AATR Catch in with Rancid Offal Promotions discussing GOREMAGGEDON 2025 and the current music scene.

We took some time to catch in with Jack, Sam and Jake from Rancid Offal Promotions before the highly anticipated Goremaggedon 2025. Goremaggedon will be taking place on the 22nd March 2025 at Star and Garter in Manchester. After the success from 2024 this years line up will feature Viscera Infest (UK exclusive debut), Pivorapist, Public Execution, Vast Slug, Priest Crippler and Lymphoedema.

Hey Guys, Thanks for taking some time out of your schedule to answer a few questions with us at All About The Rock, let’s start with getting to know you guys. Let’s start with a brief introduction and how long have you been promoting / organizing shows?

Jack: Jack here, the marketing and bank behind the operations – I have been putting on shows since 2022 when Sam approached me for the first iteration of Offal Fest to help with making it big.

Sam: Yo, I’m Sam, Founder and over the top aspirational loud mouth of the operation haha pleasure to be here. I started promoting Before Covid in 2018 I want to say? Under Vivisection Promotions along with some friends at the time, but never on a large scale. During Covid I jokingly created a festival poster and that was it – Offal Fest was born and then Jack joined to keep me in check, the festival wouldn’t have continued without him. 

Jake: Yoo what’s good, I’m Jake, I have been organizing extreme metal shows in Manchester since 2020 when my first show was also my first fest / all day show and I have recently joined the rancid offal team to help grow and expand the death metal scene in manchester

Typically, what kind of metal subgenres do you work with?

Jack: Brutal Death Metal, Slam & Grind, Goregrind is my specialty.

Sam: Same as Jack said although I focus more on the Brutal Death Metal side of it. 

Jake: For me its Slamming brutal death metal all day, but I also enjoy working with death metal, brutal death metal, goregrind & beatdown bands.

What do you look for in bands/artists when booking them for a show?

Jack: Needs to be something I think can be fun, hard as nails and leave everyone absolutely in love

Sam: Hard Riffs and Blastbeats mainly haha but I certainly go for bands I personally love and I enjoy introducing new talent and old talent to new audiences. 

Jake: If they have palm mutes, im sold.

How do you gauge and cater to the preferences of the metal community in your area?

Jack: Constantly attending shows and networking, a large part of my life is music and I’m always looking for new stuff in Manchester.

Sam: Being in a band myself I keep an eye and ear out on new bands, old bands that people haven’t seen in a while or even at all. Just talk to people and get to know the fans. The rest sort of falls into place once you know where to look. 

It helps being a big fan of this genre of music and the bands within, it makes networking so much more personal and friendly. 

Jake: As Sam said, being in a band myself automatically helps to speak to the Manchester scene directly and take on board any suggestions for new bands that the fans would like to see live, also keeping upto date with bands on social media that are in the limelight always helps. 

How far in advance do you begin promotions or planning of line ups for a show?

Jack: A year to a year and a half in advance of the event happening for the yearly shows (Goremageddon & Offal Fest).

Sam: Usually a year to a year and a half in advance for a festival. If it’s a smaller show then maybe 6-9 months. 

Jake: I can just speak from the last few festivals i have organized, i have usually started planning 6-8 months in advance

With the types of bands you book for your shows, Is there any thought process in the venues selected for your shows?

Jack: Rebellion is our home and Star & Garter is the face of grind, outside of that we love to try and work with new venues all the time but not as many want to take on (extreme) metal shows.

Sam: Rebellion is definitely a second home to us all. Whether it be as Promoters, Punters or Musicians (in mine and Jake’s case). 

It allows for smaller bands to play a bigger stage while also allowing for bigger bands to play on a stage size they are used to. 

Jake: As the lads said Rebellion is the number 1 go to place for majority of decent sized shows in Manchester and most people in the scene enjoy this venue as we have all been hosting and attending shows there for years.

After the previous success of Goremaggedon in 2024, could you tell us a bit about this years Goremaggedon on the 22nd March 2025 at Star & Garter? Should people be expecting anything different this year…

Jack: Cockroach and the Venga Bus, if you know, you know.

Sam: Hyperspeed Cockroach Mosh, that’s all i need to say. 

Jake: Manchester wont know whats hit it when the cockroach mosh is in full swing.

What are some common challenges you face as show promoter for slam / metal events?

Jack: Scaling, the community is absolutely phenomenal and we’re proud to be a part of it, but every decision always needs to come with meticulous planning to mitigate risks, we’ve learned this the hard way.

Sam: As jack has said, scaling shows up is always a challenge, and wanting to make sure that we can sell enough tickets in advance of the event. We are lucky to be in Manchester where the community is strong and growing, and I like to think we play a big part in that, but ticket sales can make or break any event, so we always encourage people to buy in advance. 

Jake: The usual challenge with any show is selling tickets in advance, I think any promoter would agree with this as like Sam said this could make or break any event.

What would you say has been your most memorable or successful show to date?

Jack: The first year of Offal Fest will always be hard to top, it completely set everything in motion and gave us the drive to keep pushing, outside of that Goremageddon 2024, Manchester had such a fantastic grind scene back in the day and it’s so great to see it back and thriving these days, Goremageddon 2024 didn’t sell amazingly in advance until close to the show happening, but the scene came out in waves on the day.

