The Black Map #280: El Chapo (Summer Bash 666 Hell In Hawaii Edition)!

In what World do Reading Progressive Death Metal Kings Mercury’s Well and Liverpudlian Rockers The Beatles get mentioned in the same sentence? Back in 1967 The Beatles gave the World an album called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” which features a track called “With a Little Help from My Friends” and that sentiment is how Mercury’s Well have gone about creating the annual Hawaiian beach party that is Summer Bash. Granted its a tenuous link but it is a link none the less and even more so when you consider the returning bands in Masquerader and El Chapo as well as their media partner in Metal Noise (who are they?!). Summer Bash takes place on Saturday 13th July at The Facebar in Reading and here’s line up in full:

Wallowing (headliner)
A Night In The Abyss
Mercury’s Well
Them Bloody Kids
Maziac
Masquerader
El Chapo
Slug13
Kardinal X
Chaos Theory

Other than being friends of Mercury’s Well and surviving previous incarnations of Summer Bash, what is the claim to fame of El Chapo we hear you cry? They’re named after Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, a Mexican drug lord and former leader within international crime syndicate the Sinaloa Cartel. He was considered to be the most powerful drug trafficker and murderer in the world. Hailing from Cardiff and Bristol the trio love nothing more than creating Groovy Hardcore Sludge sounds and have a trio of EPs and a pair of albums to their name since their first endeavour “Breakfast at Riffany’s” dropped in 2020.

Their most recent work premiered last month in “Visions Of The Dead“, a 15 minute 5 track affair that screams quality over quantity while begging to stab you with a broken beer bottle in a biker bar fight. Who put $25 worth of Slayer on the Jukebox? Oops. It was El Chapo and they don’t give a flying f***. They’ve got Merv Hembrough of Priest Crippler dropping a guest vocal appearance on the title track of their new EP. They’ve got their own Metal-Archives entry. What more could you possibly want? A Flake? Go on then…

We are a proud Media Partner of Summer Bash for the second year in a row! Fancy a ticket? Get them here.