The Smashing Skull Sessions Hosted by Letty Sharp & Produced by Richie Duhig

Since 2018, Oldham brothers Jacob and Joe Parkinson have been launching a full-scale assault on the UK thrash scene. As founders of UK Thrashcore hopefuls Tortured Demon, they’ve independently released two albums, and worked with various members to bring their trademark live show to eyes and ears nationwide. Before turning 18, they’d already toured with UK thrash royalty Evile and Xentrix, and laid the foundations of their second album ‘Rise Of The Lifeless’ - which would go on to receive critical acclaim from publications including Metal Hammer and Distorted Sound - whilst still in school. Combining Thrash riffs and Hardcore breakdowns with technical drums, all whilst maintaining a firm focus on quality songwriting, Tortured Demon aim to breathe a breath of fresh air into the UK metal scene.


The band have built a loyal live following nationwide thanks to their impressive history of high-octane shows for a band at such an early stage in their career, culminating in their first headline tour - the 'Tour Of The Lifeless' - in October 2023. Packing venues nationwide, Tortured Demon cemented themselves as a legitimate UK headliner, despite having no agent, management or record label at the time. This is a testament to the hard work and extreme dedication that Jacob and Joe Parkinson continue to pour into their craft, even after 5 years on the road.


I got to to sit down with guitarist and vocalist Jacob Parksinson before he and the band took the stage of Whelans, playiong with Evile and Psykosis.


We talked about their gig in Dolans the night before, how the tour was going and so much more!


With great stories, chats and banter this is not one to be missed.


Avalible on all streaming platforms.


Check out Tortured Demon here: https://www.instagram.com/tortureddemon/?hl=en


Track played: Rise Of The Lifeless all rights reserved Tortured Demon


Edited by Richie Duhig of The Metal Cell Podcast.
Like, subscribe and always support the scene. Horns up and stay safe 🤘🤘


The Smashing Skull Sessions: https://www.instagram.com/thesmashingskullsessions/

Speaking on the album release, WRISTMEETRAZOR's Justin Fornof (vocals) comments: “This is an incredibly important record for us, Degeneration combines everything we have built with our first two LPs into the strongest iteration of our band. This is us at our most misanthropically realized. The heaviest - both lyrically and musically - and most dynamic presentation of who we are and what we’ve done.”


Having solidified and fine-tuned the strengths of their latest incarnation onstage, the newly upgraded quintet found themselves with a renewed focus leading into Degeneration’s gestation period. During this moment of rare quiet WRISTMEETRAZOR sought the production, engineering, mixing and mastering skills of Randy Lebeouf (The Acacia Strain, Dying Wish, Kublai Khan). Ushering themselves into near total isolation in the woods of New Jersey, the writing and recording process for Degeneration was one of acute solitude, only leaving the studio’s cabin three times during the 30 day lock-in between almost non-stop 12 hour recording sessions.


Degeneration’s backdrop of self-imposed seclusion bore fruit as the album’s lyrical focus began to develop. Whilst there are still traces of WRISTMEETRAZOR’s established world of Nietzchian philosophy and twisted romanticism, Fornof found himself gravitating towards themes of misanthropy, apoplexy, and moral, political and religious hypocrisy within society.


I got to sit down with Justin and Elaine where we talked about the albums recording process, how the band got their name and so much more!


With great stories, chats and banter this is not one to be missed.


Avalible on all streaming platforms.


Check out Wristmeetrazor here: https://www.instagram.com/wrist.meet.razor/?hl=en


Track played: Trepanation ©️ all rights reserved Wristmeetrazor


Edited by Richie Duhig of The Metal Cell Podcast.
Like, subscribe and always support the scene. Horns up and stay safe 🤘🤘


The Smashing Skull Sessions: https://www.instagram.com/thesmashingskullsessions/

Straight out of the Crescent City, BRAT are set to release their forthcoming debut album,
Social Grace, via Prosthetic Records on March 15. Since their 2021 inception, the New Orleans.


Between an intense live schedule over the last three years, which saw BRAT share the stage
with the likes of Eyehategod, Cro-Mags and contemporaries in grind such as ACxDC and
No/Mas, the band recorded Social Grace over the course of a year and a half at HighTower
Recording studio (Thou, A Wilhelm Scream, Eyehategod). Recording songs in batches helped
BRAT finetune and focus their songcraft in condensed bursts, resulting in a coalescence of
death metal, thrash, and powerviolence brutality.


