The word “Satan” is synonymous with the word “Self”. Likewise, the words “Demonic Bishop” and “Infernal Symphony”, are one and the same, destined to wreak havoc upon the established foundations of art, religion and society.
Born in Nottingham, England, and now residing in Cannock, Staffordshore via an interim stretch in Derby, Demonic Bishop is a twenty-something with a chip on his shoulder and a fire in his flaming belly. He is a man disillusioned with the modern world around us, experiencing as much joy for the things he loves as the pure, intense, vitriolic hatred he has for things he sees to be wrong, and from a young age has always believed that he was destined for greatness.
His current left hand path was not always as obvious to him as it is now. Growing up surrounded by music (Motown, 50s Crooners and 80s pop megastars on his mother’s side, and psychedelic, progressive rock, electronica, and 60s rock on his dad’s), his first instrument was a living room piano at the age of seven, where he would play ditties, little melodies, and Christmas carols in rudimentary ways.
Strangely enough, music has always been in his family – his Dad, Paul Bishop, is an avid singer, keyboardist and guitar player who formed a garage band in the 80s called “BDI” (Formed using their initials, Bishop, Deacon and Innes) and recorded pop and progressive rock tracks at home for decades; in the 50s, his grandfather Claude Navarre sung in music halls and on television, and his great great grandfather, John, was a piano tuner in the late 1800s. Some of the songs his dad recorded in his youth were a motivation for Bishop at an early age and even now they inspire him to follow in his father’s footsteps.
After those early dabblings on the piano, of all instruments, Bishop then moved to his father’s collection of keyboards, teaching himself tunes, songs, and themes by ear from a young age, bypassing musical theory altogether, after having previously been turned off of music by compulsory primary school recorder lessons of the time. It was after this point that Bishop vowed to never have another music lesson again.
He would use the keyboard to jam and improvise melodies over drum beats built in to the keyboard, or play to whatever was on the radio or musical themes from professional wrestling video games, revelling in the ability to create music using merely his fingertips and his mind.
He would also record vocal covers of his first musical love, Linkin Park, into a karaoke machine with built in tape tracks as a youngster, which ignited his passion for metal.
A time after this, Bishop discovered one of his Dad’s guitars, and, as before, began rudimentary riffs and sounds. Naively, he began to attempt playing it like a lap steel guitar, because the frets were too large for his fingers and the guitar too heavy for him to hold, notwithstanding the fact that at this time he discovered that he was partially ambidextrous – meaning he was a left handed guitarist.
Using the pseudo-lap steel method, Bishop eventually got involved in a few bands with friends he was familiar with in high school. He never really gelled with them musically – he could play, in a fashion, but without any prior musical tuition or knowledge, and being baffled by their influences at the time (emo, metalcore and mallcore) he never quite felt like he fit in.
They would practice once or twice a week, discussing how wowed they were by the latest Avenged Sevenfold single or talking about how Slash was the greatest guitarist to ever live, while Bishop was working away furiously creating his own musical passages while trying to figure out how the different instruments of a band related to one another.
Up till now, Bishop was only a semi-member of this “band”, as he was outside their main friendship circle and was not particularly popular at school. However, the day came that this band would require a bassist, and as luck would have it, Satan would provide…
On his 15th birthday, the Demonic one was gifted a bass guitar, a gift that sparked his in-built musical talent, channeling his heritage, boundless creativity, and teenage anger. Being initially ambivalent to this four stringed marvel, over time he took to it and before long became a respected and renowned bassist in his community, playing anywhere and everywhere he could with whomever needed the thunder of his playing.
The band began to learn cover songs and helped establish Bishop in his primary role, as a metal bassist with elements of multiple genres of metal. Eventually, as high school kids do, the friends drifted in and out of friendship with one another and they went their separate ways.
Until, that is, Bishop began to take what he had learned and work on it relentlessly. His own taste in music was still in its embryonic stage, but he was like a sponge – absorbing anything and everything, and decided to try forming a band of his own.
He wandered unto the practice space of his high school and began covering Rush songs with a few of his friends, eventually leading to an on-off band that was semi-serious about making it big.
As a bassist, Demonic Bishop was different to most – his approach was that of a guitarist, whilst still respecting the place of the bass within the unit of a band. Taking inspiration from one of his earliest musical inspirations, Motorhead and Lemmy in particular, Bishop detested the traditional role of bassists of the time merely playing root notes or uncreative lines that followed the guitar, and instead determined to break the rules, rather than play to them.
