Hot New Band: Black Peaks

The problem with making music that covers too many bases is that you risk becoming mediocre jacks-of-all-trades and masters of nothing worth bothering with. There has to be an exception to prove the rule, however, and Brighton’s gleefully cross-pollinated Black Peaks are already defying the odds by infiltrating mainstream UK radio with their recent Closer To The Sun EP and new single Glass Built Castles.

Mixing brutish alt.rock with proggy detours and shades of post-Dillinger insanity, these burgeoning ground-breakers are on course to be one of 2015’s unlikeliest success stories.

“What we do is pretty heavy and it goes a lot darker than the songs people have heard so far,” says vocalist Will Gardner. “We’re huge fans of Meshuggah, Dillinger, Between The Buried And Me and Tool. That’s where we come from. When our first single, Say You Will, was on the radio, we were like, ‘What?!’ We had blastbeats on Fearne Cotton’s Radio 1 show. It’s pretty mental!”/o:p

Although no strangers to mesmerising earworm melodies and moments of subtlety, Black Peaks are plainly a heavy band at heart and, according to Will, we should all prepare ourselves for some serious, neck-wrecking intensity when the band’s debut album, Statues, is released later this year.

“There are a couple of tracks I can’t wait for Metal Hammer to hear because they’re crushing!” he grins. “There are a couple of more commercial tunes, too, but we always have this rule that it’s got to be dark and heavy and beautiful as well. We never set out to write music in a certain way, but we want to be able to support Dillinger and Biffy, if that makes sense! We all listen to loads of different stuff and we’ve all been in tons of bands – that’s just how it is in Brighton. The rock scene is absolutely pumping down here at the moment.”

Despite their eclectic approach, Will and his comrades are well on their way to becoming major contenders and winning over the mainstream rock community, but it’s the metal scene that the band are most eager to convert to their multifarious ways. With numerous festival appearances and UK club shows planned for the coming months, Black Peaks are ready to work their collective knackers off to prove that they might just be capable of being all things to all people.

“We just can’t wait to take this album on the road,” says Will. “We’re ready to leave the house right now, jump in a van and do the dirty. We’ve aimed our shows at different crowds so far. Metal fans are the hardest crowd to please, but once you’ve got them and they’re with you, they’re with you forever.”

GLASS BUILT CASTLES WILL BE RELEASED DIGITALLY ON APRIL 8/o:p

Dom Lawson began his inauspicious career as a music journalist in 1999. He wrote for Kerrang! for seven years, before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine in 2007. His primary interests are heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee, snooker and despair. He is politically homeless and has an excellent beard.