Magazine article mark 1:
Their rise
to power shocked audiences around the globe, from underground support acts, to
one of the newest faces (well masks) of metal. This is story of how one band
rose through the ranks of metal become what they are today, this is the tale of
Original Sin.
Original
sin initially started by playing at back street bars and underground clubs,
starting off with nothing at all but a little bit of cash in hand to buy a
couple of rations If they was lucky. They literally grew up on the streets,
becoming a group of survivors that fought, bled and stole for each other from a
very early age. At the age of fourteen they came across the gruesome art of
metal, Rich Cornway also known by his stage name “Tainted Owl” , lead singer of
Original sin said “Metal found us and took us in as its own; it was the only
thing we had growing up, apart from each other, it moulded us into what we are
today”.
Once Original sin was branded with their very own iconic
sound and style they really started drawing in crowds for anyone willing to
hire them and put up with their pre-show antics. Their drummer Biff Cain also
known as “Rabid Dog” stated “before our first show we was so nervous we didn’t
know what to do, no one else had ever heard us play, so we just broke out into
some manic adrenaline fuelled fight with one another we was so beat when we got
on stage Jimmy (there lead guitarist and voted best metal guitar player of the
year 2015) passed out, we’ve done it before every show ever since”. Not soon after
their first show their name began to spread like wildfire in the underground
world, soon they were playing around 20 shows a month sometimes up to nine gigs
back to back. The first thing the band invested into was some new modern instruments,
amps, microphones and a flat of their own, where they could freely write and
allow for their pieces to be warped into master pieces that would soon change
metal for ever.
Not long after Original Sin was noticed by multiple record
labels, however being the clever street rats they are Original Sin wanted more
than just a well-known UK record label, they wanted the same record label as
their inspiration, they wanted Roadrunner Records to sign them[1].
However they didn’t know how to go about this at all, so they found someone
well known around the club environment and they knew he already had a lot of
contacts to help them get on the path to glory. In exchange all he wanted was
to join them on their corrupted crusade of metal, which is how Original Sin
found their scratch master and DJ “Vitiated Lamb”, whose brother happened to
work for a record label within New York as their artist relations. Once signed
to their record label they were flown over to New York to produce their first
album “Defiled Sanctum”.
“Defiled sanctum” managed to sell just fewer than 90,000 copies in its debut
week, from there the sales kept on climbing at an increased rate, until about 6
months following the release. Soon after releasing their debut album and there
self-titled EP, Original Sin went on their first ever tour around Europe, when
asked about it there bassist and the self-proclaimed father of the group
Raymond Rodgers better known as his stage name “Desolate Pig” wished to share
his bloody adventure with us.
“we was still just kids at the time and we had so much
commotion going on around us we didn’t know what to do, in a matter of months
we had gone from some grotty underground support acts without a pot to piss in,
to being well on our way to becoming headliners at some of the biggest venues
all around Europe. In the hysteria prior to the actual tour I didn’t realise
what a sensation we had become until our lead guitarist Ed and his twin rhythm
guitarist joey (also known as the malformed rats) were walking down the road
then three girls scream and ran up to them, the girls asked if they was Ed and
Joey from Original Sin when they said yes two of the girls just passed out,
like “boof” out cold. When they told me I realised that we was actually
somebody’s now not just five scumbags who didn’t like the right music so they
couldn’t be cool. The first thing I remember about the tour was the drugs and
the girls. That’s all I remember actually now that I think about it. Our first
show was in Leeds at the First Direct Arena, and I remember we was setting up
and I looked out and it was just so different we was used to tight little death
boxes with beer, blood and sweat stains all on the floor, roof and walls. I
felt like a gladiator in the coliseum, and then I had a panic attack and passed
out. When I woke up it was almost time to go on I remember that pre show ritual
was the most violent pre show ritual we had ever done, I was pissing out blood
from under my mask I didn’t know where form but I could taste it. Then we went
on stage, the crowd were savage they beat each other senseless they tried to
clamber over barriers and security guards to get onto stage, it was beautiful.
Every night after was the same beautiful uncontrolled legal chaos, oh and every
place we went there was after show parties with more drugs and more booze than
the last. Anarchy, that’s
the best word to describe what it was, pure anarchy.”
Following the tour the band had to overcome a grievous wound
in the form of a passing college and brother, joey his twin Ed spoke to us
about the loss, “I never expected it to end, any of it, any of us. When joey
died it was a huge loss to the entire band and it was tough, really tough, but
he wasn’t just my brother he was a brother to all of us, we wept and grieved
for him as one, as a family, you know something’s change and we all have to
move on eventually. But some things always stay the same no matter what, to
original sin Joey was our rhythm guitarist. That’s why we could never replace
him, that’s why it’s just us now. You know Joey used to say this crowd would be
the death of him, with the stunts he pulled that tour I wouldn’t have been
surprised, he used to crowd surf, mosh pit you name it he did it, with them. He
was one of them, he was the closest thing they had to being truly equals and
they felt the loss to, we received so many supportive messages, fan art,
letters people even sent us flowers. It was a tough loss for the whole family
of Original Sin, but it made us, it just pulled us so close to the fans, it was
the first time we really truly felt embraced in such a way, like everyone said
It, it really felt like the fans wanted to help and they was really there for
us, emotionally and physically. I remember our first standalone concert without
joey was so surreal. We all came on stage and we started to play but, the crowd
didn’t react how they normally would. It was like they felt sorry for us and I
didn’t realise why until I noticed Rich, he wasn’t singing he was just standing
there looking out at the crowd; we all stood there in the arena in this silent
almost comfortable numbness for about twenty minutes. It was like we was all
letting him go in that moment together as one, as a family”.
[1] Roadrunner
Records is a major Dutch record label that concentrates primarily on heavy
metal and hard rock bands. It is a division of Warner Music Group and is based
in New York City, Roadrunner Records have also produced multiple albums for bands
such as Slipknot and Trivium and one of the most successful metal record labels
of its time.
