New London-based band ButcherBird will release their debut EP Drought/Deluge through Drowning Sea God Records on 30 May 2025. Ahead of the full release, they’re presenting the video for lead track Trajan’s Massive Column!
Built around a balance of chaos and structure, the six-track release clocks in at just over 21 minutes. Its sound swings between filthy riffs, jolting time signatures, and dissonant noise elements—often the result of guitarist Rob Langtry’s custom-built DIY pedals. The band cite influences like Botch, Coalesce, The Chariot, and Charger, but lean into their own disorienting blend of emotional hardcore and metallic density.
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The band consists of vocalist James ‘Bart’ Barter, Rob Langtry on guitar, Iain Cooper on bass, and drummer Chaz Tomlinson (known from Delaire The Liar and Meridian Sun). Chaz also mixed and mastered the EP, while Wayne Adams recorded the drum parts at Bear Bites Horse Studios.
ButcherBird grew out of earlier projects between the members. Bart, Rob, and Iain had been playing together in a band called Scattered Signals, with Rob on drums. But when he started writing material that didn’t fit that group’s sound, they brought in Chaz, Rob shifted to guitar, and ButcherBird took form. They’ve known each other since their late teens, and the chemistry shows in how the songs evolved: Rob typically drafts the instrumental outlines, then the full band reshapes them, tearing and rebuilding until they find the right emotional tension.
Bart writes the lyrics, often starting with a core feeling behind a song, which then feeds into both vocal lines and arrangements. As he puts it, Drought/Deluge explores “trying to balance chaos and order: having enough chaos to keep growing as a person, but also having enough order and comfort to protect your mental health and stop you falling apart at the seams.” That concept runs through the whole EP and was the inspiration behind the cover art, designed by šaška.
Opening track Of Roads and Realms lays the foundation with a contrast between domesticity and the pull of exploration. “The name is a reference to an 11th-century book by an Arab geographer who never left his home region but documented stories from all over the world,” the band explained.
The premiere single Trajan’s Massive Column tackles the toxicity of hypermasculine posturing. The title started as a joke, but “it actually felt appropriate given how really dumb a lot of hypermasculine rhetoric is. Essentially, if you need to tell everyone how big your column is, you’re probably overcompensating a little.”
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Be The Rabbit and Dead Cat Strategy were the first songs they wrote together. The former questions personal limits and whether one can stick to their values under pressure. The latter is a response to political manipulation, calling for skepticism and resistance to easy narratives: “not falling for demagoguery and cheap political tricks.”
I’ve Walked in Space revisits a song originally written over a decade ago by Rob, Iain, and Chaz. Lyrically, it reflects on how losing something meaningful can rob life of joy, and how regaining that feeling is a struggle. The title references a ‘90s Stewart Lee stand-up routine.
Final track Circadian ties the record’s themes together, circling around internal cycles of impulse and rationality. The friction between those poles mirrors the emotional framework of the EP.
The band will begin live shows in 2025 and are already working on new material. “We’ve had an absolute blast getting to this point,” they shared, “and would love for people to listen to the songs and come see us play live sometime.”
ButcherBird also gave a nod to peers shaping the UK scene right now—bands like Conjurer, Bossk, Sugar Horse, Host Body, and Chalk Hands. They mentioned being regulars at ArcTanGent, where they recently discovered avant-garde Glaswegian band Ashenspire and their album Hostile Architecture.
Drought/Deluge is out 30 May via Drowning Sea God Records.
