Road to Bloodstock 2022 – Ambrius

How long have you been playing together as a band?

We started putting material together in late 2019 after we performed a Killswitch Engage cover set together as friends, which lit the spark again. We’ve also all played in bands together over the last 12 years plus so there’s plenty of chemistry.

Where does the name of the band come from?

We decided on Ambrus as it is another name for Immortal or Undying.
Unfortunately there was already a group with the name but thanks to the wondrous alphabet, we found a suitable letter to pop in there to give us an identity.Describe your music. What makes you unique?

I feel our use of orchestral instruments and trying to use them dynamically to help the tracks ebb and flow may set us apart somewhat. Sam (Shiers, vocalist)’s incredible vocal range certainly gives us the edge, and we also try to create an atmosphere with each song.

What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?

We have a vocalist (Sam) that can wail like a possessed banshee as well as growl lower than the devil’s bowel movements so we feel like people will be drawn in once they hear him. We have Jason (Deakins, guitars) with more guitar chops than you can shake a stick at – he’s a fantastic player! There will be chances for everyone to sing along, we love crowd interaction and there will of course be a few goofy moments. You’ve got to have a laugh and enjoy the moment right?

If you like what we do, consider ing us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!

Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?

We have all attended Bloodstock numerous times and have all at least played here once before! Its always a pleasure and you’re looked after extremely well, the whole team is absolutely unreal. The festival its self is just the right size, everyone looks out for one another, there’s never any trouble,
the grounds and toilets are cleaned regularly, and there’s always plenty to do when all the bands are finished for the day. Everyone is close by and accessible. Its very difficult to find anything negative to say about Bloodstock in all honesty.Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?

We were promoting our debut EP which came out in mid July and we saw a notification stating that slots for the Jager stage were being booked. Sam thought it would be ace to tie in a Bloodstock performance with the EP launch and sometimes it never hurts to ask, so we sent over the EP and they were impressed with it so they slotted us straight onto the New Blood Stage!

Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock? 

In shock, ecstatic, excited, extremely humbled and very fortunate!

What sort of setlist can we expect?

We will be playing our whole debut EP Effigies Of Time in full, front to back and it just fits into that 30 minute slot!

Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?

We would love to catch Jinjer and Sylosis on the main stage, and of course the immense Mercyful Fate!
Cyhra, Cage Fight and Ingested on the Sophie stage, and our friends Tribe of Ghosts who we share the New Blood Stage with! To be fair Saturday is chock full of banging acts so its going to be mad to try and catch them all.What are you working on at the moment?

We’re currently still promoting our EP so we’re hoping to get as many gigs in as possible to it.
We do however already have some tasty riffs and ideas in the bank so we will be working on completing new material behind the scenes.What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?

In a previous band featuring myself, Sam and Jay, we played Reading and we told the crowd that who ever was the craziest person in the crowd would win a t-shirt. Needless to say the place descended into chaos. Naked conga lines, wrestling, they danced the Macarena and there were many other antics that would have panicked the most relaxed health and safety inspector. It all made for a damn good show though!

What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?

We tend not to drink before we go live so we can make sure we’re focused but once we’re done…

The folks at Jägermeister do make a mighty fine tipple – we’re going to be visiting the Jäger stage a fair amount on the Bloodstock weekend to sample the wares! We also like to dabble in some Hobgoblin, a few different types of whiskeys and some spiced rum.