The Punk Site 2023 Top 40: #5 Evil Blizzard – Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale

Lurking at number 5 in The Punk Site’s 2023 Top 40 are Preston, UK’s unholiest sons Evil Blizzard with Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale, their most furious, compelling and diverse album to date that is available on their own Crackedankles imprint. Formed by accident in a fog of booze and regret, Evil Blizzard have been confusing people for over a decade now. Infamous for their masked multi bass guitar assault, their gigs have become synonymous with chaos and celebration in equal measures. Since then they have graced everywhere from the front page of national newspapers to the most underground festivals, and have managed to avoid any pigeon hole with their mixture of psych, metal, punk and krautrock, building a ridiculously loyal following across Europe.

“This is an album and a band that have either set out to confound or stumbled upon a way of confusing the best of us, as to what exactly they are all about, but what matters the most is it works and its fucking entirely different, yes you can pick out moments of influence maybe, ‘Bad People’ feels as if it taken all the bad bits from a Killing Joke song and sucked to even further depths of depravity, ‘Pro Driver’ has a John Lydon esque PIL vocal that sits in a song that somehow feels like its describing a driver who actually be a professional killer with a need for justification, ‘Clouds Like Ghosts’ could even be described as a Joy Division meets The Fall in time weird evolution, anyway you get the gist of it, what actually is the truth, is that this band never really fit in anywhere other than within their own sick minds.” (Mark Cartwright)