From the shipyards to the mosh pits: the North East’s thriving metal scene

From black metal savagery to mythology inspired riff worship, the North East’s metal scene’s diversity makes it an area to watch in 2025, as Will Pollock discovers.

Metal music is a genre of rock that is defined by dark lyricism, aggressive guitars and drums accompanied by intense vocal delivery. The genre is deeply rooted in the UK, with icons of the genre such as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and more paving the way for thousands of bands to develop the genre over the years.

With the North’s rich history of music, it’s no surprise that metal eventually made its way up North. One of the most popular metal subgenres, black metal, even owes its creation to a band from Newcastle, with Venom’s 1982 album Black Metal being the starting point for many aspects present in the biggest metal music being released today.

The decline of heavy industry in the North created something of a disconnect between people there and the popular music of the time. People resented a lot of what was on the radio, and this resulted in a roaring grassroots movement in the 1980’s and beyond, with bands like Atomkraft, Venom and Saxon thriving in the post-industrial North.

This resonated with young people at the time, with rising unemployment in the area creating a lot of anger across the North East, which metal music provided a convenient outlet for. The sentiment of this persists into the North East’s metal music today, with a lot of shows functioning more as anger management spaces rather than showcases of musicianship.

In that regard, it can be argued that metal music is the spiritual successor to the punk scene in the 1970’s and 80’s which was also very popular up North, with bands like Durham’s Gimp Fist, Washington’s Murder the Disturbed, and Gateshead’s Urban Commandos being very successful in the area with some still playing today.

Image credit: Joel Muniz. Band pictured – Sleeping Giant

It hasn’t entirely been smooth sailing for metal in the North. With metal’s DIY roots, the target audience is historically working-class, white males. While this is fine, it can lead to inclusivity problems and can make getting into the genre challenging for women, LGBTQ people or people of colour especially when combined with the aggression of the genre.

This isn’t to say that everyone who is into metal is a right-wing extremist, on the contrary most of the metal community is very accepting. As per usual, a loud minority ruins the image of the whole community, with alt right trolls being present across a lot of platforms that discuss metal such as forums, Reddit threads, Discord communities and more.

Image credit: Will Pollock. Band pictured – Negative Approach

Just because the extremists are a minority, it doesn’t mean these issues don’t affect minority groups in the metal community. For example, the number of metal musicians signed to UK record labels is somehow even more male dominated than the statistics across all genres (which are still nearly 75% men)

This can be immensely discouraging for new people who maybe have an interest in alternative music but haven’t experimented with metal much. It’s common knowledge that negativity generates more traction than positivity, particularly on the internet, so if someone looking to get into the genre is doing their first bits of research, they might well be met with vitriolic hate speech that doesn’t represent the whole community in the slightest.

Image credit: Will Pollock 

Data source: https://www.ukmusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Counting-the-Music-Industry-full-report-2019.pdf

 However, this doesn’t mean that the community is doomed, and there’s plenty of bands and acts out there doing their best to change the community status quo. The North East’s Blood Countess are a female led black metal band to watch, with their intense riffs and historical themes providing a refreshing new take on the genre. If black metal’s a little fast for you, Durham’s Goblin Smoker provide an excess of brutal riffs, with all lyrics dedicated to their signature mythological figure of The Toad King.

Panurus Productions is a Northern based small batch cassette producer for alternative bands and is a hub for up-and-coming alternative releases. When asked about bands that are exciting in the North at the moment he stated “Fashion tips are really good, worth keeping an eye on them. Wreaths are really good if you like drone stuff. Disciplinary are a good local band, and I’m also in a band called Lenz and we have some recordings we’re looking to put out soon.”

In addition to an abundance of bands, local record labels such as Serial Bowl, Byker Grave and more run excellent promotion, ensuring that there’s something metal to keep fans busy every weekend and on most weekdays. There are also many excellent metal festivals if gigs aren’t your bag, such as Bloodstock Open Air and Damnation Festival.

Image credit: Will Pollock 

Data source: https://www.metal-archives.com/

Marcin Grzegorz, a metal superfan and promoter for Bloodstock Music 2 The Masses festival stated “Internationally yes its very welcoming but if we are talking about Polish scene its totally different, its very close together, if you want to be a metalhead you have to be very hard. There are lots of women in metal in Poland, the community is very close, some areas are very open but some are very close minded. Its definitely becoming better every year but there’s a lot of work that must be done, especially in eastern Europe.”

Despite setbacks made by an extremely loud minority, the metal community in the North and globally is better than it’s ever been. Statistics show that it’s becoming a more inclusive place, and there’s so many excellent bands active now that there’s bound to be something for everyone, and we can only hope this development continues in the future.