Backstage at Download Festival, life has barely been better. The sun isn’t just shining, it’s bathing us in its warm embrace, and we have just watched GORE. dominate the Dogtooth Stage like veterans of the industry.
The American newcomers just came off the biggest show of their lives – their 22nd gig ever – and they already sound like a band plotting even bigger things.
“This was the best show we have ever played,” beams Haley Roughton, vocalist and full-force frontwoman of the band. “Although I know we have only played like 20.”
There’s a rush of laughter – drummer Wills Weller leans in to correct her with the kind of detail only someone counting the miles can give.
“Yeah it’s only been a handful of shows but that’ll be hard to beat. This was our 22nd show.”
Not that numbers mean much right now. They’re still high on the moment, still hearing the roar of Download echoing in their heads like a feedback loop. This is where it’s beginning to get serious.
“We’re just happy to be here really,” Weller says, tone humble but dead honest. “And we take it very seriously.”
That much is obvious. If GORE. came up swinging, it wasn’t by accident. Their rise has been fast, yes, but not careless. This is a band that’s been working – rehearsing, refining, and reacting.
“We’ve been doing a lot of practising though,” Roughton adds, as if to explain how a band this new can feel this tight already.
But tight doesn’t mean static. The real spark in GORE. is their sense of movement. They don’t want to just exist inside a genre – they want to bend it, stretch it, maybe even burn it down.
“Yes our sound has already had a lot of evolution already,” Roughton says, voice taking on something more resolute now. “I think for us this was very natural and I don’t think we are the kind of band who can stay in the same box and never bloom. I’ve felt this and realised this very early on – it’s gotta evolve.”
This isn’t about reinvention for the sake of it. It’s more primal than that – following instinct, chasing that next gut feeling, and always listening to what the fans are responding to out front.
“When we started playing live as a band we noticed what fans were picking up on,” Weller explains. “So we would go back and before the next tour we would be like – what about this? What about that? Kind of vibing off them.”
The process, if you can call it that, is more alchemy than planning. Somewhere between Roughton’s theatrical melodies and Weller’s lofi-funk obsessions, GORE. are stitching something together that doesn’t fit cleanly into any one category.
“In 22 more shows it’ll be quite different,” Roughton laughs. “Maybe country music or bluegrass.”
“Yeah I’ll be playing banjo,” Weller fires back without missing a beat.
He’s joking – kind of. But in truth, you can hear the genre ghosts already haunting GORE.‘s sound.
“Honestly I’m in a whole other realm,” Weller admits. “Lo-fi hip-hop, funky stuff – quite different. That’s my vibe, which is fun to bring into this.”
Roughton is just as eclectic, if not more so. “I’m a big R&B gal and I’ve been listening to a lot of that,” she says. “We love R&B, country… I don’t listen to metal much.”
Weller laughs and nods. “Neither do I. But that keeps us fresh and makes writing and learning the songs really exciting. Like – ‘dang that sounds like Meshuggah again’ – but it comes from a whole new place.”
There’s no irony here. GORE. aren’t trying to avoid the metal label – they’re just not defined by it. The heaviness is there, sure. But so is the heart, and the soul, and the flair for the dramatic.
“I feel like for me where we pull the most inspiration from is bands like Loathe and shoegaze in general,” says Roughton. “Theatre, too. A lot of our melodies are very theatrical. I’m told all the time I sound like a Disney princess, which is the biggest compliment anybody could give me.”
You can feel Weller’s agreement settle in the room. “That’s really cool though – I like that,” he nods. “And it might be cliché but… life in general. Ups and downs, emotions of life, can sometimes come out in the music itself – happy, sad, angry, pretty. I feel that comes out in the songs.”
They may only be 22 shows in, but GORE. sound like they’ve already seen what’s on the other side of the hill. They know the road will twist again. They want it to. They’ve got one foot in metal and the other somewhere out in the sonic unknown – lo-fi, R&B, country, bluegrass. And it makes for an intoxicating, delicious sonic cocktail for the ears. We will see you again soon GORE.
