Lower Slaughter (Deep Living)

Greg Aramini
12 minutes ago
5 min read

Released: 2025

Genre: Punk, Noise rock, Heavy rock, Math rock

Sounds Like: Shellac, Drive Like Jehu, Unwound

Homeland: Brighton, UK

What makes Deep Living elite and sit atop OHMs Peak?

Deep. Living guides us through a variety of genres, including punk, noise, stoner, and math rock. It’s incredibly diverse and our top album of 2025.
Frontman Barney Wakefield's vocals perfectly suit this style of music. His blend of desperation and punk tones enhances the music seamlessly without overwhelming it.
The production is spot on, with each instrument standing out clearly. Every time we listen, we notice different nuances.

Track Listing:

Year Of The Ox 4:15
Take A Seat 4:02
The Lights Were Not Familiar 3:33
Dear Phantom 4:01
Goes Fast 1:22
Memories Of Road 6:32
Hospital Chips 4:00
We Bring Power :36
The Bridge 1:50
The Shape Of The Fire 3:57
Motions 2:51
Deep Living 7:08

Dive deeper into Deep Living with our Q&A with the vocalist Barney Wakefield.

OHMs Peak: ‘Deep Living’ has been our #1 album of the year three months in a row. It is absolutely chock full of brilliance. You cross over so many genres, what influenced you the most in developing your sound over the years.

Barney Wakefield: Well first of all, thank you very much for the kind words. We really appreciate it!

The initial canvas we loosely drew from when we first started back in 2014 was Harvey Milk, Pissed Jeans, The Men, Hot Snakes, and other stuff along those lines…

Since then, because we all listen to different types of stuff separately that we’re individually influenced by, our sound has changed and developed over the years from how it started out to now, which we hope covers a slightly wider range of stuff, but is still in keeping with what we’re about.

Jon our guitarist for example is into plenty of pop music and Motown type stuff, and likewise I’m personally influenced at the moment by artists like Aesop Rock & Talk Talk, and whilst none of us ever aim to create or replicate these types of styles, the influence of our specific tastes might seep in somehow. 'Green album' era Weezer was something me and Graham (drums) were digging and discussing a lot when we were writing thr album, but I don't think it's evident in the music neccessarily...!

OHMs Peak: ‘Take A Seat,’ gun to our head, would be our favourite track on the album. Take us through the making of this track….between its jaw dropping changeups and quirky melodies… how did it come to fruition.

Barney Wakefield: This is a fairly old song now compared to the others on the album - it started off as an initial idea with our old line-up, and our newest recruit James bought his own take on it once we re-set activities with the line-up we have now. It went through many variations before we got to the version that we have now.

Most of our songs start with an idea from Jon, which we collectively build on and shape as a group. I think this one probably came quite easy, but I truly can't remember now how this one worked out!

It’s one of our favourite songs to play live for sure, and it kinda covers various aspects of our sound, and ebbs and flows nicely. It would likely be the song I’d pick to introduce someone new to what we do.

OHMs Peak: What was Lower Slaughter’s most memorable live performance? Where was it held and why was the night so special?

Barney Wakefield: With our previous line-up, playing at the Cosmic Carnage all dayer at the Brixton Windmill around 2016-ish was a pretty amazing one. We were on at the right time where everyone was in a very lively mood and keen for dancing, and it’s the only gig to date where I’ve crowd surfed whilst playing…still searching for that feat again!

More recently, supporting Melt Banana in Brighton was a pretty big highlight. We were opening the show at a venue that’s way bigger than we’re used to playing, and we were expecting it to be fairly quiet during our set. We walked on stage and the place was packed, all we could was just a sea of heads that extended all the way to the back of the room. We just ploughed through our set with as much energy as we could, and I remember coming off stage thinking we’d had a goodun’ that night!

Supporting The Men a couple of years ago in London was amazing too. ‘Open Your Heart’ was a big album for us, so it was an honour to share a stage with them.

OHMs Peak: What band NOT in the math rock genre would you love to tour with that would most compliment your sound?

Barney Wakefield: I reckon Status Quo in their early days would have been a good laff!

OHMs Peak: The album cover provides a serene and intriguing landscape, who came up with the concept and meaning behind the image?

Barney Wakefield: The photo on the front cover was taken a fair few years ago now by an old friend of ours when he was travelling around the world. I believe this particular photo was taken somewhere near Penzance-way. I first saw it when he put it on their photobucket page (remember that site?!), and it caught my eye at the time and I always tucked it somewhere in the back of my head for many years after.

When it came to thinking about artwork, that photo came back to me as a fairly striking but simple image to illustrate the general narrative arc and musical mood of the album, which in a nutshell was to loosely convey the sense of navigating through the emotions of fear and trauma within a beautiful and safe surrounding, and coming out the other side positively.

Plus it didn’t come across as a straight ‘rock album’ type album cover, which was intentional on our part. I personally love album covers that both convey the general tone of the music, but don’t come across as a stereotypical portrayal of a certain genre or style. Yo La Tengo’s ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out’ for example was a big visual inspiration for this one. That is such a beautiful and powerful image that at first glance doesn't tell you what the sounds contained within will necessarily be, but it portrays the feeling of the songs so perfectly.

'Hex' by Earth is another example. ‘What Burns Never Returns’ by Don Cabellero is another great one that sums that up. And their second album for that matter- that cover is so great!

OHMs Peak: Lower Slaughter is stranded on an island with only a solar powered turntable and majestic powered solar blue tooth speakers. The band collectively can only choose one album. Which album to you agree to?

Barney Wakefield: We tend to default to something like ‘Classic Rock FM’ when we’re on tour in the van, as we can never collectively agree on one single thing to listen to.

That said, we’ve concluded that a ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ compilation from the late 80s/early 90s would suffice nicely. Something for everyone, several discs’ worth…done!

Lower Slaughter are:

James Gardiner – Bass

Graham Hebson – Drums

Barney Wakefield – Vocals

Jon Wood – Guitar

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