"We've Written The Bones Of An Album In A Night!": In Conversation With THE DEAD RED LIPS

Introducing THE DEAD RED LIPS [photo: The Dead Red Lips]

Hailing from the mystical land of Brighton, UK, THE DEAD RED LIPS have shown that they're ones to watch, blending old school metal and doom with a high octane result.

After being introduced to them back last month, I had the pleasure of talking to the band about their influences, their songwriting processes and what we can expect going into next year.

"We take a lot of care and attention to how each track flows from one to the next"

"I love the band name because it doesn’t lend itself to a certain style or genre of music," guitarist/vocalist Samhain starts, "Which is very much what we are about!"

The name itself started off as a song, as vocalist LWV explains, before it cemented itself as the permanent band name. "[We] just adopted [it]. After all these years and lots of line up changes and genre changes it’s now stuck!"

After reforming in the early 2020s, the band are now leaning more into their doom technicalities, but with inspirations including Iron Maiden, Green Lung and Black Sabbath, there is still plenty to scratch the itch for traditional metal enthusiasts.

"I always liken our style to Pantera," drummer/vocalist Jester explains, "Not because we sound like them per se, but we mix riffs and groove with our original flavour. No two songs of ours sound the same, each one has its own unique personality.

"It's metal you can move to."

"We've written the bones of an album over WhatsApp in a night!"

Samhain adds "When we come together to write a track, it's completely unique in its own right. It's so cliche but it's very true!"

The band's latest studio album, "I Slay Giants", was released in July, and builds on the groundwork laid by previous releases.

"When it comes to songwriting," Samhain explains, "we've found that working around a certain theme to influence names of tracks and lyrics helps steer the musical direction." As he puts it, the band know that anything they write "has to be" something they would happily listen to themselves. "Every album will carry its own theme, but we take a lot of care and attention to how each track flows from one to the next."

The title track in question, for example, started life as an idea for a different track. "It was fused and formed out of an idea I'd shared called 'I Fight Giants'. Naturally, it developed [as an album title]."

As LWV describes, it doesn't take long at all sometimes for these ideas to develop: "Writing always comes easy when it's collaboratively done. Samhain will come up with a killer 30 second riff that will set the band chat on fire with ideas. Naturally, more riffs follow, and we've written the bones of an album over WhatsApp in a night!"

High octane energy [photo: The Dead Red Lips]

And of course, the album artwork features the band's hooded mascot, 'The Heretic', a figure they try to sneak into all their artwork, a la any good metal band mascot (Iron Maiden's 'Eddie', Megadeth's 'Vic Rattlehead', to name a couple).

With a live album now released as well, the band have shown just how busy a year this has been for them so far. And whilst the rest of the year is "relatively quiet", there is still lots to get excited about.

"No two songs of ours sound the same, each one has its own unique personality"

"It's still very productive!" the band outline. "We've got a couple of gigs lined up, and we've even branched out into organising and promoting our own gigs with the best local talent available."

If that's not enough, a third full length album is in the works, with the band heading back into the studio in November: "We've started sharing some teasers online but more will be revealed [soon]. This will be three albums written and recorded in less than 12 months, which we are completely buzzed for!

"We can't wait to see what 2026 has in store for us."

"I Slay Giants" is out NOW on all streaming platforms