The Rotted play old school D-Beat Death Metal. Dark nihilistic lyrics are spat out over a wall of heavy as hell and fast as fuck music, just like your mother used to disapprove of. The Rotted are the soundtrack for the end of days.
In early 2008 The Rotted rose from the ashes of two already dead UK bands. Vocalist Ben McCrow and guitarist Tim Carley, the two main men behind Death/Grind legends Gorerotted were joined by bass player Reverend Trudgill and drummer Nate Gould, both previously of blackened murder metal loonies Screamin’ Dæmon. The debut album Get Dead Or Die Trying (Metal Blade Records) hit stores in July of the same year. Produced by Russ Russell (Evile, Napalm Death, Dimmu Borgir) and engineered by James Dunkley (Blaze Bailey, Crowbar) Get Dead… has received fantastic reviews across the metal press.
Two years of intense UK and European touring followed the album release with festival highlights including Wacken Open Air 2008, Summer Breeze 2008, Dynamo 2008, Elsrock 2008, Vlamrock 2008, Bloodstock 2009, Hammerfest 2009, Headbangers festival 2009 and Hellfire festival 2009.
In 2009 a video was shot for album track Nothin' But A Nosebleed and has been a regular on Scuzz TV and others.
July 2010 saw The Rotted back in the studio with James Dunkley and the band releasing Anarchogram, a self-funded, self-released EP on their own label Anarchogram Industries. Anarchogram features 2 new songs and 4 bonus cover versions. Each member of The Rotted chose a track to cover that personally inspired them to play Extreme Metal.
More intense touring followed the release of Anarchogram, including a hugely successful 27 date European tour with old school Swedish Death Metallers Grave and American Grinders Misery Index. The tour kicked off during November 2010 and took The Rotted to every corner of mainland Europe. The Rotted also took part in a joint headline UK tour with Relapse artists Man Must Die in July 2010 and one off UK shows with Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower and Onslaught during spring and summer 2010. December 2010 saw The Rotted hit the UK again for a run of headline shows as well as jetting out to Israel to headline shows in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.
Summer 2011 once again saw The Rotted perform at various festivals in Europe, including the band’s second appearance at Bloodstock Open Air, Deathfeast Open Air and Dong Open Air. However, disaster struck 2 days before the band’s appearance at Czech festival Obscene Extreme when guitarist Tim Carley severed the end of the little finger on his left hand. After a trip to hospital, some surgery, and Tim having to relearn the songs so that they could be played with one less finger the scheduled performance went ahead as planned.
The Rotted’s second full-length album Ad Nauseam was released on Candlelight Records on 31st October to universal praise and featured artwork created by tattooist and band bassist Reverend Trudgill. Production duties were once again handled by Russ Russell at Parlour Studios and songs covered a variety of themes such as the band members’ Anti-theist and autonomous outlook, the end of days, injustices and the championing of outsiders. A 7-inch vinyl single Apathy In The UKwas then put out by Dutch label Hammerheart Records to support the release. The end of the year saw the band hook up with Grindcore Supergroup Lock Up for a run of UK shows as well as appearances at the UK’s Candlefest shows and at The Netherlands’ Eindhoven Metal Meeting.