Paul -Vocals

Neil – Drums

Sean – Guitar

Nick – Bass

Label – Unsigned

After 23 years punk band Decontrol are back with a vengeance , after forming back in 1991 these guys are taking the UK by full force by keeping the anger and increasing the sonic barrage to bring you ultimate carnage.

If your a fan of Antisect then these guys will tantalize your musical taste-buds.

Vocalist Paul Garbutt took time out of his busy schedule to sit and have a chat with us, read on and see what he had to say…

MG Hi Paul, Sommer here from Metal Gods TV i hope all is well with you and the guys at Decontrol Headquarters.

We see you guys have reformed after a 23 year break, what made you decide to get the band back together?

Dec I’d actually thought about on and off for 10 years, then when I found our old demo tape (“Thunk!”) and captured it to a CD and remastering the inlay artwork, I started thinking about reforming more. It wasn’t until I went to see Angelic Upstarts and The Fiend at our local pub in May 2014 that I decided to try and reform the band in earnest. I’d always felt that we hadn’t done the songs justice and there was a real need in me to get these great songs laid down properly and performed live again. The original members that I’d contacted weren’t interested, so as luck would have it, Robby from The Fiend offered his services. Our drummer Neil was already on board with the idea as he was a fan of the band back in the day when we had supported his old band Mutant. I’d advertised on a Facebook page that covers all our local punk scene and within an hour I had a full band ready to start practicing, with Sean from Debauchery and Nick from SORB. Commitments with The Fiend meant that Robby couldn’t continue after only one practice, so we progressed as a four-piece in 2015. Our first gig was about a year after me seeing that Upstarts gig.

MG You guys will be supporting the fabulous Hellbastard & Panzerbastard at Bannermans Bar Edinburgh on the 18th August, have you guys got anything special lined up for this, a guest appearance perhaps?

DEC We’re actually supporting them on two gigs, the other being Trillians in Newcastle two days later. We’re on with another local band, Anord, who like us are also mates with Scruff. We almost bagged the 19th in Glasgow, too. As for something special lined up, I’m not sure at present. Being one of the opener acts, there’s probably not much time to do anything Earth-shattering. I haven’t seen Scruff for years now – both he and Scotty in Hellbastard were great inspiration for me. Up until recently I used to run Hellbastard’s website for him, too. Maybe we could convince Scruff to provide some additional guitar work on our current cover song of ‘4 Minute Warning’ by Chaos UK when we play it, haha.

MG Decontrol played a gig with Warwound/Burning Flag/Winds of Genocide, how did you find this?

DEC We looked forward to it as soon as I got word from Ian Glasper (their bass player) that he wanted us on the bill a few months ago. He’s already given both our albums 8/10 in Terroizer magazine, so there was just a ‘little pressure’ on us to deliver the goods live and not disappoint him!

What a gig it was! Totally sweltering hot inside a small venue that was packed out with punks. As soon as we started playing everyone crammed into the room and a great time was had by all – Ian loved us. Winds of Genocide and Burning Flag are superb too and if you ever get a chance to see Warwound, then do so as their sound is so brutal! Absolute class and total gents too!

MG We hear you guys are in the process of sorting out the bands 3rd album, can you tell us a little about this?

DEC It’s very much at the concept stage at present, as we’re gigging to promote our second album primarily for now. Tentatively-titled ‘The Inevitable End’, it’ll differ from the previous two in that there’ll be at least twice as many songs this time around. I’ve got lyrics for 12 or songs completed with about another 6 or so in progress. Sean has also come up with a load of ideas for riffs. I’m also toying with the idea of having a common theme across half of the songs and to have them running together – not a concept album as such – it won’t be like Venom’s ‘At War With Satan’ haha.

MG What challenges have you had as a band, and how have you overcome these?

DEC Lots of challenges! Work & family lives for sure can prevent the band operating on all cylinders, so to speak. Practices are a little easier now as before that we almost had mutual exclusion of possible days and times that we could meet. Gig-wise we’ve been lucky, but one regret was that we couldn’t support Discharge last year in Leeds (Tezz & Jeff are fans of ours by the way) when we were offered it – that would have been a real ground-breaker for us. A more recent challenge was when Nick our bassist left the band in February. It took us a while to find a replacement but Stevie from Force Fed Lies has kindly stepped up and is very much integrated now, delivering the bass lines as well as extra backing vocals. The main challenge now is to find gigs outside of the North East England region. We’re making headway now through sheer cheek of asking promoters directly wherever and whenver possible, through mutual friends of friends of friends and so on. We’re also starting to be asked if we can play gigs without prompts too, as word of mouth spreads about us, which is pretty good!

MG Do you think punk has changed much since the early days of such bands as The Sex Pistols & Discharge?

DEC Yes and no. It’s a classic case of the more things change the more they stay the same. Just look around: we have The Sex Pissed Dolls tribute act, loads of 70s punk band still going or reforming after a long break (a bit like us). Discharge are now back together with that Cal-style sound, like the 80s never went away. I say “no” also because we’ve got some great new talent coming through with their own sound – it’s worth checking out the North East England punk scene as a good sampler of what’s happening. At least the days of spitting at the bands have long gone. Last time I saw that was back in the 90s when The Damned played Newcastle Riverside, haha.

MG If you were to describe your band to someone who hadn’t heard your music before, how would you describe your sound & style?

DEC That’s a good question. We have a range of musical styles, but we have been compared with Discharge & Antisect but I don’t think they are particularly accurate. In terms of vocal delivery, I’d say it’s more like Conflict, but musically there’s a whole diverse range of styles in there – Chaos UK, Voivod, grindcore, tuneful hardcore, D-Beat… you name it, we’ve probably got it. It’s something different and it’s not punk-by-numbers for sure!

MG When performing, is the sound and space your in critical to your performance?

DEC Sound is something we don’t usually have that much control over but it IS something we try to get right whenever possible. We definitely strive to get a good sound on albums – it took four mixes for the Fear Is The Key album before we were happy. Space, now that’s always fun. The places we play are usually small venues, but I’m normally trying to fill the stage with motion. There’s nothing worse than seeing a band’s members stuck to the spot like they’ve had their Docs nailed to the stage. I have to tone down my enthusiasm to duck and dive around if we’re on a particularly small stage, mind.

MG Is there anything you would like to share from new merch to upcoming shows/tours or songs/albums?

DEC Our second album “Fear Is The Key” has been out since late last year – hop onto Bandcamp or Ebay maybe and buy a copy – it’s only a fiver plus postage. You can find us on Facebook and order directly if you like 🙂 Upcoming shows are at The Moot in Nottingham on July 7th, the 1-in-12 in Bradford on July 8th, Bannermans in Edinburgh on August 18th and Trillians in Newcastle on August 20th. We hope to do some more shows maybe with Burning Flag later in the year. Take a look on YouTube for ‘Insatiable’ if you want to hear a track from our album. We’ve also got the usual t-shirts, badges and hats, which go pretty quickly!

MG Is there anything you would like to say to your fans/followers?

DEC I’d like to say a big “thank you” to all fans local to us as well as from afar, for supporting us by attending gigs, buying albums and merch. Without you guys, it’d be pretty pointless! Cheers! Thanks to you too for this interview. Expect to hear more from us soon!

MG Thankyou so much for taking time out to speak to us here at Metal Gods TV, it’s been a pleasure!

 DEC Thanks!