Social Grace follows extreme music’s well trodden themes of futility and distaste for
humankind’s ruling classes throughout it’s 10 tracks, with the band’s reverence for
psychological horror fiction and admiration for Stephen King genre classics evident on songs
such as Hesitation Wound and Truncheon, as well as the title-track’s scathing rebuttal of
aristocracy.


I got to sit down with guitarist Brenner Moate where we talked about the bands new album, 'Social Grace', how the band started and so much more!


With great stories, chats and banter this is not one to be missed.


Avalible on all streaming platforms.


Check out BRAT here: https://bratband.com/


Track played: Social Grace ©️ all rights reserved BRAT


Edited by Richie Duhig of The Metal Cell Podcast.
Like, subscribe and always support the scene. Horns up and stay safe 🤘🤘


The Smashing Skull Sessions: https://www.instagram.com/thesmashingskullsessions/

Formed in 1990 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Morta Skuld are an American death metal band. ‘Creation Undone’ is the latest work of inspired extremity from frontman and mastermind Dave Gregor and co. In a time when the band’s iconic and celebrated debut ‘Dying Remains’ reaches its thirty year milestone, and with recent live activity on both sides of the Atlantic seeing the quartet performing to a ravenous fanbase of metalheads both old and new, Morta Skuld now returns with a ten track opus of pure death metal in their unrelenting and unwavering pursuit of heaviness, still going strong after three decades, as the band unleashes their successor to 2020’s ‘Suffer For Nothing’.


I got to sit down with lead singer and guitarist David Gregor where we talked about the new album, his style of vocals and if he had any favourite albums of the year so far!


With great stories, chats and banter this is not one to be missed.


Avalible on all streaming platforms.


Check out Morta Skuld here: https://www.instagram.com/mortaskuld1offical/


Track played: We Rise We Fall ©️ all rights reserved Morta Skuld


Edited by Richie Duhig of The Metal Cell Podcast.
Like, subscribe and always support the scene. Horns up and stay safe 🤘🤘


The Smashing Skull Sessions: https://www.instagram.com/thesmashingskullsessions/

Mastiff have announced their forthcoming album, Deprecipice, will be released on 22nd March via MNRK Heavy. The new release features an onslaught of special guests including Ethan Lee McCarthy from Primitive Man, Harry Nott from Burner, Dan James from XIII and Rob Scott from Yersin.


Everything Mastiff do is in the name of intensity. Since forming amid the misery of Kingston-upon-Hull in 2013, the five-piece have crashed extreme metal, sludge and hardcore together to create the most brutal sonic onslaughts possible. Vocalist Jim Hodge, guitarists James Andrew Lee and Phil Johnson, bassist Daniel Dolby and drummer Michael Shepherd write together in their rehearsal room then record as quickly as they can – all in the name of keeping their music fresh, raw and seething.


I got to sit down with vocalist Jim Hodge where we talked about the new album, Deprecipice, advice for people wanting to start bands and more!


With great stories, chats and banter this is not one to be missed.


Avalible on all streaming platforms.


Check out Mastiff here: https://www.instagram.com/mastiffhchc/


Track played: Serrated ©️ all rights reserved Mastiff


Edited by Richie Duhig of The Metal Cell Podcast.
Like, subscribe and always support the scene. Horns up and stay safe 🤘🤘


The Smashing Skull Sessions: https://www.instagram.com/thesmashingskullsessions/

On this weeks episode of The Smashing Skull Sessions I get to talk to KM North, the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for Coffin Womb.


Coffin Womb is a hardcore project from K.M North. With a focus on making the most unnerving, challenging, heavy music possible.


I got to sit down with KM North where we talked about the puppybowl, the projects new album, 'Godless', and so much more!]


With great stories, chats and banter this is not one to be missed.


Avalible on all streaming platforms.


Check out Coffin Womb here: https://coffinwomb.bigcartel.com/


Track played: Bleached Crosses ©️ all rights reserve Coffin Womb.


Edited by Richie Duhig of The Metal Cell Podcast.
Like, subscribe and always support the scene. Horns up and stay safe 🤘🤘


The Smashing Skull Sessions: https://www.instagram.com/thesmashingskullsessions/