This summer, Guilt Trip have played some of Europe’s biggest festivals, carving their name into the minds of those who love all things heavy. Playing a unique brand of hardcore that sees them delve into elements of thrash, old-school hardcore and fist-pumping metal, the Manchester quartet are growing at an impressive rate. In fact, guitarist Jak Maden suggests they might have even been “overachieving” compared to where they expected, or hoped, they might be at this stage in their career.
The band’s 2019 debut River Of Lies laid the very foundation for what Guilt Trip are all about: a DIY sound backed by heavy riffs with a sprinkling of grooves. Indeed, their blueprint lives in hardcore, but fast-forward just a few years to now, and they’re entering much bigger leagues with new album Severance. “We’ll probably always be a hardcore band,” begins vocalist Jay Valentine, “but I think we’re just trying to see how far we can push the sound we have.
“We’ve not changed our sound over the years to make it more listenable, in order to achieve this and that,” he adds. “It’s just the music we’ve wanted to play.”
“I think we’ve matured,” considers Jak. “It’s been the natural path to not sound like a traditional hardcore band. A hardcore sound is so broad, and it’s impossible to really say, as there’s so many different sounds within the scene.”