Doomed Confessionary: Stuart & Josh (Bullhead)
Bullhead is an extreme sludge metal duo hailing from Birmingham, UK. Formed back in 2016, the band consists of Stuart Lewis on bass and vocals and Josh Turner on drums.
With »Methcrush« being their first profesional EP and third release overall, Bullhead’s goal is to make music that sounds horrific, original, and as far from boring as possible. »Methcrush« EP just dropped on October 4th, 2024 via Pyrrhic Defeat Records.
Fans of Dystopia, Celtic Frost, Mistress, Full Blown AIDS, EyeHateGod, Bog Body, and the like, pay heed. This is NOT for the weak!
Can you say a few words about your band?
Stuart: We are Bullhead, we play fucking grim and evil sludgecore, our new »Methcrush« EP sounds completely fucked and fucking evil, nasty horrible fucking drum & bass in your face, full of blastbeats, D-beats, skank beats and whatever else they call them beats yunno. None of that boring fucking hippie bastard knitted sweater wearing slow-ass 50bpm stoner doom bollocks, this is pure fucking spikes & misery. No guitar wankers just fucking straight up nasty over-distorted bulldözing bass and blasting drums muahhahahaaha.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Josh: Printing fucking shirts by fucking hand in my fucking kitchen pissed me the fuck off, not doing that shit again.
Stuart: Getting a guitarist who can read tabs, turn up to rehearsal, and turn up to rehearsal and not be pissed drunk/drugged up to the focken eyeballs. We gave up.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Stuart: Nothing.
What was your biggest regret?
Stuart: Nothing.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Stuart: Metal Two The Masses had a good crowd and was sold out, I think best show was Poo Poo Night at Centrala in Brum, I’m some dipshit poseur so I didn’t know the bands I was playing with and we were told we had to send a film to set for a projector, so I just assumed it was some harsh noise event or some artsy shit for yuppie cunts so I just made a compilation of shit from Cannibal Holocaust, Guinea Pig, Serbian Film, Saló, ISIS execution videos, Jonestown and dumbass shit like Ronald McDonald being edited into 9/11 videos. We were expecting the power to be cut but it went well. I love playing at Captain’s Bar in Stoke-on-Trent cause there’s a lively crowd and a banging chipshop across the road.
Josh: Poo Poo Night was probably my favourite. Played with other demented bands and subjected everyone to horrific gore both visually and musically for 30 minutes. Doom & Grind fest was also sick, despite there not being any doom or grind there except for one example of each it was still fucking great. Cool to play with all those sick bands as well like Icons Of Filth, Retsu, Deathfiend etc. Axegrinder was supposed to headline but didn’t make it unfortunately.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Stuart: Some of the X-Factor/Rockstar ass bullshit and scammers you get, don’t understand how this is a thing in like underground extreme metal, thankfully we don’t see it often with us nor deal with it much. I know a few guys who fell for the old Machinima grift, give us money and we’ll upload your video EXCLUSIVE to our channel with all the big relevant bands who get like massive views, your shit gets 1,000 views, 4 comments calling you gay, and then your shit gets buried after two days. Also another surprise was showing my band to UB40’s manager and he said he liked it, yeah well they need to come down to our show and tear shit up in the pit and support us for real, fucking poseurs.
Josh: Incredible lack of free beer. I was expecting to be paid for gigs at least with free beer man I’ve never even come across these “drinks tokens” people say they get paid in, fucking get me on that where is it I don’t get shit half the time. Also surprised people actually pay money to listen to us, like how fucking dumb can you be to waste your time and money on this shit.
Photo credit: A2K Photography
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Josh: Sadistik Exekution, Blasphemy, Dodheimsgard, Dystopia, Master’s Hammer, Full Blown AIDS, Artillery, Abigail, Doom, and as always Barry Manilow.
Stuart: Order From Chaos – »Stillbirth Machine«, Obtained Enslavement – »Witchcraft«, Godkiller, Naked Whipper – »Painstreaks«, Old Man’s Child – »Born Of The Flickering«, Mütiilation – »Remains Of A Blahdy Blahdy Blah«, Abigail – »Intercourse And Lust«, Sadistik Exekution – »Magus/We Are Death…/Fukk«, X Japan – »Blue Blood«, Endless Dismal Moan, Misteltein – »Rape In Rapture«. Everything else I’m gatekeeping.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Josh: Don’t bother trying because you won’t amount to anything anyway
Stuart: None, I am not a musician, I am Unhindered by Talent as Sore Throat put it.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Josh: I have no guilty pleasures, my taste is objectively correct.
