Blood of Wecz is a death metal band currently operating out of New York, NY. The band originally hailed from Edinburgh, Scotland, but have not lived in the country for a number of years, following their rise to success and fame. The band line up currently consists of Scott R.H (vocals), Mark Talley (guitar), Ryan Lee (guitar), Eirik Latvallah (bass), and Ashton Blythe (drums). This line up is a mixture of the various rosters Blood of Wecz have toyed with over the years, with only Scott R.H and Ryan Lee having been ever-presents.

Blood Of Wecz were formed in the year 1998, when three school friends decided to form themselves a band. Having gorged themselves on a diet of Cannibal Corpse and Death through their early years of high school, Scott Hilton, Alex Polanski and Ryan Lee each decided to learn musical instruments in order to form their own metal band, despite being aged just 13 years-old at the time. While Hilton and Polanski would take up guitar, with the former also discovering that he had a penchant for vocals at the same time, Ryan Lee would learn to play bass guitar, more out of necessity than desire. "That I was the smallest of the three probably contributed quite significantly to the fact that I became the bass guitarist," Lee would tell Metal Hammer magazine in an interview in 2007. Shortly after taking up their instruments, the band would go on the lookout for a fourth member. After a short search which saw them audition various unsuccessful school friends, Ryan Lee would introduce his band to his cousin, 14 year old drummer Ashton Blythe. Blythe had a reputation around Edinburgh as a bit of a junior hell-raiser, and was well known as a pot-head, but his drumming ability was undeniable, and he was almost immediately hired as the final piece of the jigsaw.

It was during the first practice session as a full unit that the name Blood Of Wecz was decided on finally. Hilton would later tell Terrorizer magazine: "We toyed with a few names. Cool names were chic at the time we were in high school, and we seriously looked at names like A Shirt and Tie Affair, and Vultures and Carnivores, before Ashton decided we needed something really death metal sounding." They would admit years later that the word Wecz was made up, having originally crafted a story about a mythical female character from the middle east, who had been sacrificed to the Gods many thousands of years ago. The made up story said that when she had been sacrificed, those who had had her blood spilt on them became cursed, and her corpse rose one month later, slaying them all violently and bloodily. "It was quite a good story wasn't it?" Ashton Blythe would joke at Aftermath in 2006, "We made up a story which sounded gruesome and awful, but also mysterious. People liked it, because it made us sound brutal as f***."

At the same time, the band decided to give themselves monickers. Hilton and Polanski would each drop most of their respective surnames, becoming Scott H and Alex P, whilst Ryan Lee dropped the majority of his Christian name, becoming R. Lee. The latter of these didn't last, and by the time the band came to release their debut album, Lee had reverted to his full name. The only member not to have taken on a stage name at the time was Ashton Blythe.

Within weeks, Blood of Wecz had hit a studio courtesy of Scott H's affluent parents. "I think they just wanted me to shut up about it, and get it out of my system," he said later of his parents attitude to his early fixation with metal. They entered Dime Studios in Edinburgh, laying down a two-track demo which would create quite a stir in their school.

Blood of Wecz "released" their first demo without ever having played a live show, in the summer of 1998. It caused some controversy, mainly due to the fact that the "release" consisted of them handing a free copy of the CD to anyone in their school who would pass them by. Other controversy came from the fact that it was deceptively titled and covered. The CD sleeve carried the name Blood of Wecz in very small letters, with a cartoon picture of a teddy bear emblazoned across the front. The title of the demo "Hugs, Confetti and Party Cannons" was also seen as deceptive by many. The tracklisting of the demo was 1. She hugged me, and 2. Sir, that tie, it makes you look evil. Many of the complaints centred around the fact that parents felt their children had been tricked into listening to "vile" music.

Among death metal fans, the original Blood of Wecz demo was a massive success. It later found its way into the hands of people outside of the school, mostly because of the fact that it had such mellow song titles, with the oxymoronic themes, lyrics and music causing quite a stir.
Track 1. She hugged me sounded like a nice love song from its name, but was criticised for the chunky heavy riff and thundering double bass. It was the lyrics which would cause the biggest consternation, featuring lines such as "She hugged me// I pulled away// I pulled a knife// She said "you gonna mug me?"// I shook my head// Slid metal through her ribs// I drink the blood// I'm erect as she fades to death.//"
Track 2. Sir, that tie, it makes you look evil. caused similar controversy, because it had been talked about beforehand as a "verbal assault on global capitalism" by Ashton Blythe. The lyrics were equally as disturbing. "Striped tourniquet I pull so tight// My grin grows wide as he fades to white// A sudden tug he groans and pleads// We laugh as one as he's on his knees// Kicking, spitting, pull the tie more// Who wants to see some fucking gore?// Now tie it high and kick that chair// Watch desperate limbs flail everywhere//"
Such horrid descriptions of murder and vampirism were seen as abhorrent and all three members who attended that school were quickly excluded for a month apiece, and told never to mention their "sick excuse for music ever again" on the grounds of the school. In later years, lyrics would mellow significantly, and Scott H admitted that "a youthful exuberance, too much horror movies, and an incessant desire to shock people" rather than any sort of sick tendencies, had led to them writing such horrific lyrics in their early days.

