Lacertilia

Lacertilia are a Cardiff based quintet that forge psychedelia, space rock, stoner metal and proto-punk into a compelling heavy rock sound. The band’s monster riffs, trancey grooves and intense, primal energy evoke the sights and sounds of The Stooges, Hawkwind, The Doors and Monster Magnet. The band were formed in the tail end of 2013 by vocalist Matt Fry who’s former band, The Witches Drum, was on the brink of imploding. With the inevitable break up looming, Matt was intent on starting another band to carry on writing and gigging. A few musician friends on the local scene were enlisted and soon weekly jam sessions were happening at MusicBox Studios in Cardiff. A revolving musician policy saw various combinations of Matt on vocals or electronics, Neal Palmer (Thorun) on bass, Carl Richards (Shaped By Fate, Culver) on drums, Iwan ‘Clint’ Morgan (Black Cesar) on guitar, Steve O Jones (The Witches Drum) on guitar, Michael Young-Temple (Akb’al) on bass, guitar or percussion, Daniel Thompson (DPV) electronics/samples, and Lucas Zalunski (Culver) on guitar. After a while the line up settled as Matt, Carl, Mike, Neal and Lucas and some proper songs developed out of the experimental jam sessions. The early sound was similar to the primitive garage psych of The Witches Drum, but Neal’s doomy bass lines, Carl’s hard hitting drumming style, Lucas’s biker blues riffs and Mike’s prog influenced melodies soon pushed the band into heavier, stoner metal territory. A name was required and the band settled on Lacertilia (pronounced La-sir-til-ee-ah). This is the Latin name for the suborder of lizards known as reptiles. The word sounded weird, exotic and awkward which the band felt summed up their sound perfectly. It also represented the primal nature of the music, paid homage to Jim ‘The Lizard King’ Morrison of The Doors and hinted at conspiracy theories involving shape-shifting humanoid lizards.