Currently on a groove laden trail of bringing sludge metal to the masses, Hot Press chats with Sean Sullivan of Ten Ton Slug - one of Ireland’s hardest working bands.

It’s been non stop Ten Ton Slug over the past two years, ever since their debut demo in 2015 raised a few heads (and horns). The Galway four piece would go on to win the Metal 2 the Masses competition in 2016 to play Bloodstock Festival, and have been gigging the land ever since. “Absolutely flat out since then. We’re based in Galway so we had done a couple of gigs in 2014, and in 2015 we had started making more contacts and getting out a bit more - but we hadn’t gigged Dublin at that point. We entered M2TM with the short term goal of gigging in Dublin, mid range goal of making some contacts to get some more gigs, and ultimately be in with a chance of doing Bloodstock. It worked out pretty well for us!”

A pivotal event for the band, winning the competition lit a fire of determination in the belly of the band. “We progressed through and ended up winning the competition, so with that we made loads of contacts with other bands in Ireland. But ultimately it showed us how to solidify what we’re doing and focus on something together. It really gave us a work ethic and a drive in a way that we didn’t know we had.”

Playing to a packed out audience in Bloodstock propelled Ten Ton Slug into the UK, “From that gig loads of people saw us and that’s still paying off, they come along to gigs to see us when we play the UK and say “we saw you at Bloodstock and it was deadly!” They would come along again and recommend us to their friends. It really was huge for us, the knock on effect was amazing. Then even the media side of things over there, talking to different people and different press outlets, it’s still paying off in getting our name out there.”

While making a splash in the sizable UK metal scene is still a crucial avenue for success, Sullivan maintains the Irish scene is flourishing - with our nation’s neighbours taking notice. “If you look at the one day festival events - the scene in Ireland seems to be amazing. Siege of Limerick is unbelievable. The English fans that come over can’t get over the sense of unity, camaraderie and the sheer numbers of people that will come out to the Siege and stay out all day. It’s nice to see more bands getting out and getting across to England, and English bands coming over here and experiencing that Ireland actually has something to offer. They don’t realise this, people think that we’re way out west and isolated which is true to a certain extent, but that’s not necessarily a negative thing either. The scene over here really is thriving, M2TM, The Siege of Limerick and the other all day events are testament to this.”

Competing with endless trad sessions and cover acts is an ongoing slog in the Slugs native Galway, “If we booked a gig as a cover band for Ten Ton Slug, we’d probably get paid more than we do as Ten Ton Slug! Cover bands get proper money for a night. Nobody plays metal to be rich I don’t think. It would be quite a foolish endeavor to think that you could even pull in good money from it. Cover bands are the way to pay the bills. Once the bills are paid and you want to blow off steam, have fun, and express yourself then original music is the way to do that. Trad music is huge in Galway obviously and there will always be plenty of places with trad. They’re always going to get paid plenty because it’s what the tourists recognise.” However, the metal scene is bustling in Galway, through superb all-day events such as Walpurgis Night and venues such as Sally Longs, “Sallys is always great. It’s free in, it gets packed and the atmosphere is great. You can’t beat it, especially when it’s your home crowd, it’s always a great buzz.”

Venues supporting metal nights and a lack thereof is a common problem in the country, with ancient stereotypes alive and well, “When you have people running a venue that don’t know metal they would have certain stereotypes about it - most of them ill founded. People don’t understand it and that’s fair enough. You could say it’s ignorance and it sounds like a negative word but its not necessarily, it just means that you don’t understand exactly what it is. In some of the places we play the bouncers would be metal heads themselves and they would always love the metal nights coming on because they know it’s going to be an easy nights work too. The people are sound. There’s never any kind of hassle and there’s a sense of community.”

In April of this year, the band landed a notable supporting spot for Black Label Society on their Irish tour, and relished in the experience of it all. “It was surreal to think I was to go up and play guitar and then Zakk Wylde would go up and play guitar. That’s absolutely nuts. We felt elated afterwards, we had such a good buzz from it. It really gives you the motivation to keep going as there’s times when things are work. More than anything when you do those rehearsals late on a tuesday night where everybody’s tired and has work the next morning, but you get it done. Those kind of ones are when it pays off, when you feel it pay off like that it really gives you the motivation and the drive to keep going.” Sullivan also spoke of their admiration and appreciation for DME Promotions and The Distortion Project on their organisation of these events - both of which have put together some cracking events over the past 12 months. “The DME crowd are the nicest people and they run such a tight ship - it’s amazing to see them work. But on top of that, a lot of people involved would be people that we’re friends with and played with. It was really nice atmosphere.”

Another high point came around in 2017, when they supported New Orleans sludge pioneers Crowbar. A clear influence on Sullivan and Ten ton Slug, the lads aspire to adopt the same passion and resolution for their craft. “We saw the amount of time, work, drive, and determination that it takes to get where they are. Kirk could be down at the merch stand with his wife and they would be very much hands on. Black Label were a different beast in that regard, where they had a crew of however many and articulated lorries driving their equipment around. Whereas with Crowbar it was a much smaller thing, the work never stops. The down to earth nature of the guys coupled with the fact that they are still doing all of these things. They are very hands on with they’re own management, their own band, with what they want to do and how to do it. It makes you realise, to get to that level requires such an amount of effort, and to keep it going requires so much. You can’t be under any illusion that someone is going to suddenly show up and sort everything out for you. I think there’s a perception of that when you’re younger - I certainly had it when I was younger. You think that a band makes it and that’s it, but that isn’t always the case. You can make it but you have to make it under your own steam and you have to keep going. That’s kind of what I took away from Crowbar - everything takes dedication and hard work and you have to keep that going to continue to do what you are doing.

In late 2017 the band released “Blood and Slime”, a three song EP filled with mammoth riffs and gut-punching grooves. The lads have been writing ever since, with eyes on the possibility of a new release at the beginning of next year. “A lot of new tunes on the go now, nearing completion with a few of them. With the writing side of things, when the song is done we know that it’s done. For 2018 we had two choices - either absolutely go for it and get another one out, or take our time with it. Let the songs speak for themselves and wait until it’s right. So we’re kind of tentatively early next year looking to record a release. There’s half the year left this year, plenty of writing time left which is great and we’re in the swing of writing now which is brilliant.”

Another landmark gig for the band takes place this Saturday the 21st in Slovenia, where Ten Ton Slug will play the New Forces stage at Metal Days festival - a prospect that has the lads elated, “Really really really exciting. I personally haven’t been to Metal days - Ronan has been a number of times as he plays in Na Cruithne as well - who are a folk metal band from Galway. They have played Metal days a few times now - they played the main stage last year. So he’s well used to it. He will have played every stage at Metal days now, we’re all very jealous of him! It’s very exciting, it’s our first time outside the British isles as well. Nothing beats the feeling of playing to a new audience and hopefully winning over some new people.” Sharing a bill with the likes of Judas Priest and Obituary, Sullivan is most looking forward to checking out the acts by which they’ll be sharing a stage, “we will definitely be checking out other new forces bands. We’ve been chatting to some of them already, there’s Splinter Bomb, Malemort, there’s a good few others as well. It’ll be good to check them out and see what they’re doing and just have a good time at the festival and check out as much music as possible - discover as much as we can.”

After Metal Days has been conquered, the lads return to our shores to play numerous shows in August with Conan, a headline show in Belfast, and a slot at next years Hammerfest - as well as new material to be released. Expect to see a lot more of the mighty slug.