Breathe/Rust, Bristol’s blackened hardcore quartet, are quickly gaining fans following a string of ferocious live shows. They do this by being really nice people and playing proper horrible filth. Imagine our delight when they got in touch wanting to do some recording. With allegiance to the UK DIY scene and a sound influenced by the likes of Converge and mid-2000s euro-crust, Breathe/Rust are as raw and relentless as they are reflective.
Their new video single, “Fallen Sanctuary,” recorded here at Southsea Sound, captures this dynamic perfectly—balancing brutal riffs and frenetic rhythms with lyrics that explore ecological and social crises. We caught up with the band to talk about their genre-defying sound, the inspiration behind their intense live shows, and the meaning woven into ‘Fallen Sanctuary’.”
Alright, you’re blending everything from hardcore to post-metal—do you even have a label for this, or do you just call it BREATHE/RUST?
“Great question! Next to settling on a band name, most would agree that agreeing a genre to represent you is one of the most painful parts of being in a band. The closest that we’ve got to is… blackened hardcore.
Hardcore in spirit. We can’t get away from those roots, and we have always been fiercely DIY in our individual and collective approaches over the past decades. Floor shows. Relationship building. Kindness. Community. But also: playing fucking horrible music to have an existential crisis to.
Image credit: Danny Barnes
Blackened in tone. Whilst Matt absolutely detests playing blastbeats, it’s hard to deny the black metal influence in the guitar, bass and vocal work for B/R – especially with Nath’s love of the HM2 and dissonant scales. Like the lyrical content of the band, musically we’re trying to balance between bleakness and hope, and these kinds of approaches really lend themselves to that message.”
Anything unusual inspired your music lately? Any surprises?
“Between us, we’ve got pretty varied musical influences and try to bring that to the table for the writing process. We’ve been having a lot of conversations about live shows recently – and seeing bands like Amenra and Hexis recently have really inspired us to think about how to create an even more oppressive atmosphere during our set. We aim to keep movement throughout our 30 minutes on stage rather than breaking between songs, so are constantly thinking about how stage aesthetics can complement that.
With writing our new record, we’re trying to lean more into what feels natural – which turns out falls far more into euro-crust and emo-crust than we were expecting! So, we’re doing some work to make the most of groove, hooks and melody without losing our love for ferocious riffing and challenging structures. We bloody love being in a room together and hearing that all taking shape. It’s cliched to say that we make the music that we want to hear, but if you see us live, you’ll be watching four humans who are incredibly excited to play these songs night after night.”
How did you get involved with Southsea Sound?
“El and Tim have been a pillar of the DIY music scene for as long as we can remember. Between our various bands, they have housed, fed and boozed us on many occasions, and we have always come away with hope for the world. Nath and Neil’s band – The Earth & Me – had the pleasure of being the very first band to record a live track at Southsea Sound back in 2016 (is this right, El?!) (Yep. now listening to it as I write this up.), and when we returned as B/R in 2024 we were all stunned at how professional, warm and welcoming that space is. Good lord we wish you were based in Bristol.”
Do you see your music as a statement on the state of the world or is it more about creating something intense?
“Our music is very much formed by how we see the world around us. While there are times when everything around you can seem harsh and intense, you do find moments of calm and beauty that cut through. For a band that sound like we do, people are often surprised when they meet us – we’re a bunch of pretty hopeful beings. We recognise the bleakness in the world, but we all implicitly know that one of the only hopes that we have is community and solidarity.”
How did you all meet, and have you worked together before?
“Nath is the common factor between all of us. Rich has known Nath since they were 16 and he won a copy of his bands CD for dancing the hardest during a college rock festival. Matt and Nath toured across Europe together in Crazy Arm, including an unfortunately mistimed and accidental ‘urinate-in-the-face-whilst-asleep’ bonding time. Neil and Nath have played in a post-rock band – The Earth & Me – together since 2016 and share one mind for writing – Neil for anything with major chord progressions, Nath for the minor and dissonant.
The BREATHE/RUST project actually started in lockdown. Nath wrote an entire record whilst travelling in Australia and assembled us all individually. We had our first practice in facemasks in 2020, and then BAM! A full two years later we were ready to go. Perhaps the longest incubation period of any band we’ve been in, but that first show felt GREAT.”
Pretty hopeful beings.
What motivates you to create?
We’re all now in our late 30s, have been playing in bands for the last 15-20 years, but all agree that now is absolutely the most satisfying time to be playing and creating this kind of music. Life has given us every reason step back from making music – from growing families, to work, travel, and a huge period of creative inactivity during the various lockdowns. And yet, we still need to come back to it. Not only is the UK heavy music scene stronger than it’s ever been, but we’ve all realised that creating is a necessary, inevitable catharsis that we just can’t get away from. Are we nearly 40 and playing sweaty floor shows across the country? Fuck Yes. Do we have to stretch our backs now before we play? Unfortunately, yes. Do we feel like we can now come to this with a greater sense of clarity about what we want to see, hear and say in the world? Absolutely. Our conversations on tour (normally over an episode of Alan Partridge, with supermarket maize snacks) is that we feel incredibly fortunate and grateful to still do this, and long may it continue.
Your lyrics feel personal. Are they grounded in real life, or do you take some liberties?
The lyrics I (Rich) write are all personal to me. They’re based upon actual events, or my perception of problems within society. I’m very grateful to the rest of the guys for placing their trust in me when it comes to this. The lyrics to Fallen Sanctuary are based upon the events currently occurring in Gaza. They ask how people can justify their actions, when committing horrific acts against a civilian population.
What’s next for BREATHE/RUST?
We’re currently busy finalising our next batch of songs, which we’ll release in 2025, have a weekend tour booked in January with Lincoln Black Metal band Slake, and we are looking to get out and play more shows around the country. We’ve only been playing shows for around a year and a half, so there are still many places we would like to visit, as well as places we would love to return to. We’re particularly fond of countryside drives between venues and can’t believe our luck when we stay somewhere overnight, and the hosts have dogs or cats. Rich is our resident animal whisperer. Animals cannot get enough of him.
Bunk and Gizzy missing Rich.
Who should we be listening to?
We’re spoiled for choice in the UK heavy music scene at the moment, aren’t we?
The South West is absolutely teeming with lovely people making horrible music – including Uncertainty, Cainhurst, Copse, Gimic, Vicarage, Chewing Glass Collective, Perp Walk, Peruvian Necktie, Punch On!, Row of Ashes…
We’re also lucky to be meeting beautiful humans across the country as we bounce around –including SKABS, Body Crisis, Pariah, Feign, Higher Walls, Slake, Helpless, Supernova – and Neil is now playing bass with UK Black Metal stalwarts Underdark.
But if you were to ask us for our favourite collective band? It’s always Slipknot. It’s always the front half of the self-titled 1999 record. Here comes the pain.”
