West Latvian youngsters Trencheard are no strangers to the Riga scene. They are taking the 3.5h bus to the capital city quite often to spread their death metal sound and gain popularity outside of Liepāja city. Trencheard has now appeared on every major Latvian metal festival line-up, even those organized by 50-something dudes because of Trencheard authenticity and attitude both on and off stage.
Here’s a little interview with my favorite Latvian metal band Trencheard
1. You guys started as a crusty sounding metal band but slowly turned into blackened death metal. Why is that? And what’s the band’s history?
Personally, we’d say that we started out as a thrash metal band, with our first two songs being very trashy, but the crusty sound was foreshadowed by our song, ‘’thou shalt mosh’’, which is a short, fast, straight-beat song about reviving mosh pits in Liepāja music venue and bar Fontaine Palace. But the real crusty sound appeared when Pēteris and Regnārs listened to a bunch of tragedy, disfear, and martyrdod and made one crusty song with a lot of d-beats, and ever since we’ve had a tendency to put in d-beat riffs with fast face-melting solos.
The band started completely by accident on one day in 2021, when Pēteris was riding his bike and saw a strapping, young, long-haired lad wearing a slayer t-shirt that he had never seen before in his city. So naturally, he drove up to this lad and immediately started a conversation. That whole day, they hung out and decided that they would make a band because they played drums and guitar. The original line-up was pēteris on lead guitar and vocals, Harijs on rhythm guitar, and Aleksis on drums. But after a few months, Harijs left because of school, so Trencheard became a duo for a few months before finding Regnārs and later on Aleksandrs.
2. Bassist doing the main vocals is the ultimate Lemmy move. Your vocalist Pēteris also has a Motörhead tribute wall at his home. Who’s writing your songs and what are they about? And what’s with the Lemmy worshiping?
Our songs are written as a collective; we believe that as a band, everyone has to contribute to writing the instrumental; however, the lyrics have been written by pēteris and Aleksis. Aleksis wrote the songs more based on war and other generic trve kvlt metal shit. We have two songs about the Vietnam War, a song about the atrocities done in Unit 731, the human centipede, and what it would be like to be burning alive in hell. Whereas pēteris writes the more edgy punk lyrics about how people treat others based on how they dress or look, about experiencing grief, homelessness, pollution, and this one time in the 1910s where a lot of people from Liepāja froze and starved to death because they couldn’t get any firewood. But unfortunately, as of recent months, Pēteris is stuck with writing all the lyrics for upcoming songs because it would be a more fitting role for the vocalist of the band.
And about Lemmy. I’m not sure if the tale of Lemmy has affected the other members as much as it has to Pēteris. Ever since a young age, he’s looked up to Leonardo da Vinci as a person and an artist. So when he started playing bass, he studied the way Lemmy plays bass and uses similar vocal techniques. And he keeps his microphone above his head at an angle as much as possible while also playing as loud as possible at every gig. It’s purely a religious statement because Lemmy is God.
3. You have recorded some tracks but are delaying their release. Why is that? What do you plan to call the album (or demo)?
We have recorded four of our favorite songs at the moment, and currently they are being mastered. We’ve been staying away from rushing the recording because we wanted to make the EP as perfect as possible. While recording the ep, we decided to put in some new parts to make it sound more melodic, so that took some even more time, and the demo will be called “Nāve Zinātnes Vārdā” / “Death In The Name Of Science”. Which is based off of a track on the ep, “Atrocities of the Rising Sun,” which is also the inspiration for the cover art.
4. How’s the Liepāja scene? What other bands besides Trencheard, Ryvendir and Overcast Rain are active there and worth checking out?
The Liepāja scene is growing stronger every month! In the last few years, a lot of young people have been starting punk rock and metal projects, though at the moment they aren’t very active performers, because they are preparing their material. Currently, there are bands such as Cuntroller, a raw crust band, and a neocrust band one of the Trencheard members is starting, and with the recent breakup of Kultura Potreblenya, there have been rumors that their guitarist is also working on a brand new HC punk band. And long-gone meme band Nagla has made a new line-up and is working on something “big.” So the scene is still growing, and you won’t find much music without going over to the musician’s house for a listen, but with the rapid rise of alternative cultures in Liepāja, I don’t think it will be long before even more bands start popping up.
5. What can FILTHY HANGOUT attendees expect from the Trencheard show in April? Cheers and see in a month!
In this performance, viewers will be presented with some really fast, hard-hitting riffs, beautiful melodies, gun-like blast beats, and perhaps even a new song. We’ve all been looking forward to this occasion, so there is a chance that there will be some new patches and maybe even shirts. We will do our best to give everyone a good earache, a memorable set, and some intense mosh pits!!!