Guilt Trip

Historically, Manchester, UK breeds a certain toughness. As a pillar of the 19th century Industrial Revolution in Northern England, factories and warehouses line much of the city’s rain-baptized topography. A hardworking lot who shoot straight without apology, its denizens traditionally take an incredible amount of pride in where they come from. Embodying the grit and gusto of Manchester, Guilt Trip brings a blast of homegrown intensity to their hybrid of hardcore and metal. The five-piece—Jay Valentine [vocals], Jak Maden [guitar], Sam Baker [guitar], Tom Aimson [drums], and Lily Kilcoyne [bass]—slide striking melodies in between throat-slitting thrashy riffs and earth-splitting breakdowns.

Amassing tens of millions of streams and playing to packed crowds, they’re primed to amplify this hometown energy and pride on a global scale with a series of 2025 singles and their forthcoming debut LP for Roadrunner Records.

“Manchester is small and rough, so the venues and the shows are rough too,” says Tom. “I think it all rubbed off on our music.”

“It’s subconscious,” agrees Jak. “Manchester is the hardest working city in the world. It’s where the ‘Manchester Bee’ comes from. Like worker bees, everyone works their asses off, and they don’t necessarily get rewarded for it. If you’re from London, you’re on the map instantly and probably know someone in the industry. When you’re from up North, nobody pays attention, so you’ve got to be legit and stick to your roots. We worked for ten years to get to where we are now.”

“You don’t want to let Manchester down,” states Jay. “So, you focus, raise your middle finger, and do it from the ground up. We’re so proud of what we do, and that’s why it comes out how it does.”

Guilt Trip started to forge a seething signature style without comparison back in 2015. Jay and Jak cemented a lifelong bond as best friends at four-years-old when they met at reception in school. Over the years, the guys introduced one another to various favorite bands. Eventually, they welcomed fellow Manchester scene friends Tom, Sam, and Lily to the fold. To get to this point, the collective grinded the old-fashioned way, one gig at a time, bulldozing their way out of sweaty basements and onto cramped club stages. They dropped the Unrelenting Force EP during 2016, followed by their 2019 full-length debut, River of Lies. The latter spawned “Thin Ice,” which reeled in 7.1 million Spotify streams and counting. 2023’s Severance marked a turning point. It boasted popular collaborations with LANDMVRKS and Malevolence, while KERRANG! hailed their “unique brand of hardcore that sees them delve into elements of thrash, old-school hardcore and fist-pumping metal.” Beyond sharing the stage with everyone from Sylosis to While She Sleeps, they lit up festivals, including Download, Hellfest, and more. Attracting Roadrunner Records to their corner, the musicians decamped to StudioOWZ in Clarbeston, Wales with producer and engineer Adam “Nolly” Getgood [Periphery] during early 2025.

Nodding to influences as diverse as Tool and Linkin Park, the sound organically progressed in the studio.

“As soon as Jay lays his vocals down, it’s undeniably Guilt Trip,” Jak states. “We threw some curveballs into the music, but it’s still us. We’re really in our own lane in a sense.”.

“It’s also heavier in a lot of ways, but it’s still Guilt Trip,” grins Jay.

Speaking of, the first single “Burn” practically incinerates upon impact. A double bass barrage charges out of the gate accented by a guttural groove riff and jarring pinch harmonics. The chaos unexpectedly subsides into the calm of tense clean guitar and a whispered chant, “Burn inside the fire.” The reprieve gives way to one last cathartic explosion.

“Sonically, it’s a metal song with hardcore influences sprinkled in,” notes Jak. “To us, it felt a little bit like old Machine Head. It’s definitely an anthem. As soon as we finished it, I knew it needed a simple repeated line until the drop and ‘wall of death’ section. We won’t even need to tell the crowd what to do,” he smiles.

In the end, the members are just as proud of Guilt Trip as they are of Manchester.

“This is my whole life,” Jay leaves off. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything else now. It means everything to me.”

“I go to bed thinking of this band, and I wake up thinking about it,” laughs Jak. “If I bled out to death, I think my blood would leave the Guilt Trip logo on the ground.”