DEARLY BEHEADED’S DEBUT EP AND STUDIO ALBUMS AVAILABLE ON DIGTAL PLATFORMS FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME
Quietly legendary and defiantly ahead of their time, Dearly Beheaded were one of the great lost treasures of British metal. Born from a shared obsession with Black Sabbath after a chance meeting at a Megadeth and Pantera show in Manchester, they arrived at a moment when heavy music was searching for its next identity and carved out one entirely their own.
With the towering, unmistakable roar of frontman Alex Creamer, razor-sharp riffs from Steve Owens and Phil Stevens, the thunderous low end of Tim Preston and the relentless power of Simon Dawson, Dearly Beheaded forged a sound that was crushing yet melodic, brutal yet deeply human. Across 1 EP and 2 albums, they weren’t chasing trends; they were writing the rulebook they wished everyone else had followed.
Now these 3 releases, ‘In a Darkened Room’, ‘Temptation’ and ‘Chamber of One’ are available for the very first time on digital platforms via Music For Nations.
Their demos caught the attention of Sepultura’s Max Cavalera and EastWest Records, whose enthusiasm was only eclipsed by a disagreement that would become one of heavy metal’s great “what if?” stories. When the band refused a lurid, severed-heads-in-jars sleeve for a planned EP, the deal collapsed.
“We had a bit of a falling out with EastWest over the cover,” laughs Creamer. “They wanted severed heads in jars, and we said, ‘No, it’s too cheesy!’ I wish we’d said yes now we might’ve had the money behind us! But we had a good time.”
That setback merely redirected their path. Music For Nations recognised what others almost let slip away. Teaming with legendary producer Colin Richardson and then engineer Andy Sneap, Dearly Beheaded unleashed Temptation in 1996: a masterclass in groove-laden, doom-soaked post-thrash that landed like a sledgehammer. As the metal world wrestled with grunge’s aftermath and the first tremors of nu metal, Dearly Beheaded stood defiantly apart. Tracks like Behind The Sun, Break My Bones and We Are Your Family still sound startlingly fresh ferocious statements from a band that refused to compromise.
They returned just a year later with Chamber Of One, replacing Phil Stevens with Darren Hough and pushing even further into uncharted territory. Heavier, darker and even more adventurous, it was the sound of a band finding its full voice. Songs such as A Moment Of Clarity and the colossal title track became underground anthems, earning admiration from everyone from Deftones’ Stephen Carpenter and Biohazard’s Bobby Hambel to a young Joe Duplantier before Gojira became a global force.
A couple of European tours alongside Annihilator and Pro-Pain seemed to signal bigger things to come. Instead, the momentum faded and by the end of 1997 Dearly Beheaded had disappeared almost as quickly as they had arrived.
But some bands leave behind platinum records. Others leave behind legends.
Dearly Beheaded became the band people whispered about. The one passed from friend to friend with the words, “You’ve never heard these guys?” The records that disappeared into collections only to be rediscovered years later by listeners wondering how music this powerful could have slipped through history’s cracks.
Three decades later, those albums haven’t aged they’ve waited.
Listening today, it’s impossible not to hear just how far ahead of the curve they really were. Their riffs still hit with the force of wrecking balls. Their melodies still linger. Their honesty still cuts through the noise. These aren’t museum pieces from the 1990s they’re timeless heavy metal records that finally have the chance to reach the audience they always deserved.
