Slung announce debut album ‘In Ways’ will be released 2nd May 2025 via Fat Dracula

Slung announce debut album ‘In Ways’

will be released 2nd May 2025 via Fat Dracula

Unveil trauma-fueled, ribcage-rattling new single ‘Laughter’

Album tour also announced

“Heavy & hypnotising” – Kerrang!

“plays with classic metal motifs in a refreshing, contemporary way that’ll surely please fans of the likes of Puppy, Mastodon or Red Fang.” – Metal Hammer

“Slung are a doozy of a brand new band” – Loud Women

Watch the music video

Track stream / Album order

Slung are excited to announce their debut album ‘In Ways’ will be released via Fat Dracula on 2nd May. They’ve also announced a tour to celebrate the full length, and revealed its first single, the trauma-fueled, ribcage-rattling ‘Laughter’. Vocalist Katie Oldham says “This song is about a face-off that’s been a long time coming, and the difficult relationships we can have with members of our family, especially our parents. When we’re children we’re so desperate for our parents’ attention and approval that their dismissal or rejection can feel agonising. With an emotionally absent parent, trying desperately to earn love or consideration from someone who isn’t capable of giving it can be so destructive. This hurt can often develop into resentment as we age and we may even later villainise this person, wanting to fight, confront, defeat them.”

With a debut duo of singles at the tail end of 2024, Slung’s sounds piqued interest among discerning ears across the industry and internet. They’ve also been working hard in the real, physical world, earning a legion of fans the old fashioned way, by hitting the road hard before they’d even released a note of music. They’ll continue this with a tour to celebrate the album’s release this spring. Details below.

Slung’s debut album is a collaborative combustion of its members’ experiences, circumstances and supreme musicianship. Their sonic universe – comprising the power of guitarist Ali Johnson’s incendiary riffs, vocalist Katie Oldham’s enviable dynamic and tonal range, bassist Vlad Matveikov’s undulating, yet grounding basslines and drummer Ravi Martin’s expert rhythmic punctuation – is a veritable musical supernova. Influences within the Slung camp are far reaching, with the band’s members referencing artists from Deftones and Baroness, to Wednesday and MJ Lenderman, to Queens of the Stone Age and even a sprinkling of Chappell Roan and Fleetwood Mac.

Initially the brainchild of Vlad, whilst he was living in Brighton, Slung were some time in the making. He tells of randomly meeting Ali at a campground in Australia in 2009, falling in love with Katie during lockdown and hearing a demo of drummer Ravi Martin’s old band in his other role running indie label Small Pond. The kernel of an idea for Slung began to germinate when Vlad’s previous band InTechnicolour disbanded, as he began to formulate new musical ideas, not knowing where they would lead him.

Vlad started out by working with like-minded vocalists such as Ash Tubb (Sugar Horse), Zac Jackson (El Moono), Lucy Sheehan (Projector), Annie Dorret (CLT DRP) and Micahel Barton (Sick Joy). Bringing Katie on board as vocalist was its own journey. “First thing you need to know is that Vlad is an absolute machine,” she states, matter-of-factly. “He has creativity, passion and drive like nothing else, and an ability to ‘get shit done’ that is second to none. He approached me about two years ago with these demos to see if I wanted to work with him as a vocalist, and maybe try turning them into a band. I *totally* bitched out,” she admits, laughing. “My previous band (Sit Down) had only very recently fallen apart and my confidence was in the gutter – I just didn’t feel ready. But immediately from working with him (on just one track to begin with), I felt incredibly reassured and encouraged by him, and it was such a different songwriting experience than I’d had before. After about a year of convincing and with Vlad having successfully recruited Ali and Ravi, I finally took the plunge and joined.” Having found a musical home that really fits, she now remarks poignantly to the rest of the group and their journey together: “I can’t remember when you all became main characters in my life”.

Katie’s storytelling and the compelling way she brings together personal, lived experience with more abstract, conceptual ideas and characters is evident throughout ‘In Ways’. Her inspirations range from sex workers and the power dynamics that come along with that profession (‘Class A Cherry’) to the tragic occurrences of bull fights in Spain (‘Matador’). ‘In Ways’ also contains some of the contributions from the band’s former collaborators along the way. The melodies for ‘Collider’ were largely conceived by El Moono’s Zac Jackson, which Katie adapted to fit a new lyrical narrative of a cult who are ruled by a deity they refer to as the ‘ritual prophet’ whom they converse with through the use of psychedelics. ‘Limassol’ started life with Mykl Barton from Sick Joy while Projector’s Lucy Sheehan worked the initial stages of ‘Come Apart’, a track which sounds like it could be the opening theme for a cult TV series like Breaking Bad or True Detective. The lyrics and melodies of ‘Heavy Duty’ are the result of creativity from both Katie and CLT DRP’s Annie Dorett. It’s an impactful song about generational trauma, the pain of growing up as a young girl and realising you’re being cultivated into a product the world wants to consume. “Men teach you to be quiet and obey from a young age,” explains Katie. “And so often we are raised to be as pretty and helpful as possible to serve men, to be their glamorous trophy, or servant to their every whim. I was exposed to a lot of this ideology as a kid, a lot by how my Father viewed women, and it’s taken me years to deprogram from it. Sometimes I still hear his voice coming out of mine when I react to things, the imprint of his temper flaring up in me.”

Katie communicates that one of her personal missions for the band relates to representation, inclusion, sisterhood and women being a more dominant force in music, whether that’s on stage, behind the scenes or in the crowd. She says “My love for women knows no bounds. Everything I do, I do for the girlies, the women and the female gaze exclusively. (This extends of course to ALL women inclusively, no TERF bullshit here.) There is just an unparalleled magical feeling when you’re around liberated, electrifying women who speak with honesty and clarity and without fear. The world is built to try and make us resent, envy and destroy each other, and I LOVE those moments where we realise we are more alike than what divides us. I want to be around women all the time, to be inspired by them, to connect with them and to share and to bond and unite.”

SLUNG ON TOUR:

Tickets available here

02 May Winchester – The Railway Inn

03 May Brighton – Green Door Store

04 May Cheltenham – Frog & Fiddle

05 May Reading – Purple Turtle

08 May Southampton – Heartbreakers

09 May Northampton – The Garibaldi

15 May Guildford – The Boileroom

16 May Nottingham – JT Soar

17 May Norwich – Voodoo Daddy’s

23 May Bristol – Exchange (basement)