is damned brutal too. The riffing is gnarled and gnashing, corrosive and punishing. With d-beats driving and bass pounding, the riffing is primitive and heartless in its head-butting pulsations, but it also perniciously squirms, miserably writhes, and begins to sound like the blaring of a warped emergency siren as the drums blast away.
There’s no mistaking the grim bleakness of the song, or its rage, or its cathartic force. Find something else to smile about today, if you can.
LEADBELCHER is:
Matthew Simpson – Vocals
Daniel Thompson – Guitars
Ian Devlin – Bass
Karl Leavey – Drums
Heaven’s Bloated Corpse was recorded and mixed by Josh Robinson (JSR Audio, Belfast), it was mastered by James Plotkin (Blasphemy, Khanate, Leviathan), and it features artwork by Adam Medford.
The album will be released by Apocalyptic Witchcraft on October 16th on limited edition 10″ vinyl, digipack CD, and cassette tape. They recommend it for fans of: Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, Abscess, and Deviated Instinct.
Pre-orders will be available at the locations linked below, and we also invite you to experience the visualizer video for the album’s first single, “Severance Of Belief“.
PRE-ORDER (PHYSICAL):
https://apocalypticwitchcraft.co.uk/
PRE-ORDER (DIGITAL):
https://leadbelcher.bandcamp.com/album/heaven-s-bloated-corpse
LEADBELCHER:
https://www.instagram.com/leadbelcher.scum/
https://www.facebook.com/people/Leadbelcher/61581747969071/