Mysteriously emerging from the bottom of the internet’s murky depths, the debut EP from Manchester-bred riff-mongers Tronald is a bizarre concoction of noise-ridden sludge, utilising the vocal talents of a range of acts from England’s North-West, including The Hyena Kill, Boss Keloid, Mower and Riggots. Working as a collective, the group, spearheaded by musicians Charlie Seisay and Andy Preece, have crafted eight tracks of tripped-out psych-fuelled metal borrows heavily from the doom scene whilst simultaneously parodying it.
Featuring great track names like ‘Boss Keloid Are Shit’ and ‘Vegan Gains’, the EP’s gloriously sludgy songs have a combined length of 18 and a half minutes, providing a quick-fire introducing to a group whose fuzz pedal-reliant shenanigans and Acid Bath-esque eccentricities are sure to make them a must-watch from the already well-populated doom/sludge scene. We had a chat with Charlie Seisay to get the lowdown on all things Tronald.
How did you come up with the name Tronald? Is there a political theme to your music?
It appeared as a spoonerism at first, then we shortened it. He was president elect when we were recording it; the whole campaign and aftermath was crazy and clearly had an effect on us somehow.
Who/what inspires you musically?
All types of heavy with psych and shoegaze influences on the production and tones.
How many people altogether contributed to the EP?
Seven, man.
Why did you decide to bring in a variety of vocalists, instead of recruiting one to join the group?
We had some studio time going spare and decided the night before to do some heavy stuff. We put the basic tracks down from scratch in four hours. We knew we could get our mates down to ‘sing’ on them so thought ‘why not?’ It was more fun this way.
Sludge and noise often favour lengthy tracks, is there a reason you opted for shorter runtimes?
We had the studio from 0900 to 1700 and showed up at midday. Had we been on time there’d probably be some more protracted cuts.
Where did the psychedelic artwork originate from?
It has somewhat influenced the production and seems to have naturally affected the visuals. There’s a quite a strong psych influence to the whole thing.
The EP seems to be an ode to the doom/sludge genre, but is it also somewhat a parody of it?
Totally. ‘Obelisk Ov Hash’?!!?! C’maaaaaaaaan.
What can we expect from Tronald in the future?
We’ve got a whole new slew of vocalists to write tunes for. We’re not writing anything ahead of time, just gonna go in and improvise. Expect it to sound absolutely nothing like our current release. Plus there’s some more music videos coming for our EP tracks that are simply lovely.
Tronald is out now on APF Records. Purchase here.
Words: George Parr
