DISCOVER | Mechanized – Plymouth / South West, UK

20th December 2023 0 By Laura Jane

Today on DISCOVER, I’m joined with Mechanized. Mechanized are a five piece trash/melodic death metal band from the South West England, United kingdom. Members of Mechanized are currently Andy George (Main Vocals), Rohan James (Bass & Backing Vocals), Dom Forsyth (Guitars), Andy Prowse (Guitars and Backing Vocals) and Dave Parsons (Drums). Today we talk about the scene down south, Sylosis appreciation and horny fisting.

Thank you for your time and attending this interview with me, can you start by telling me a bit about your band Mechanized and how you guys originally met?

Andy: Hello from all of us! Thanks for interviewing us. We are a 5 piece thrash/melodic death metal group from various parts of the south west of the UK. Andy (me – guitars) and Dom (guitars) met in 2012 at a metal club in Plymouth. Years later we decided to jam (2017). We wrote a few songs together and in 2019 decided to turn this bedroom project into a functioning live band! 2020 then happened…. and we got the show on the road finally in 2021, with Andy George on vocals, Rohan on bass and Dave on drums. Rohan and Dave have played in bands together before too, and we all know each other from proximity – the Devon metal scene is close knit.

That’s brill, it’s always fascinating how small the local music scenes are. Everyone seems to know everyone! Could you describe the style of music you play? For someone who may have never heard you – how would you summaries your sound.

Andy: Groove laden thrashy riffs, with some high tempo death metal parts, decorated with harmonized lead guitars and aggressive vocals. We’re on a mission to blend thrash, melodic death metal and technical death metal into something that we, and others, can all enjoy. So, melodic, groovy and thrashy in equal measure.

That’s a great description, if you had to name the top 5 bands that inspire you musically who would they be?

Andy: Revocation, Testament, Havok, early Arch Enemy, Sylosis. There are more influences that we as individuals are inspired by, but those five cover it for our general sound.

Sylosis is a band I’ve not heard in ages. I remember seeing them back at hull metal fest in 2017, nostalgia there! I noticed on your Spotify you’ve recently released a new single “Lethonomia”, interesting choice of name – could you tell me about the creative process behind this release?

Andy: We love Sylosis! Lethonomia was produced, mixed and mastered by our Vocalist Andy at his studio – the new Sylosis album is what he based the Lethonomia production and mix on, so that ties in nicely. The lyrics were written by our former Vocalist James, and I’ll use his words to describe the lyrics: “Lethonomia is a song written from the perspective of a man who recognised that his ideas about the world are not actually the world itself. In Greek mythology, those who drank from the river Lethe (oblivion) would be lost to forgetfulness. Lethonomia describes the inability to remember a name. While the verses may occasionally be an idealistic prescription of his intention to forget himself, the author attempts to reflect the actuality of his experience more faithfully as his mind collapses.” Musically a lot of this song was written in the practice room with some riffs being written separately to that. Most of the time when we write, Dom and I will come up with riffs or entire sections of songs by ourselves and meet up about once a week or fortnight and “stitch” things together that work well. We find that we write our best work when I tweak some of Doms work and he does the same to mine! That was the case with Lethonomia, one of the first songs we wrote as a band.

Sounds like some great effort was put into this track! Love it. You guys seem to travel around a lot of shows, leaves me feeling that there must be some funny stories floating around whilst you’ve been on the road. Care to share a few?

Andy: We have only really started travelling around the UK to be honest! We haven’t got that many stories ‘yet’, but we are certainly starting to make them! What is really good is that when we’re all travelling, stuck in a van or car for hours at a time, we are all in good spirits and have a really fun enjoyable time. Although at our recent gig in Nottingham, our bassist Rohan hadn’t eaten much all day and proceeded to have a few beers. They hit him a little harder than usual and, in his words, he became an unhinged animal intent on consuming all food. I’ve never seen a human consume 3 entire meal deals in 6 minutes and somehow still want more. Needless to say he had a bit of indigestion the next day, but was otherwise unscathed. We’re all north of 30 now, some of us are closer to 40, so we’ve done a lot of the typical drunken rock n roll things already! However, we will most likely have some more tales to tell after our next string of gigs!

I bet travelling as a group is fun, and excited to hear about future stories. From your experiences so far how do the shows up north compare to your home town? Any differences whilst “up in the north”.

Andy: Our home town shows are always energetic and busy as the Plymouth scene is very strong! It is a little separate from the wider underground scene, the more northern scenes seem very connected which is wonderful for the musicians and fans alike. So far the reception has been great: people have been headbanging and not leaving once we start! That is a really good sign – noone really knows our work so if they enjoy it as completely new listeners that is such a compliment! The folks up north are, as always, very friendly and accommodating.

Aye, the north does have its charm and welcoming arms ( at times ), nearly coming to the end now so a few more questions left! Where can people catch your next shows?

Andy: We will be taking the rest of December and January off to work on writing new material and working on things behind the scene!

Sounds like some great adventures lined up! I’d like to thank you for your time today and leave you on a fun exit question. What is the most obscure thing that you guys have ever said in public?

Andy: It’s been a real pleasure, thank you for your time and questions! Wow – that’s a tough one. Our Vocalist asks audiences if they prefer fists or horns. Depending on the reaction, the crowd is either horny or is getting fisted. That is probably up there – I imagine there will be wilder phrases that evolve over the gigs we do in the future. We’ve just done our 20th gig as a band so we’re still “Young” in that sense – despite all of us, bar Dom, having about 20 years of gigging experience each under our belts! Things will likely get weirder and a lot funnier in the future!

Artist: Mechanized / Label: Unsigned / Genre: Thrash Metal / Melodic Death Metal

Can be found on the following platforms: Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, Deezer
Next upcoming shows: TBC FOR 2024