Sam: I have a special love for every show we have put on, but for me personally it would be booking To Violently Vomit (formerly Disgorge US) for Offal Fest 2 in 2024 and getting the once in a lifetime chance to play my favourite song of theirs “Atonement” as a guest 2nd Guitarist. I will never forget that moment as long as I live. 

Jake: Even though I was not part of the rancid offal team at this stage I was lucky enough to witness the incredible first offal fest, I was blown away with how well the lads did organizing this show and the turnout was insane. I was proud of these fellas back then and I’m more than honored to now be a part of the team.

What band if you could bring any to one of your shows would be on the wish list and why?

Jack: Last Days of Humanity, one day they’ll either let me book them or block me for annoying them enough!

Sam: That’s a hard on for me as all the bands I wished I could book, I have booked haha. But i would still love to book Devourment, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, alongside a lot of my friends bands from around the world: Architectural Genocide, Mystery Meat, Anal Stabwound, Delusional Parasitosis, Seminal Embalment, Putrescent Seepage, Severed Saviour, I could go on forever hahaha!

Jake: For me its Dying Fetus all day, there is a list as long as my arm but these guys take the biscuit, a huge influence on 99% of people in the death metal community and truly an icon in death metal as a whole.

What would be your dream line up if there were no restraints on budget or venue choice?

Jack: Dying Fetus, Skinless, Devourment, Last Days of Humanity, Cerebral Incubation and Disgracing at Rebellion.

Sam: Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Disgorge (US), Devourment, Gorgasm, Severed Saviour, Cerebral Effusion, Amputated, Coprocephalic Mutation, 357 Homicide. 

Jake: Dying Fetus, Devourment, Disfigurement of flesh, Carnifex, Pustulated, 357 Homicide, Coprocephalic Mutation, Pyaemia at Rebellion of course.

Do you have plans to bring any well-known or emerging metal bands to the area?

Jack: Absolutely, we always platform local talent at anything we do – the preshow of Offal Fest every year is going to stay as a showcase for UK death metal talent every year.

Sam: That is all we strive to do, I wont let any secrets slip, but we are planning some really Cool lineups. 

Jake: This is something we all try to do with any show we organize, while its always great to see a well known bigger name, its also cool to have the chance to check out new bands who are up and coming.

Would you ever consider experimenting with unconventional venues or hybrid events? (Ie. Slam ballet, not going to lie this one has made me laugh a bit with the sheer chaos that could ensue with that)

Jack: We already book goregrind, which is basically 80’s dance music with toilet vocals.

Sam: I’ve always toyed with the idea of blending BDM and Slam into a drag show and having it hosted by some more Alt Queens. I think it would be a night to remember for sure hahaha whether that means good or not is to be seen. 

Jake: I have no issue mixing certain shows, I think alot of people would be curious to see what its like to attend a beatdown / goregrind gig haha.

A hot topic that’s been noted around shows specifically in Manchester lately is disability accommodation. How do you plan to accommodate fans with disabilities or other specific needs when it comes to putting on shows?

Jack: This is always something we will do everything we can to accommodate for, actively avoiding venues that we know can’t accommodate for customers with disabilities and sticking more with ones that go above and beyond to help with this.

Sam: We always want to make it known that we always strive to provide accessibility to anyone who needs it. Whether it be access to seating, carers or just a quiet space out of the way of large crowds, we do what we can to make sure everyone has a great time! And those same people can come to us personally to rectify any issues.

Jake: Again this is another big reason we use Rebellion as a main venue as they facilitate for customers with disabilities very well.

We look forward to attending Goremaggedon this year and hope this year is as successful as last, last year was phenomenal and can’t wait to see the bands on this years line up. What a selection! What other shows do you have coming up that have been announced after Goremaggedon?

Jack: The next ones for us are the Aggressive Misanthropy tour which features Stabbing, Immortal Suffering & Emasculator at Rebellion with local legends 357 Homicide & Coprocephalic Mutation – Offal Fest 2025 which is our biggest show to date, featuring the heavyweights Skinless, Defeated Sanity, Internal Bleeding and so many more!

Sam: As Mentioned we have Aggressive Misanthropy with 3 heavy Hitting Bands from the US (Stabbing, Immortal Suffering and Emasculator) to which mine (Coprocephalic Mutation) and Jake’s (357 Homicide) bands are opening. And in July we have our 3rd installment of Offal Fest! Which has seen our biggest step forward in lineup growth to date! With more to announce hopefully in the coming months.

Jake: As the lads stated above, we have some insanely killer shows lined up and there is still a lot more to come, me personally I just have the third edition of my festival ‘Flesh Fest’.

After this I will be contributing all my time and efforts solely into rancid offal to help the guys deliver quite literally some of the best lineups the UK has ever seen.

Sounds like a lot of exciting things upcoming. Thank you for your time and answering a few questions for us here at All About The Rock.

Tickets for Goremaggedon 2025 are still available but limited. You can purchase your ticket for this event >> HERE <<.