Doomed Confessionary: Oliver Foxen (Warrior Pope)
Photos by James Fenwick
Bristol, UK based Warrior Pope has been around for a fair while now, in various incarnations built around Oli Foxen on bass and a bunch of vintage valve amps. Solidified into a doom band format with the addition of Katya on drums. Three proper albums out and some lives/collabs. Mostly presented as doom, but plenty of black, post and stoner metal going on, always liked mixing it up some.
Their new album »A Morbid Parody Of Justice« is due out at the end of May 2025 on Bandcamp, and streaming will follow at a later date. This album features Jack Andrews on guitar (also of Death By Gimp) and David Burke, who is doing a PHD in heavy metal studies, and is also in Absent Signifier, and a frequent collaborator with improv band Permit Me These Small Miseries. Katya has been playing cymbals with a double bass bow during this gig/album cycle and people have been very excited about it.
Can you please say a few words about your band?
Amplifiers. Riffs. Trombone. Cymbals played with a bow.
Or I could go whole sentences. We’re a doom band from Bristol, that is not afraid to run quite far with quite silly ideas. As long as we can make it cohesive and work with the whole, music is first, but a whole performance is the goal.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Recovering post the pandemic pretty much resetting progress to zero, pretty much starting again but under the spectre of middle age. Ultimately probably to the benefit of the music, and my general skillset.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Seems some of the gigs we played sorting out this material were some people’s favourite gigs of the year, and at least one person who doesn’t like doom apparently now does. So that is kinda winning at what we are aiming for. A fair while ago we played a street party by my house, it was very ridiculous, fairly sure it was a buncha small kids first experience of metal, and now they’ve grown up a bit and some are clearly metal fans I see about locally.
What was your biggest regret?
Kinda got stuck on this one. Not a great one for regrets apparently. Always wish booked more studio time for recording. Some ideas never made it and were lost to time. But probably not the good ones.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
South West Heavyfest Winter Warmup, full robes and fog, with extra fog. Loads of people, loving it.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
I’m incredibly jaded at this point, so not much is surprising. People liking it more the more I indulge quite silly ideas I guess. People liking what I do at all was quite surprising in the day.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Kanonenfieber, Crypta are the new ones in my otherwise standard rotation of stuff I’ve listened to for decades, Opeth, Today Is The Day, Pig Destroyer, Acid Bath.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Get a real job. Music is only fun when it isn’t one.
What are your guilty pleasures?
I’m way beyond feeling guilty about things I enjoy, there are precious few enough as it is.
Can you say something more about the current music scene in Bristol?
Seems to be pretty lively, Bristol is among the UK cities international touring bands do, and there is plenty going on in the smaller/local side of things. Maybe there could be more venues, and beer prices could be better, but can there even be enough venues and cheap enough beer?
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
The Lion (formerly Red Lion) have booked us to play, and Moor Beer inevitably will. Need to get things rolling for gigging still.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
The set that will become the next album is written, so it’s gig that until time to record.
How can people best support your band?
Spread the word to people who will spread the word. There’s a fairly specific sort of person who will really like this music, so it’s mostly about finding those people and getting them to listen. Especially if that person is a promoter who will book us to play gigs. Sending us money for downloads and merch is nice. In theory it is getting saved up for some sort of hard copy release. But currently it’s barely keeps the foggers topped up with fluid.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Hassle your local promoters to put us on. We prob can’t do mad overseas dates, but it feels good to be asked. Some outside the south west UK would be a good start.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well