Charnel Crown are a Dublin-based groove metal band made up of four hard-working, working-class musicians. Formed in December 2025, the band deliver heavy, riff-driven metal played straight from the soul rather than any desire to reinvent the wheel. Their sound is rooted in honesty, groove, and intensity, blending groove, aggression, and modern metal precision, music made by working-class metal fans, for working-class metal fans. While the band itself is new, its members are far from inexperienced, having performed extensively across Ireland and taking direct support slots with acts such as Xentrix, Chelsea Grin, Avatar, Fozzy, Jinjer, and Evil Scarecrow.
Hi and welcome to this interview. Tell us about your latest release.
Our latest release is our debut EP, Such Is Life, which came out on August 15th through Wanikiya Records. It’s a five-track EP and really serves as the introduction to who Charnel Crown are and what we’re about. We actually had the whole EP recorded before we even went public as a band, so this release has essentially been with us from day one.
The EP was recorded, mixed, mastered, and produced by JSR Audio up in Belfast. We released three singles in the build-up — "People Like You," "In For A Penny," and the title track "Such Is Life." The music video for "People Like You" was shot by NVRMNT, "In For A Penny" had a lyric video created by Very Metal Art UK, and the "Such Is Life" music video was shot by Conor Tobin during our debut live show in Fibber Magees in Dublin. The EP artwork was designed by The Dark Side Art. There was a lot of work put into making Such Is Life more than just five songs thrown online, so it feels fucking great to finally have the whole thing out there.
How would you describe your sound?
We’d describe our sound as groove metal at its core, but there’s a lot more going on around that. We pull from groove, thrash, nu-metal, and alternative metal, with big riffs, heavy grooves, and an emphasis on writing songs that actually stick with you. We’re not particularly interested in fitting neatly into one subgenre — if it sounds heavy, feels right, and gets your head moving, it belongs in Charnel Crown.
What do you write about?
A lot of what we write about comes from the environments we grew up in and the things we've experienced personally. Such Is Life itself is almost an homage to that typical Irish attitude of accepting that things are fucked and just getting on with it. The state of mental health in this country is dire. Having gone through the system myself and having to fight tooth and nail just to receive some form of help, it really opened my eyes to how much stigma regrettably still exists around it.
It also reflects the backgrounds we grew up in. Drug use is rampant, there's an awful lot of shady behaviour, and plenty of problems that people would rather brush under the carpet. People often try to dilute those issues by saying "everywhere is bad," rather than actually acknowledging what's happening in front of them. That attitude of shrugging your shoulders and saying "such is life" is really at the heart of it. The EP takes that phrase and turns it into an expression of the anger and frustration that comes from actually living through those things.
What do you listen to when you are home?
Honestly, a bit of everything. Metal is obviously a massive part of it — Pantera, Korn, Deftones, Black Sabbath, and Tool would all be in there — but we're definitely not a band that exclusively listens to metal. Between us, there's rap, dance music, grassroots blues, and plenty of other stuff thrown into the mix. We just love music. If something has a good melody, a great atmosphere, or just makes you feel something, we're not too concerned about what genre it's supposed to belong to. If it's good, it's good.
What is your favourite live performance so far?
Terrorfest 3 at Mono's Bar, without a doubt. There was such a DIY feeling to the whole thing. We'd been drinking from fairly early in the day, and I remember showing up with a rake of cans and a bottle of Fireball to share with the other bands and people in the crowd. There was just a real sense of everyone being there together and having a good time, and sadly you don't see enough of that anymore.
We're a band that likes to have fun when we play. The music will always come first, but to us, the difference between a gig and a show is the experience. We don't want to play gigs — we want to put on shows. We want the crowd involved and to feel like they're part of it rather than just standing there watching us. We grew up watching bands that had a genuine connection with their audiences and looked like they were having as much fun as everyone watching them. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to go through quite a few bands before finding one that genuinely wants to give the audience more than they get back. Those bands absolutely still exist, and we want Charnel Crown to be one of them.
Tell us a funny story that happened in the studio or on stage.
Imagine this: you've locked yourselves away in a rehearsal room for six months writing. You record the EP, do the promo, photoshoots, videos, interviews, and then build your debut show up even further by announcing you're shooting the music video for the title track that night. Then, after the very first song, the guitarist's amp decides it's had enough. Absolute pandemonium.
We all just looked at each other and started laughing. Thankfully, we're not fresh out of the box, so we know how to roll with the punches. Dan, the sound engineer that night, was an absolute lifesaver and helped Stephen switch the amp out and get everything running again. In the meantime, Dean suddenly had to become a stand-up comedian for a few minutes and keep the crowd entertained. The show ended up going better than we ever could have predicted, but you genuinely couldn't write it. Six months building everything up and one song into your debut show it's basically, "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am — there goes the amp and all the credibility we've spent six months building." Looking back, it's fucking hilarious. At the time, maybe slightly less so, but we recovered.
What are your favourite albums?
Between all of us, there are definitely a few albums that would have to be mentioned:
- Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park
- Magma by Gojira
- Master of Reality by Black Sabbath
- The Poison by Bullet For My Valentine
- Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven by Pantera
- Follow the Leader by Korn
They're all very different records from different periods, but each one has had an impact on us in some way — whether it was making us fall in love with heavy music in the first place, influencing how we write, or simply being an album we can still throw on from start to finish. It's probably a pretty good snapshot of some of the musical DNA that makes up Charnel Crown.
Which musician would you like to meet for a beer?
Ozzy would probably be the obvious choice, and for good reason. The man helped lay the foundations for the music we all love. To sit down over a beer and hear firsthand about those early Black Sabbath years, the birth of heavy metal, and everything he experienced throughout that career would have been incredible. There aren't many people who have left that kind of mark on music.
The Pantera lads would absolutely be up there too. That band had a huge influence on us, not just musically but in terms of attitude, energy, and what a heavy band can bring to a live show. To have shared a few beers with those guys and listened to the stories from their years on the road would have been something special.
What would you ask for backstage if you were the most important band on Earth?
Nothing too unreasonable — a pallet of Guinness, several bottles of Fireball, and one completely unnecessary bowl of M&M's with a specific colour removed just so people know we've officially become insufferable.
We'd need a fully stocked kebab station for after the show, a PlayStation with four controllers, and a framed photograph of Ozzy watching over the dressing room like some sort of patron saint of bad decisions. Then, buried right at the bottom of the rider in tiny writing: "Please provide water." We're professionals, after all.
What are your plans for the near future?
We've got a pretty packed few months ahead of us:
- Sept 18: Fibber Magees (Dublin) supporting Broken Habit w/ Praelium and South Sector
- Sept 26: Platform 5 (Westmeath) for Too Far Fest w/ Too Far Fetched
- Oct 24: The Athenaeum (Wexford) supporting Equinox
- TBC: Limerick date (to be announced soon)
- Nov 7: The Cellar (Galway) supporting Ren Marabou & The Berserkers w/ Misery Goblin and Graveworms
- Nov 14: The Watchtower (Louth) w/ Equinox, Answerer, and Bile
On top of all the shows, we'll finally have Charnel Crown merch available very soon. The EP is out now, so the focus is on getting out there, playing as much as possible, and continuing to build from what we've started.
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