[INTERVIEW] With the UK's Satanic Doom Merchants TUMANDUUMBAND!

Satanic Droning Sludge Doom from Stourbridge in the UK. This noise mongering duo are heavy, crushingly heavy, and their unbelievable talent has seen them land a slot at this year's Bloodstock Festival. I caught up with drummer Luke Orchard to see how that came about, and to tell me about the band's genesis and mission statement.

Hails Luke and thank you for taking some time out to speak with me. How is life in the metropolis of Stourbridge right now?

No problem, pleasure to chat with you. Life is treating us well, the demons are content.

Great to hear. Let's get straight into the big news. You are playing at Bloodstock Festival very soon. How did this great opportunity come about?

We battled our way through the Birmingham leg of the Metal 2 The Masses competition and emerged victorious!!

You must be very excited, and a little nervous maybe? What preparations have you made for the appearance? Any tricks up your sleeve for the folks who come and check you out at the festival?

We are elated to finally make it (after being runners up in 2019 and then covid striking)

 
We have been convening with the dead, ensuring we will cover ourselves in the glory of Satan so no room for nerves. The only thing we would suggest is wear ear protection!!

How does the live dynamic work with you being a duo? Do you have live musicians joining you or will it be just the pair of you up on stage?

As usual it will just be Brother Scott and I. We have always committed to having just the two of us.
Hence the name! Both of us put on enough of a show that other members would be surplus to requirement. Although we are accompanied by our resident stage corpses (to gaze upon in horror)

I've literally just realized what your name actually says! I'm an idiot! So would you say that being a duo, away from performing live makes life in a band easier? What is the dynamic like between you when it comes to song-writing, practice etc?

Every one we talk to finally gets that penny drop moment haha.

Being in a duo makes everything a lot easier. Scott and I have been friends for 20 years, always being in various bands both apart and together. We finally got sick of being the only two who wanted to push those bands forward so decided to trim the fat and so Tumanduumband was born.

We are both 100% on the same page with most things in life (horror films, heavy music, chicken wings and hot sauce) and this just makes being in a band together a dream. Albeit a terrifying, blood curdling dream.

I've seen you describe yourselves as Satanic Doom Metal, and your CD flies its Satanic flag proudly. Can you elaborate as to how the idea of Satan inspires you as musicians and song-writers?

Neither of us have ever been fans of mainstream, monotheistic, Abrahamic religion. I am a member of a community called The Church of Rational Satanism. We are all our own God and our own Devil.

Yes, we engage in the usual tropes (inverted crucifixes, blood rituals etc.) but we feel our music backs this up. Everyone loves a sinner right?

That they do! How do you feel about bands that evoke the name of Satan in a more tongue in cheek manner? The bands who simply use Satan / Satanism for the image?

The actions of others have little consequence on us. Do as thou will.

Shifting gears. I struggle to find doom metal bands that have a sound that really impacts me, really grabs my attention. Your 'Cursed With Blackened Tongues' EP however, has absolutely got me! How do you feel that your sound has evolved thus far? Was the style you play a conscious decision or did it form organically through practice together?

Thank you very much, we appreciate that! We have, from the start, always tried to avoid making things too complicated. One of these reasons being originally I was always a vocalist, but when we started this, I remembered I had an old kit in the loft from childhood. So I dusted it off and got back on it.

Other bands we have done together have tended to be at the opposite end of the spectrum (ultra fast grindcore band Vicious Bastard as an example) Since then we have just continued on our simple, ultra heavy path.

Would you care to take a moment to plus yours and Scott's other bands?

Sadly none are active at the moment but I am forever trying to get Vicious Bastard back on it. We were also in a grind/hard-core band Life/Short. Scott was in Burden of The Noose and also briefly played for Charger!

Charger, that's a blast from the past! So, what is in the pipeline for the band in the coming months, other than Bloodstock of course?

We have a load more Rifftuals booked in for the rest of the year! We are also planning on recording for our follow up to CURSED later this year.

You are for the most part an instrumental band. What are the reasons for this?

We toyed with the idea of introducing some vocals but in the end felt our music was strong enough that it didn't need any. We also make a point of never speaking to the crowd on stage. We feel this all adds to the oppressive evil emanating from us. Drawing them into a trance like state.

We're coming towards the end of proceedings, but I always like to ask... which bands on the UK scene are you digging these days and feel worthy of more attention?

The UK underground scene is very strong at the moment, which is great to see!

A few bands who we are good friends with include; Bile Caster (who are on the Jager stage on the Saturday) and Voidlurker (who won the 2019 M2TM) are both disgustingly heavy sludge bands who you need to check out. And also our friends from up north, Boycott The Baptist. Filthy grind/punk/noise bastards.

All of the members of the bands mentioned are thoroughly decent guys too.

I love those Boycott The Baptist miscreants! Utter carnage! Right, it's been a pleasure squire. I'll leave the final words to you.

Thank you for your time.

AVE SATANAS!!!
GLORY BE TO SATAN!!!