About dogsflesh
Dogsflesh are an English Thrash Metal/Crossover band, formed in the wastelands of Teesside, England in May 1982 by guitarist Rob Moore.
Dogsflesh started life as one of the early early pioneers of English ‘Hardcore Punk’ along with The Exploited, GBH, Discharge Onslaught and Broken Bones, They regularly perform in the UK and internationally.
Their musical style since 2016 has shifted more towards Thrash Metal, but the bands early influences can still be heard in some of their tracks.
Their initial line-up consisted of Rob on guitar, Perky on Drums, Jim on bass, and Marty on vocals and played only a handful of gigs together around the Teesside area, the most namely of which was a support slot to GBH at Middlesbrough’s Rock Garden. The band recorded a three track demo in November 1982, with tracks called "Never Give In", "Mad Dog" & "Destroy". Perky was replaced on the drums by John Lavender in January 1983 and the band played Redcar's Swan Hotel Ballroom supporting the UK Subs in March of that year. The line-up changed again when Rob moved to Stockton and replaced Jim and Marty with Tim Whitfield on bass and John McQuade on vocals.
In June 1984, Dogsflesh contributed two tracks, "Soldier Boy" and "Fight the System", on the Teesbeat label for a compilation album called the New Bowery. In September 1984, Dogsflesh recruited Nigel Johnson (Nigsy), formerly of Teesside-based punk band The Filth, as lead guitarist. During this time, Dogsflesh continued to write new material and playing gigs locally and to new audiences supporting bands like The Angelic Upstarts in Newcastle, The Anti Nowhere League at the Taboo Club in Scarborough, GBH & Discharge at the Trent Bridge Rowing Club in Nottingham, English Dogs at Adam and Eve’s in Leeds and The Exploited at the City Hall in Carlisle.
Dogsflesh recorded a four-track demo at Offbeat Studios in Leeds in February 1985 with tracks called "Fast Living Boy", "Out My Head", "Bloody Road to Death", and their anthem, "Mad Punks And Psycho Skins". A gig in support of The Exploited at The Beer Keller in Leeds led to Wattie Buchan inviting the band to play on the remaining fourteen gigs of The Exploited’ s tour. Additional support tours followed during the summer of 1985 where Dogsflesh did a twelve-date tour with Broken Bones and a ten date tour with GBH. Soon after, Nigsy and John Lavender quit the band.
In 2005, Dogsflesh re-formed with past members Rob Moore, Tim Whitfield, John McQuade, and John Lavender, touring extensively in the UK, Italy France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria. Richie took over on drums in April 2006 and in August 2007 they headlined the B Stage of the Antifest Festival, which was the biggest Punk/Metal Festival in the Czech Republic. The band re-released the ‘Bloody Road to Death EP’ in May 2005 and recorded a live album, ‘Live At Wakefield’ which was released in October 2005 and In October 2006, they released a 4-track EP, ‘The Threat Remains’.
In 2007 the band released their first full-length album, ‘Vision Of Hell’, which was recorded and produced by Fish from punk band ‘The Skeptix’. This was released on Rock Garden Music in the UK & In 2008 it was re-pressed and released in North America on Unrepentant Records. September 2007 saw the band embark on their first headline U.S. tour to promote the album, 15 dates, and 5,000 miles across 7 states. Richie was replaced in May 2008 by Greg Newton. In 2009 Dogsflesh continued to play throughout the UK and Europe.
In 2009, long serving frontman John McQuade stepped down but the band continued as a dynamic 3 piece with guitarist Rob Moore undertaking lead vocals. After playing shows in the UK, Germany, France and Belgium, the band returned to the studio with fresh material and in March. 2010 the band's second full-length album ‘Revival Of Species’ was completed at Stoke-on-Trent's Prism Studios which was produced and mastered by Shaun Lowe who had previously worked with The Damned, Discharge and Broken Bones. This album was again released via Rock Garden Music with US distribution via Unrepentant Records. The band continued to gig in the UK and Europe during 2010 and plans for a second US tour were placed on hold with the departure of drummer Greg Newton. Short spells in the drum seat followed for Pete Caveney and Steve Wingrove before the arrival of Darlington-based drummer Tommy Heaney in December 2011.
During 2012 Dogsflesh continued to gig in the UK and Europe performing in Germany at the prestigious Resist To Exist Festival in Berlin with other dates in Czech Republic, Belgium and France. The serious illness of Tommy's wife in 2013 saw talented drummer, guitarist and songwriter Steve Wingrove re-join the band and that year they made their debut appearance at the world’s biggest Punk Festival 'Rebellion', opening up Saturdays Festival on the prestigious Olympia 1 stage. Following positive reviews of their performance the band continued to write new material and played further shows in Europe before commencing the 'Chaos in the UK' Tour in November 2013.
2015 saw some huge changes for the band in line-up and musical direction. Steve Wingrove moved on to other projects and two new members came into the group. Kev Bambra took over on drums and lead guitarist Anth 'Patti' Pattison took over on lead guitar. The new line-up quickly gelled and started to produce new material with more of a metal feel. The band's trademark energy remained, but the new material carried a broader appeal and attracted interest away from the bands traditional hardcore punk following. Tracks like "Only Angels Weep, Lamb To The Slaughter and Broken Beaten Scarred" represented this new style. In 2015, six new songs were recorded at Stokes Prism Studio's towards what would be the band's third studio album ‘Critical Response’ which was released in Autumn 2016.
The band toured throughout 2015 across the UK (including an appearance at the North East Calling festival), Holland, Germany and in early 2016 the band performed in Greece for the first time, in Athens and also earned some tasty Metal support slots for Onslaught, Municipal Waste, Eyehategod, Wolfsbane and Di Anno.
With a strong stable line-up featuring accessible new material, Dogsflesh moved forward in 2016 and reduced their live appearances to record a further six tracks for the release of their 3rd full studio album 'Critical Response'. The album was again recorded at Prism Studios in Stoke-on-Trent and produced and mixed by Shaun Lowe.
The album was musically diverse, with the band moving into a more 'Thrash Metal/Crossover' style between metal & punk, with a range of tracks that stretch into and blend both musical genres whilst creating something entirely unique.
10 years after their first headline tour of America Dogsflesh returned to the United States to promote their Critical Response album, touring the Mid-West from Chicago to New Orleans,
Following the Midwest USA tour Kev Bambra and Anth Pattison decided to leave the band to form their own band and the band recruited the highly experienced Dave Earl on lead guitar and dynamic 19 year old drummer Josh Robson.
With a new creative input the band continued to play live throughout 2017 and 2018 and adding some new material to the set list.
In 2019 Josh Robson decided that time was right to quit the band to focus on his other band, so the band moved very quickly and recruited Craig Swallow to take over drumming duties for the band.
The band are currently writing the new album which hopefully will be released towards the end of 2021 and are continuing to tour and play festivals throughout the UK and Europe, the last festival being HRH Metal Festival at the 02 Academy in Birmingham in February 2020, where the band played the main stage on the Saturday evening.
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