DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT
No names, no faces, no image: the members of Dragged Into Sunlight, known only by initials, offer themselves as a blank surface and leave the projecting to you. The British band, pioneers of the extreme metal scene, formed in 2006, and the mystery has held through every record: Hatred For Mankind (Mordgrimm, 2009; Prosthetic Records, 2010), Widowmaker (Prosthetic Records, 2012), the collaboration NV with Gnaw Their Tongues (Prosthetic Records, 2015), and Terminal Aggressor II (self-released, 2020). After years away from stages, they returned in 2024 and say that playing live has become more intense, not less.
Dragged Into Sunlight work by subtraction. A track can take a year to finish, and hours of recorded material are chipped down until only the dense and violent part is left. They record at the Arch Recording Studio, which they built in a 140-year-old church in north-west England, so each riff is tried out under a vaulted roof. Black metal, death metal, sludge, doom, and noise all feed the sound, the voice stays guttural from shriek to roar, and the production sounds like bones and skulls being crushed. Guitars buzz with Stockholm sharpness, sink into a slow and heavy tread, and make room for bells and drone as the violence lets go.
WHAT TO EXPECT
At A COLOSSAL WEEKEND 2027, Dragged Into Sunlight will play Hatred For Mankind in full, the heaviest and rawest record they have made. The band plays with its back to the room. A candelabra stands centre stage, skulls crown the amps, and strobes cut the dark into flashes. They're watching, they're waiting, they're visible. Riffs saw through bone, drums smash, vocals spit hate, and a toll of bells and drone closes it. In their own words they are unwelcome, unpredictable, and uncontrollable, and they play like it.