Distortion pedals, plectrums, bass chords and wickedly complex bass runs were his antidote, and they made him stand out from the pack, and as such he was in high demand, enabling him to play in a variety of bands and in a variety of settings.
This second band, formed with more familiar and reliable friends, would be named Spectre, and for a year or two, would flit between rehearsing covers by bands such as Dream Theater, Metallica, Rush and The Police, and attempting to craft original material. Neither of these things came to fruition, but again, solidified his playing and shaped his view of how music should sound, and how a musical vision could be sabotaged, as things eventually turned sour and, after being frustrated with the lack of any real progress and spinning of wheels, Bishop decided to leave the band and try moving to bigger and better things.
Cover bands followed, including a short stretch as bassist in a Blues Brothers cover band, as well as a stint in a band called SevenAceFive started by his friend Dave Hambling, which followed on from the latter’s former band Nyhilus, which focused on a heavy, groove oriented sound in the vein of Meshuggah, Machine Head and Pantera. Again, this mostly resulted in little of note, but was a good opportunity for him to soak up some outside influences and dabble with some heavier forms of music, as well as stretch his legs creatively.
This lasted until eventually, one fateful day he answered the call from an up and coming thrash band from his home town of Nottingham, who required a bassist on short notice.
Within the short space of 6 weeks, Bishop had learned an entire set previously alien to him by a band named Incinery, and as a result of his first live gig with the band, they won the Metal To The Masses Initiative in the Nottinghamshire leg and went on to perform a set at Catton Hall’s Bloodstock Open Air, his first major live show.
Despite only having performed 4 gigs with them, and arguably being the catalyst that propelled them towards further success, the band shortly and promptly fired the Demonic One in order to rehire their previous bassist, and this would have been the final nail in the coffin for Bishop’s ambitions with a full band, had it not been for a pair of guitarists from Derby…
Following this ill-fated diversion, and full of piss and vinegar after the unexpected disgrace the thrash meisters had caused him, Demonic Bishop had much to prove. Exacting vengeance upon his ex bandmates, he decided to join a band named Sickened with a guitarist from his previous band, Spectre. Despite going well initially, the duo in question eventually decided a third guitarist was unnecessary, but were eager to recruit Bishop as a bassist after having been impressed by his considerable skill.
This gave him the opportunity to learn about recording, mixing and mastering, and was the first time that he had chance to work on original material unhindered by fluctuating lineups and with a steady practice location in which to work.
The music was also meaner and heavier, and blisteringly fast… although this would prove to be the bands downfall, as two or three years later once again, the stagnation beast reared its ugly head, and after only one or two gigs in this outfit under his belt after almost three years of constant work, things became stale. He had learned much, garnering a greater appreciation for death metal and doom, and had honed his skills at lyricism and stamina as well as constructing and revising songs.
During the latter part of his stretch with this band, Bishop had made the decision to work on original material at home, separate in vision and wider in scope than his main band at the time. Sickened’s greatest strength, it’s single-minded approach, was also its greater drawback, and this double edged sword would form the concept behind a later Infernal Symphony album.
But albums such as this were a promised land of fantasy for Bishop, having only just begun his own endeavor, and in the beginning, the solo project was merely a method for him to branch out from the bass, and focus on his other, and up until now neglected, musical passion – the guitar.
Bishop would record for his own amusement as a means of practicing the guitar during his downtime in Sickened, and as his skills progressed, so did his confidence, until eventually amassing enough material for his first album, Unholy Persecution. This was finally a chance for him to explore sounds, song structures and melodic methods that had been prohibited from Sickened’s own approach, and one that had begun to leave him feeling stifled.
This album was never intended to be released, but after a split from Sickened following months of procrastination and the unexpected firing of their drummer, Bishop was left with no choice but to accept that enough was enough, and realise that if he were to ever accomplish anything of note, the stars were pointing to it being on his own.
The album was released in March 2017, and the rest, as they say, is history. Which is apt, considering the one man band’s approach, philosophy, and aesthetic.
He decided it best to continue upon his history for rebelling and bucking trends, vowing to ensure that his own creation would be fuelled by the unknown, defiant in stature, and compelled to preach the hazards of injustice and to smite any and all who had smited him.
Today, Infernal Symphony is known for erratic and arresting displays of musicianship within their songs and the swiftness and quality of their releases. Despite being a DIY project created using little to no professional equipment, and being a true one man band, the project has gone on to release multiple albums and EPs and garner considerable praise from peers, fans and promoters, and will look to continue their unique blend of metal for years to come.
To be continued…
Infernal Symphony 