Heriot on doing heavy their own way: “This is a fresh take on the genre that we all love”
It’s hard to think of another metal band that’s created as much excitement in the last 10 years as Heriot. Here’s an example of the British band’s turbo trajectory – they’ve just released their debut album, Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell, but they still managed to sneak into a fair few Album Of The Year lists back in 2022 without even having an album. Such was the impact of EP Profound Morality, people were making exceptions – and look, we get it.
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You might assume such a rapid rise could inflate the egos of the musicians, but as we chat with guitarists Debbie Gough and Erhan Alman, we realise that nothing could be further from reality.
“We’re good at grounding ourselves and reminding ourselves that this is what we want to do. It’s been really cool,” shares Alman. “I don’t think there’s a system or a particular formula to be able to get to where we are. It is very much luck, so we’re very grateful… We’re doing all right.”
“All right” is quite an understatement, but it’s worth remembering that overnight success is rarely overnight for those in the thick of it – indeed the story of Heriot begins a decade ago. The band originally formed in 2014 by Alman in 2014 along with Jake Packer (bass and co-vocals), and Julian Gage (drums) in Swindon. Brummie Gough joining the outfit in 2019 was a seminal moment however. As explained when we first spoke to them last year, Gough’s arrival saw the band’s sonic direction shift significantly, leading to that aforementioned 2022 EP becoming something of a second debut.
Image: Press
Set Match
In the years since, Heriot have become a phenomenon. Stealing the show as they worked their way up festival bills in their homeland – from a memorable ArcTanGent arrival, to a drowned out Download and the inaugural Bastard Fest. But there’s a sense that they’re not getting carried away – there’s a level-headedness that feels genuine, and a conviviality that makes you feel like you’re a part of this too.
Speaking of live shows – they’ve a headline tour to kick off this September when the album lands, and things are set to get beefier. “We definitely struggled when the EP was out. The runtime, including some interlude bits, was like 20 minutes. We had maybe six minutes added on after the singles came out,” explains Alman. “Now we’ve got a lot [of material] to make a really, really strong set. We’ve been playing ‘a rager set’, as we’ve called it, over the last few months.”
Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell has all the trimmings you’d want in a neck-snapping metal record. It tees up all that they do best. Although known for heaviness, it is Heriot’s balance of aggression and bliss that is their not-so-secret ingredient to their well-loved status. They’ll perforate your eardrums with dive bombs and full-pelt rhythm work, but then they’ll lull you back to serenity with reverb-soaked melodies and celestial clean vocals from Gough.
To make that happen, we’re curious to know if anything has changed for Heriot in their setups for this era. They are, they assure, still firmly a HM2 band. “In the past we’ve discussed maybe experimenting with new tones, but we’ve never really found one that feels as gnarly,” shares Gough. “I’m a big fan of that 90s scooped thrash kind of tone, but I just don’t know whether that would be too distant from what Heriot has already put out.”
Neural Nets
It’s a sensible way to look at things – if you’re going to stretch your wings creatively, it makes sense to have the reassuring presence of tones and gear that you know well to get you there. As a result, Gough still leans heavily on the Jackson guitars she knows and loves on the record, particularly her trusty SL4X, and the USA-made SL3 Soloist. Alman meanwhile has just made the switch from ESP to Jackson, and now rocks a SL2MG HT.
In the studio, big angry amps might be the order of the day – the band has a relationship with both Orange and Marshall – but when on tour the band are one of the growing number of acts embracing the consistency and convenience of Neural DSP’s game-changing Quad Cortex.
“I was sceptical of it at first. My housemate was really big on them, and we spent an evening where I captured every pedal that I own,” begins Gough. “I was concerned about being able to replicate HM2 tone, but it did it with ease and it sounds great. It’s a lot easier to control how much feedback you want. Feedback was always an issue for us, and being able to gate when you want to and let the sustain hit when you want to. Since moving over to Neural, I feel like it’s allowed us a tighter show as well.”
