Lock Up: Accelerated Mutation – new video

 

 

LOCK UP's new video ‘Accelerated Mutation’ was directed by Carlos Blackshadows Aguilar; the track comes off the death & grind supergroup's latest recording ‘Necropolis Transparent’, out since July 2011 on Nuclear Blast Records. LOCK UP's third album was recorded with Danny Bigginat at HVR Studios in Ipswich, England and produced by Andy Sneap at Backstage Studios near Derby, UK:

“For me personally, it was quite refreshing and great fun to do something this extreme, especially with my mates Nick, Shane and Jeff Walker swinging by the studio to handle guest vocal duties and help us drink way too much. I have to say that ‘Necropolis Transparent’ is way more than just another grindcore album, it has elements of everything that represents brutal and extreme. An absolute must for everyone out there that like their metal full of aggression, violence and pure savagery. Buy or die!!!” [advises Mr. Sneap; listen to his advise and buy ‘Necropolis Transparent’ here (Nuclear Blast Europe) and here (Nuclear Blast USA) and here(iTunes)]

Beside guest vocals by CARCASS' Jeff Walker, ‘Necropolis Transparent’ features guest appearance by Peter Tägtgren, of HYPOCRISY and PAIN renown, and one-time LOCK UP vocalist. Commented Shane Embury:

“I always wanted Peter on the third album since he was on the first record we did. It made sense from a weird trilogy-aspect to get him on the record. His tones complement Tomas [Lindberg] perfectly as well. I would have loved to have had Peter sing on more of the songs, but time was short as Peter was heavily involved with his new PAIN record. The songs he did sing on though, made them extra special. As for Jeff, well, me and Jeff go so far back it’s unreal. We were mixing the album at Andy Sneap's and I wanted an extra vocal texture on a few tracks to spice it up. My voice is more hardcore and I wanted some extra gravel on things. It all seemed to make sense to Jeff once I had bribed him with a 12 pack of his favorite beer!”

“No melody, no groove, no pandering to anything or anyone, just another open love letter to extreme grindcore. The only thing that separates this from a crusty underground release is the pristine production that always follows these dudes around, be it in this gig or their day jobs,” [commented the record Greg Pratt for Exclaim.ca – more here]:

LOCK UP: The Embodiment Of Paradox And Chaos – courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records

LOCK UP: Life Of Devastation – courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records

This much is known:

“LOCK UP [named so after a death metal drumming technique in which the arms are stiffened to produce lightning-fast blastbeats] was conceived as a concept by Nicholas Barker (ex-CRADLE OF FILTH, ex-DIMMU BORGIR) and Shane Embury (NAPALM DEATH) in Birmigham, UK in 1998. Barker, who was based in Birmingham at that time as he was laying down his drum tracks for CRADLE OF FILTH album ‘Cruelty And The Beast’, would regularly meet Shane in the local rock pub after the days recordings, to hangout, to drink, to listen to metal of all kinds, and to reminisce about their pasts, growing up and how they got into the scene [tells the same source]. Usually, on many of these nights, guitarist Jesse Pintado - also of NAPALM DEATH - would join in the celebrations [heh]. A bond formed between them as did the idea to make a band that embraced the spirit of old school death and thrash metal, but with the blast attack of late eighties grindcore bands like REPULSION and TERRORIZER (of which Jesse was coincidently [or not so coincidently] a founding member). [After] Shane demoed a bunch of ideas on an old 4-track recorder, the three entered Backstage Studios with a very young Andy Sneap and blasted out thirteen tracks in three days.”

Barker suggested Peter Tägtgren as vocalist, since “Peter's voice had incredible range, so this seemed like a great idea, [and] of course, Peter had Abyss Studio so Nick and Shane travelled to Ludwicke, Sweden to lay down the vocals to the music”. Nuclear Blast Records released LOCK UP's debut, ‘Pleasure Pave Sewers’, in 1999:

“Defusing possible supergroup-type expectations by emphasizing spontaneity and energy over, say, rehearsal, with the array of big-name talent here, one might expect the resulting project to turn out nothing short of brilliant, but ‘Pleasure Pave Sewers’ simply wasn’t set up to be that kind of album in the first place. Rather, it’s about raw spontaneity, the seeming effortlessness with which a quartet of topnotch death-metal veterans can enter a studio, prepare themselves only minimally, and still come up with a blistering, overpowering sonic force that distills the music down to its brutal essence,” [commented AllMusic's Steve Huey – more here]

The band's second album of sixteen furious blasts of grind, ‘Hate Breeds Suffering’, was recorded with vocalist Tomas Lindberg (AT THE GATES) and released in 2002 (Nuclear Blast), followed by the release of ‘Play Fast Or Die: Live in Japan’ (2004 via Toys Factory Records in Japan and in 2007 via Shane Embury's FETO Records). Sadly, guitarist Jesse Pintado died in 2006, a few weeks after the release of TERRORIZER's second album ‘Darker Days Ahead’, due to liver failure. In 2010, the three remaining bandmembers reunited, enlisting guitarist Anton Reisenegger to fill Jesse Pintado's position.

LOCK UP features: Shane Embury (NAPALM DEATH,VENOMOUS CONCEPT) - bass, Nicolas Barker (ex-CRADLE OF FILTH, ex-DIMMU BORGIR) – drums, Tomas Lindberg (AT THE GATES, DISFEAR) - vocals , Anton Reisenegger (CRIMINAL, PENTAGRAM) – guitar