Biography
Lock Up originated in Britain as a grindcore supergroup that first assembled in 1998, when Shane Embury and Nicholas Barker launched the project alongside then-Napalm Death guitarist Jesse Pintado. Conceived amid heavy drinking as an unvarnished plunge back into the savage force of 1980s proto-death metal, the outfit has retained only Embury from its founding roster. Hypocrisy vocalist Peter Tägtgren handled the singing on the 1999 debut album Pleasures Pave Sewers. Tomas Lindberg, vocalist for At the Gates and Disfear, took the frontman position on the 2002 follow-up Hate Breeds Suffering. Pintado passed away in 2006. Brujeria/Criminal guitarist Anton Reisenegger was brought into the fold for the 2011 album Necropolis Transparent. Packed schedules across multiple other bands delayed the next release by a full seven years, at which point Venomous Concept vocalist Kevin Sharp joined for Demonization. The 2021 album The Dregs of Hades introduced drummer Adam Jarvis of Pig Destroyer and presented Lindberg and Sharp together as a dual-vocal frontline.
In 1998 Barker was living in Birmingham while tracking Cradle of Filth’s Cruelty and the Beast. Daily sessions would end with regular pub meetings alongside Embury to talk music, and Napalm Death guitarist Jesse Pintado soon began joining them. Out of those gatherings emerged the notion of forming a band that would blend the essence of old-school death and thrash metal with the blastbeat intensity of late-1980s grindcore bands such as Repulsion and Terrorizer. The group’s name refers to a death-metal drumming technique in which the player’s arms stay locked in an extended posture to generate blastbeats.
Energized by the discussions, Embury spent several months capturing numerous ideas on a vintage four-track recorder. He then summoned his colleagues to Backstage Studios on short notice, where the trio, produced by a still-young Andy Sneap, laid down thirteen tracks across three days to preserve the spontaneous ferocity of 1980s death metal. Barker proposed Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtgren for vocals; the singer was recorded separately at his Swedish studio, completing the 1999 debut Pleasures Pave Sewers.
Lindberg replaced Tägtgren for live dates and made his first studio appearance with the band on 2002’s Hate Breeds Suffering, produced by Russ Russell. That same lineup issued the 2005 live album Play Fast or Die: Live in Japan, which became Pintado’s final recording before his death from liver failure in diabetic coma at age 27 in 2006.
Believing the project had reached its end, Lock Up entered what they viewed as an indefinite hiatus. The Damnation Festival invited Barker and Embury in 2009 to reunite for the Terrorizer stage, prompting lengthy deliberations that led Embury to recommend longtime friend Anton Reisenegger of Criminal and Brujeria, who had recently relocated from Chile to Spain. Once Lindberg rejoined, the band returned to the studio and released the seventeen-track Necropolis Transparent in July 2011, its strongest critical reception to date and featuring guest contributions from Tägtgren and Jeff Walker of Carcass and Brujeria. Although European, South American, and Japanese tours followed, competing commitments again intervened, and aside from two singles the group remained silent for six years.
Lindberg’s unavailability forced him to step aside for the next recording, so the remaining members enlisted longtime acquaintance Kevin Sharp of Venomous Concept. Working across separate continents, they assembled Demonization, issued in 2017 to widespread praise, after which the refreshed lineup completed its first world tour spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.
Nick Barker departed Lock Up in April 2020 after twenty-two years, citing a desire to focus on other projects amid the COVID-19 pandemic and with no animosity among the members. One month later the band recruited Adam Jarvis of Pig Destroyer and Misery Index. Unable to rehearse together, the musicians waited until spring 2021, when Lindberg, now free of prior obligations, returned to the fold. The resulting quintet, featuring two lead vocalists, made its recorded debut with the self-produced The Dregs of Hades in November 2021.
In 1998 Barker was living in Birmingham while tracking Cradle of Filth’s Cruelty and the Beast. Daily sessions would end with regular pub meetings alongside Embury to talk music, and Napalm Death guitarist Jesse Pintado soon began joining them. Out of those gatherings emerged the notion of forming a band that would blend the essence of old-school death and thrash metal with the blastbeat intensity of late-1980s grindcore bands such as Repulsion and Terrorizer. The group’s name refers to a death-metal drumming technique in which the player’s arms stay locked in an extended posture to generate blastbeats.
Energized by the discussions, Embury spent several months capturing numerous ideas on a vintage four-track recorder. He then summoned his colleagues to Backstage Studios on short notice, where the trio, produced by a still-young Andy Sneap, laid down thirteen tracks across three days to preserve the spontaneous ferocity of 1980s death metal. Barker proposed Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtgren for vocals; the singer was recorded separately at his Swedish studio, completing the 1999 debut Pleasures Pave Sewers.
Lindberg replaced Tägtgren for live dates and made his first studio appearance with the band on 2002’s Hate Breeds Suffering, produced by Russ Russell. That same lineup issued the 2005 live album Play Fast or Die: Live in Japan, which became Pintado’s final recording before his death from liver failure in diabetic coma at age 27 in 2006.
Believing the project had reached its end, Lock Up entered what they viewed as an indefinite hiatus. The Damnation Festival invited Barker and Embury in 2009 to reunite for the Terrorizer stage, prompting lengthy deliberations that led Embury to recommend longtime friend Anton Reisenegger of Criminal and Brujeria, who had recently relocated from Chile to Spain. Once Lindberg rejoined, the band returned to the studio and released the seventeen-track Necropolis Transparent in July 2011, its strongest critical reception to date and featuring guest contributions from Tägtgren and Jeff Walker of Carcass and Brujeria. Although European, South American, and Japanese tours followed, competing commitments again intervened, and aside from two singles the group remained silent for six years.
Lindberg’s unavailability forced him to step aside for the next recording, so the remaining members enlisted longtime acquaintance Kevin Sharp of Venomous Concept. Working across separate continents, they assembled Demonization, issued in 2017 to widespread praise, after which the refreshed lineup completed its first world tour spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.
Nick Barker departed Lock Up in April 2020 after twenty-two years, citing a desire to focus on other projects amid the COVID-19 pandemic and with no animosity among the members. One month later the band recruited Adam Jarvis of Pig Destroyer and Misery Index. Unable to rehearse together, the musicians waited until spring 2021, when Lindberg, now free of prior obligations, returned to the fold. The resulting quintet, featuring two lead vocalists, made its recorded debut with the self-produced The Dregs of Hades in November 2021.
Albums