The switch occurred when the band joined Architects as support on their European shows in summer last year. “Being a band that’s self-funded, and none of us come from money, we always try to do things as cheap as possible,” adds Alman. “That was the first time I was just like, ‘No, we need to fly. We’ll get ground transport when we’re there.’ Bringing cabs and heads was simply not [viable].
“We had the option to run with Neurals and they’re just really convenient… I think ultimately if it didn’t sound as good as we wanted it to sound [we wouldn’t use it]. We don’t want people watching us to go, ‘well, they sound shit,’” he laughs. “I think me and Deb just put ours in backpacks and jumped on the plane. I understand the argument, but the fact that we can just take our tone with us, it’s a no brainer.”
Debbie Gough of Heriot performing at 2000 Trees Festival in 2023 with a Jackson American Series Soloist SL3. Image: Katja Ogrin/Redferns via Getty Images
Good Hangs
As Heriot’s star has risen, Gough has quickly established herself as one of the most talked about new guitar players in the metal scene. Her rise was exemplified when she joined the likes of Misha Mansoor and Marty Friedman in Jackson’s ‘Mega Shred’ video to launch the new USA Virtuoso guitar last year.
“We all were on set together,” she remembers. “It was filmed in LA, so everybody flew in for the shoot and got to hang out for a few days. Some of the best players in the game were on that shoot, and it was amazing to have different creative conversations with everybody; it was really refreshing to have a lot of guitar talk between people. We’re all under the metal umbrella, but not everybody has the same influences, so it was really inspiring.”
A word to the wise
Heriot might be right in the throes of blowing up, but it’s all the result of years of hard work and growing their craft. There are, however, some things they wish they’d have known or perhaps considered a little sooner on this journey.
For Gough, it’s tone-related. “Sitting and playing your guitar at home is completely different to playing it live, from a pedal perspective. I still do this now, it’s not good,” she laughs. “But I rarely play with my actual live set at home. I’ve just had the old faithful practice amp going for most of my years of playing.
“I mainly focus on [whether or not] what I’m playing [is] right rather than tonally, ‘move to this patch in this song and this patch in this song’… I think it’s always best to practise with the actual live set up as best as you can so you’re not just stumbling. It’s something that I’ve been conscious of [lately].”
For Alman, he urges bands to consider if they’ll be “happy to sit in a tin can on wheels for hours and hours on end and not want to rip each other’s head off”, though he assures this is not a problem for Heriot.
“We’re lucky that that’s not even a thing for us,” he explains. “I mean, the only thing [that’s] a regret of mine is just not learning and not practising guitar enough before it’s now got to this stage where I’m surrounded by musicians – Deb included – who are really great at guitar and I’m not there.”
“You are! Shut up,” she interjects, having none of it.
Image: Press
Great responsibility
Devoured… marks the start of another exciting cycle for Heriot, and though the music business can indeed be a harsh machine to be part of, Heriot have battled through because they don’t want to rehash the same pedal-to-the-metal, full-hog brand of heavy we’ve seen over and over.
“We always view heavy as a feeling,” says Gough. “We prefer to create a sombre mood within things and I think that’s something that we’re still learning. On this record we’ve tried to have that in our minds – not everything has to be screaming and low [or] really gain-y to be heavy. It can be,” she searches for the phrase, “a mood.”
Guitar remains utterly central to metal, and that comes with both power and responsibility. Knowing how to use guitar with purpose and intention has become the secret ingredient to Heriot’s own stamp on heavy music.
“Not that this was our intention, but I hope people take away that this is something that is quite a fresh take on the genre that we all love,” says Alman, before getting momentarily distracted by the vinyl pressing that’s sat beside him.
“It’s not trying to redefine what heavy is, but it’s trying to show that heavy can be more than a downtuned guitar.”
Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell is out now via Century Media Records.
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