Conan: A New Dimension

For almost two decades CONAN have been tearing up the extreme metal rulebook with their own unique brand of sludge-heavy ‘Caveman Battle Doom’, as the band themselves have called it. With new album Violence Dimension about to be released, erstwhile frontman and riff master general Jon Davis sat down with us to discuss the band’s new songs, new lineup and new label.



Before we got onto talking about the new record though, we took the opportunity to ask exactly where CONAN’s super-heavy, super-distorted sound originally came from. “I think, when you look at my contribution to that sound, a lot of it comes from the fact that I’m actually quite limited in my ability as a guitarist,” Jon laughs. “Over time I’ve definitely become better at what I do but what I do is quite narrow, really. I couldn’t play you a MEGADETH riff, I couldn’t play you a CANNIBAL CORPSE riff but in a way that’s been a blessing in disguise. It’s enabled me to just focus on doing what I can do, unapologetically, and just to focus on making that hit as hard as possible.”



And boy do they hit hard, although the bands that influenced those earliest songs might come as a surprise to some. “When I first started coming up with what is now the CONAN sound, really I was just writing punk riffs that were just really slowed down and really distorted,” continues Jon. “Up until that point though I’d only really been listening to GREEN DAY, FOO FIGHTERS and NIRVANA so my early ideas were kind of coming from there. It wasn’t until after that I discovered bands like FUDGE TUNNEL and Chaos A.D.-era SEPULTURA and then they became the kinds of bands that really moulded that early version of CONAN into what it ended up as. I can’t say I’ve really broadened my musical horizons that much since then to be honest – I’m like an old worn-out sword that just gets sharper because it’s used a lot!”


It’s probably no surprise to see Nottingham legends FUDGE TUNNEL named as an influence on the early CONAN sound. What might be more of a surprise, though, is the fact that founding member of FUDGE TUNNEL David Ryley is CONAN’s new bass player, having replaced the long-serving Chris Fielding in 2023. As a fan of the band in his youth, this must have been quite an experience for Jon? “Yeah, it was quite strange really. I ended up being put in touch with him through a mutual Facebook friend, so we became friends on social media first before anything. But it was actually through (Jon’s industrial side project) UNGRAVEN that we first started working together. I started that project off with just me and a drum machine and I hated doing that live, so I approached Dave to see if he’d be interested in joining me for that and fortunately he was. Then, when Chris couldn’t make a couple of CONAN festival shows, it made sense to see if Dave was able to step in for him and it all went from there really.”

Jon goes on to say that, despite having one of his biggest influences now playing in his band, it hasn’t really changed the way the band approaches writing new material. “It hasn’t changed a massive amount to be honest. We don’t rehearse together very much being as I’m in Merseyside, Dave is in Nottingham and Johnny (King, drums) is in Dublin, so jamming isn’t really a big thing for us. The way we write has pretty much stayed the same for a while though. Loosely, I’ll come up with a few riffs that I might record with a drum machine and then I’ll present them to the guys and we’ll develop them together in the studio before we actually start recording. Some of those ideas will end up on the album but actually a lot of the new album was just pulled together by all of us on the spot and that’s been the way we’ve worked for a number of years now. Revengeance in 2016 was probably the last time all of CONAN sat down together and made a concerted effort to sit and write a full album together before we went into the studio to record it.”



New album Violence Dimension, perhaps unsurprisingly given its title, continues to explore violence in its many forms, a running theme throughout the band’s back catalogue and one that is becoming more prescient given the current state of the world. “When I was a kid, I just thought wars started because one country didn’t like another country. I think as you get older, you realise there’s a lot more to it than that, although of course most of the time it’s just about money and resources,” Jon explains. “I think you just get more aware of how violent the world is as you get older. And, if the resources we’ve always fought over are becoming more scarce now, it stands to reason that the violence that exists in the name of owning those resources will only become more widespread and persistent. I’m not a big politics person but when you look at the people that we have in power in the world now, it’s insane how unsuitable some of those people are to be in the positions they’re in. It’s no wonder the world feels much less stable and much more violent and that’s definitely something that’s reflected on the new record.”

With a new lineup and the album set for release on the band’s new home Heavy Psych Sounds, it feels like an exciting time for CONAN to be ushering brutal new music into an increasingly brutal world. Just sit back, relax and allow the band to provide the perfect soundtrack for the apocalypse.

Violence Dimension is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:

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