Struggler: "We take a mix of the old-school metalcore along with the heavier sound of the new wave"

Two steps and heavy riffs deep within the heart of Sheffield.

Now, I absolutely love a good Sheff gig, so when I saw that Cracked Promotions and Record Junkee were putting on a metalcore night I made sure to get involved, especially knowing that the new up-and-coming heavy band Struggler were making their South Yorkshire debut.

I got to hang with the five-piece for a while before the gig started at 7 pm and my friend Joel Arthur took some new promotional shots for the band. We had a laugh and I could see that the guys were excited about playing in such an iconic city. Exploding onto the stage you wouldn’t think that these Welsh rockers had spent their whole day stuck in traffic on the long haul from South Wales to Sheffield. Their set was full of high energy, spin kicks, deep growls and face-melting riffs that had the whole room thrown down around them.

The stage presence and crowd interaction were on another level, with the band even coming down from the stage to rock out with everyone and keep the crowd pumped, blasting out songs such as “Hollow Soul”, “Heretic” and “Vices”. This band is guaranteed to get you moving and when it came to their set ending the crowd was chanting for more. I think it’s safe to say that Sheffield welcomed them with open arms and it won’t be the last we see of this band. Once the guys had wound down a bit after their set I got a chance to sit down and have a chat with Ieuan (vocals), Jack (drums), Pidge (Guitar), TJ (guitar), and Chris (bass).

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Words: Hollie Wood

Images: Joel Arthur

—When can we expect new music or an EP?
Very soon, we’ve got two songs completely tracked and ready. We’ve been in the studio and are still in the process but it’s been recorded so it’s just waiting to get them back, so hopefully in a few weeks time.

Definitely by the end of August as we have a headliner at Fuel in Cardiff on the 31st so we’ll have the tracks out by then. We’ll be back in the studio straight after too.

There’s nothing about an EP as of yet as I’m very fond of concept albums, so for me, I'd like to get a concept in mind so I can write an EP that flows as a collection. At this moment in time, it’s going to be single releases.

—Do you have any highlights from today and would you return to Sheffield for future gigs?
Oh, 100% without a doubt we will return to Sheffield if we get any offers. We’ll definitely take a different route though so it doesn’t take a day to get here.
The highlights were seeing everyone having a good time, having a mosh and to see people respecting each other with pit etiquette.

Struggler’s single Hollow Soul is now available to stream on Spotify, YouTube and Bandcamp.

Listen below:

—When did you guys form?
We formed in July of 2023 with Chris joining in October, and we had our first show in January this year.

—How would you best describe your genre and who are your influences?
I’d say that we’re a generally heavy genre, we have a lot of different influences ranging from The Plot In You, Counterparts, Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage etc…
We take a mix of the old-school metalcore along with the heavier sound of the new wave of metal whilst splicing in some tech elements so I’d say we flitter between hardcore, metalcore and tech-metal.

—Which one has been your favourite gig so far?
We’d have to say the Of Mice & Men gig in Cardiff we’ve done recently and that was absolutely amazing to see that many people there watching us, especially with how long we’ve only been a band for. Tonight was incredible also and we had a gig with Dream State earlier this year which was nuts.

Our first show was also one to remember, we supported a band called Overthrone from Manchester, in fact, we love every show as they just get better and better.

—So after the amazing gig with OM&M, are there any other bands that you would love to tour with?
I’d love to tour with Holding Absence as they’re local and iconic Welsh boys, Counterparts, Virtue In Vain as they’re another up-and-coming local band from Swansea and the Defects boys as well I think they’d be fun to tour with, they were lovely at the OM&M gig.

—Do you have your eyes set on playing any festivals next year?
We haven’t had any offers but we’d definitely love to play any indoor or open-air festival, Outbreak Festival, Bloodstock or Download are on the list.
Tech-Fest would have been incredible but I don’t think that’s around anymore, I hope it comes back.

"We take a mix of the old-school metalcore along with the heavier sound of the new wave."