THE FIVE HUNDRED
What happens when OCD threatens to cripple your first steps into music? You channel it to create something special
WHEN GIBRALTAR-BASED METALHEADS MarkByrne and Andy Crawford outgrew the heavy scene of their Mediterranean domain, they set their sights on sunny, er, Nottingham as their new home, bringing in the area’s most talented metal musicians to form The Five hundred.
With a sound combining the sultry tones of 90s grunge vocals and the relentless riffage of Sikth and
Architects, The Five hundred are breaking the restrictive mould melodic metal made for itself.
“our vocalist Johnathan [Woodseley] is a 90s grunge kid like Chris Cornell, and I’m into Meshuggah,” guitarist Mark explains, “so when you hear his clean vocals over our guitars, you hear that haunting, dejected feeling you’d find in bleak grunge.”
The guys have faced their fair share of adversity, from drink and drug addictions to crippling mental health issues that have put their love of metal and their instruments to the test. Guitarist Paul Doughty has taken on both physical tics from Tourette’s Syndrome and extreme obsessive compulsive disorder and transformed them into his musical strengths rather than obstacles.
“Like any creative genius in the history books, Paul’s oCD is his Shakespearean artistic flaw,” Mark explains. “In his early 20s, he couldn’t leave the house without washing his hands 17 times, so he channelled it in a positive way by picking up a guitar. he’d become obsessed with Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold solos so he’d play them over and over for five hours every night until he nailed them – when he came into rehearsal the next day, he’d start playing and our jaws would drop.”
Bassist Andy, meanwhile, openly admits his past problems with gambling, initiated by his first full-time job in a betting shop, highlighting the oft-ignored yet debilitating addiction.
“Gambling is a real issue that isn’t spoken about – while rock’n’roll lives of drink and drugs are well known, nobody mentions gambling. All I was doing was chasing that high of winning, which is how I’ve been able to focus on music in the same way instead.”
their DeBut alBum,
Bleed Red, focuses on the psychological factors of addiction that alter the human mind – from ignorance to hysteria – with each track depicting a different destructive aspect that the band have tackled first-hand. The therapeutic songwriting process for the album has brought the band a much-needed closure to catalogue their personal battles.
“Some people get into martial arts or fitness, some get into drink and drugs to escape the shit life throws at them. For us, we have chosen to throw ourselves into our music and used it as a way of venting all the crap that builds up.”
Pulling in renowned producer Justin hill [Sikth, heart of A Coward] who worked on their first two ePs, their debut full-length soon became a beast, tamed only by the co-operative writing approach of the bandmates.
“We don’t feel the vocalist needs to write their own lyrics or the guitarist needs to write their own riffs,” Mark states. “I love playing guitar and writing riffs but Andy has more of a knack at putting songs together, plus I seem to have a way with words so I write a lot of our lyrics.”
Ultimately, The Five hundred are chasing the thrill that metal gave them growing up by forging their own distinct brand, and facing down their demons in the process.
“I’ve always got an accomplished feeling from music, even when I was in my teens listening to Slipknot when dealing with personal troubles,” Mark adds. “After listening to Surfacing, everything immediately felt better. I wanted to be the guy who made those horrible sounds in music.”
“HE COULDN’T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT WASHING HIS HANDS 17 TIMES”
BLEED RED IS OUT NOW VIA LONG BRANCH