However, it was the horror and gory descriptions, as well as the flowingly outstanding death metal music which would earn Blood of Wecz a cult following, both in their home town in Edinburgh, and across the country in Glasgow, the veritable home of Scottish death metal. Following the handing out of their demo, and the controversy that followed it, Blood of Wecz were almost immediately offered a variety of gigs at the GRV in Edinburgh. Despite being too young to play, the band would be sneaked into the venue, where they would simply wait backstage, before coming on, playing their set, often to a rapturous reception, and then leaving. "They thought leaving us backstage would make it safer for us," Scott H told Scuzz TV in 2004. "But I genuinely think that's where Ashton developed his addiction to cocaine, and he's been high on it since."

After numerous successful weekend gigs playing at the GRV, Blood of Wecz found themselves with the offer of gigs in Glasgow a short while later. Small but massively popular venues such as Classic Grand and Ivory Black's would call them up frequently, and offer them increasingly good slots on local band nights, or local support slots for touring death metal bands. They would develop a friendship with bands from Glasgow such as Necromuncher, DeathBreath and KillMeNow, all of whom would go on to find small successes later on in their careers, but nothing compared to the sort of level that Blood of Wecz would achieve.

Their break would come when they were playing as local support for a touring American death metal act at Classic Grand in Glasgow in late 1998. "I could lay a tale of snowfall and dreams coming true on you," Ryan Lee told biographer Phil Smythe in 2009, "But really it was more luck, and us playing fully out of our skins on one of the coldest nights I had ever seen. In fact, if it hadn't been so cold out, would the label exec even bothered to have hung around the venue? Who knows." On the night in question, Blood Of Wecz were opening for rising death metal stars Raked Gullet, gifted a 15 minute slot by the management of the venue who had been impressed with them before. "A lot of what happened that night, we owe to the crowd in Glasgow," Scott H told Download festival in 2006, "If it hadn't been for the reaction we got that night from the fans who had seen us play before, I'm not sure Priest would even have looked up from his beer long enough to pay attention."

But the fateful night was one Blood of Wecz would owe their whole career to. The second they stepped out onto the stage at 7.10PM, a surprising amount of fans had already crammed close to the front of the stage to see them in action, and the wall of cheering that met them was crazy. "It was almost as if people knew what we needed," Ashton Blythe said. "They were saying to the world 'This is a local band that we love....fucking sign them.'" In the 15 minutes following their arrival on stage, Blood of Wecz played out of their skins, tearing through four tracks with a frightening ferocity, demanding circle pits and violence from wall to wall as they hammered out a mammoth wall of death metal which left the crowd baying for more. "That was the first night that people ever chanted our name at the end of our set," Ashton said. "I was stood there at the back of a grubby little venue, behind my drum kit, soaked from head to toe in sweat, knackered, and quickly coming down from my coke hit...but I had genuinely never felt a rush like it. It is true...you become addicted to the adulation."

Later that night, Blood of Wecz were approached by a man backstage who introduced himself as Priest, the chief executive of Negative Records. "Imagine my shock," mused Scott H, "I'm sitting backstage at a gig where I've just had the time of my life, listening to Raked Gullet, who were my heroes at the time, and in comes this guy from a record label, thrusting flyers and business cards under my nose. It was like...surreal. For a while, I didn't quite believe it, but I took his card. It wasn't until maybe 2 days later that the gravity of it all sunk in. This guy had seen us play, and he wanted us to sign for his label. So I called him."

Within a week, Priest had flown the young quartet to London for a business meeting. Ryan Lee said: "We were sat there...we must have looked terrified, but people kept coming out and shaking our hands. Apparently our demo was massive in this office, and everyone had taken a copy. I couldn't stop smiling."
"That meeting was just the start of everything for us," Scott H said later. "We were warned by my lawyer father not to just go with the first offer for a label that we got, but as soon as this guy started talking we knew he had a real desire to sign us...not some money making tool of a band, but actually us. He said 'We want to get a record out there. We need to the world to hear Blood of Wecz.' Within 10 minutes, we had signed our first record contract. I was on top of the world."

...To be continued.