Metal Hammer (UK)

The filth, the fury, the fun… BARRABUS

- WORDS: RICH HOBSON

SOUNDS LIKE:

A panic attack in a collapsing building

FOR FANS OF:

Dead Cross, Napalm Death, Whores

LISTEN TO:

Porn INFUSED WITH VENOMOUS humour and frothing with righteous rage, Barrabus feel like a band that could only exist this decade: an eclectic head-on collision of punk, hardcore and noise fused into a heap of screaming, twisted metal. And yet, they are a band displaced in time, formed a decade ago by maverick purveyor of noise Paul Catten and resurrecte­d in 2017 to offend the sensibilit­ies of everybody in earshot. Barrabus aren’t just more fodder for the nostalgia circuit, however; formed as a side-project for punishingl­y heavy metal troupe Murder One, Barrabus never actually managed to put out a recording of their own, instead landing tours alongside the likes of Skindred, My Ruin and Sikth before fizzling out as other projects took hold. But, as vocalist Paul puts it, “Sometimes the strangest of events can bring you back together.”

Possessing a backstory like a horror movie, Barrabus owe their reanimatio­n to the unearthing of a past artefact – but in this case it wasn’t so much the Necronomic­on as a homemade recording of a past rehearsal.

“We couldn’t make head nor tails of it,” says Paul. “I had to take on a bunch of different personas because I couldn’t understand half the songs.”

The end result is a schizophre­nic Frankenste­in creation, the band spitting lightning bolts on every single song as they delve into topics as diverse as reality TV, pornograph­y addiction and being an outcast.

A DECADE AWAY hasn’t dulled the reflexes of Barrabus at all – if anything, the time has just cultivated more nervous, excitable energy.

“All our bands have been good live bands, but as you get older you get slower and find that suddenly things don’t quite fit,” explains Paul. “We work hard in the rehearsal room so that the audience don’t come to see a bunch of old blokes tottering around tunelessly.” That doesn’t mean that the band don’t acknowledg­e their age, however; Paul has been spotted at recent shows wielding a cane menacingly!

“Not everybody gets it,” laughs Paul. “I read one review where the guy said, ‘Maybe he needs it?’ You cheeky fucker!”

Catten and co. are firmly in the driver’s seat of the manic metal menace that is Barrabus, a band very much aware of the roads they’ve taken in the past. “We’re not expecting anybody to shit out the golden egg – we’re here to put out music that’s good and challengin­g,” explains Paul. “We could have paid a lot of money to a producer to have this record sound like how he hears us, but who wants to take that fuckin’ chance? The more independen­t bands become, the healthier the scene is as a whole; you’ve got to keep DIY alive or you become a fucking slave.” And as we all know, time waits for no slave.

BARRABUS IS OUT NOW VIA UNDERGROOV­E

“WE’RE NOT ExpECTING ANyONE

TO SHIT OuT A GOLDEN EGG”

 ??  ?? Barrabus: growing older disgracefu­lly
Barrabus: growing older disgracefu­lly

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