Stuart: Nah I don’t have this weak ass attitude, if I like something I like it that’s everyone else’s problem to cry about, if I like shit like Linkin Park, Noir Fleurir, Kate Bush, Strawberry Switchblade, N.W.A. or whatever wooly wooftah lameass bullshit they don’t like, that’s everyone else’s problem to cry about. I like all music if it’s fucking good (or not), the only genres I hate is that shitty ass dead “Afroswing” shite that was being churned out a few years ago, “future bass” fucking boring shit, dull ass “post-metal”, and fucking shitty ass deathcore. Even with the later though I don’t mind The Red Chord but M-A says they’re “technical death/grind/metalcore” instead; this is the site that said 5FDP was “groove/post-thrash” once upon a time though… Also people say I shouldn’t like metal bands like Demoniac (NZ) and shit but again I don’t give a fuck. Don’t get it twisted though, I’m not putting a fucking Malice Mizer, My Bloody Valentine or Björk patch on my fucking jacket, I’m mostly listening to metal and that’s what I mainly collect, I ain’t wearing grillz, sportsball flatbrim snapback, and gold chains on stage, I had a huge bitchfit about a “Cannibal Corpse Afterparty Event” that was just playing fucking Drowning Pool and SOAD like fuck off man… put on some Deicide or Mercyful Fate or something man what the hell.
Can you say something more about current music scene in Birmingham?
Stuart: BRIMIGNAHM HOME OF METLA HOME OF METGAL BIRMIGNHAM BLACK SABBATH BRIGHE BLACK SABBATGH HOME OFN MENTAL \mm/m/m/mm\/m/. Lots of cool bands like Voidlurker, Duke Of Edinburgh Awards, Absolution, Mould., Shebrew, Coprosynthesis, Mistress, Burden Of The Noose, Trivax, Anaal Nathrakh, Yamakunt, Spawned From Hate, Warlord, Purify The Horror, Rubber Husband, Deathfiend, TRANSISTRRR, Sally, Khost, Sarpanitum also classic bands like Benediction, Napalm Death, Godflesh, Doom, Sacrilege, Esoteric, Cerebral Fix, G.B.H., etc. and bare lots I forgot. Some good promoters like Chris Doss back in the day, and Moons and Stars Promotions. Only issue with Birmingham I find is shit numbers for turn outs at shows sometimes though, I mean when I saw Diocletian it was packed, however I saw Ares Kingdom once and there was about three fucking people there. However there’s no dickheads at shows so personally quality over quantity so I don’t really give a fuck, but it’s a ballache when bands only want to play London. Usually a good or decent turn out at our Brum shows and the crowd is always fucking great, aside from two anyway which were on dumb dates or the venue didn’t even promote. Also shout out to local legend Sammy R.I.P. who was fucking devoted to the scene, I saw him at most shows I went to. Also shout out to mad cunt Shy.
Josh: There’s loads of fucking sick bands, all the ones Stuart mentioned plus Flesh Creep, Stitched, Victim Unit, Accelerated Mutation, Coke Rodent, Nerve Agent, Knife Crime, and plenty other bands as well. Everyone seems to be in some variety of metalcore band at the moment whether they want to admit it’s metalcore or not. Not too clued up on shit outside of metal/punk/hardcore to be honest. Loads of cool folks who go to every gig they can though. RIP Sammy.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Stuart: Josh can answer this he’s actually organised.
Josh: Stoke, Sheffield, and Birmingham a couple of times before the end of this year. Next year we’ll make sure to play to our myriad fans in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. And I ain’t fucking organized I forget to show up to rehearsal half the time.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Stuart: We’re going to be recording another EP next year with some classic choons properly recorded (in our sense of the word anyway) and we’re gonna keep playing shows whereever and whenever the fuck we can.
Josh: Make as much noizzze as possible; hopefully get banned from some places.
How can people best support your band?
Stuart: Buy our new fucking EP, »Methcrush«, five fucking tracks of fucking Satanic Speedball Sludge Sadism, come to our shows and buy it, or get it from Bandcamp or Pyrrhic Defeat Records.
Josh: Give us your money.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Stuart: Buy the new fucking »Methcrush« EP you dickheads, It’s the most evil fucking shit you’ll ever hear, you know how on Bandcamp you’re checking out bands see something like the new EP from Kurjuus – »Ihmisyydestä luopunut«, grim fucking corpsepaint in the fucking woods screaming about how much they fucking hate the world and humanity, then underneath you got fucking dumbass icons people have like the fucking Among Us Imposter, whatever fucking shitty ass football team they support, their fucking car, or some fucking anime shit fucking Akira Kogami from Lucky Star or whatever dumbass shit to shit all over the page, all the icons of all the people that brought the release basically, I wanna see three rows MINIMUM on that page, I managed to just about get TWO whole rows with the tapes of my cybergrind band Xpelleir before it all got deleted for inapropriate cover art and releasing a noise EP solely to harass Rate Your Music moderators, I want to see THREE ROWS ON METHCRUSH GOD DAMN IT, THREE WHOLE ROWS MINIMUM. Support the fucking underground.
Josh: Fuck off and do something more productive with your time.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well