Band Line Up 2025

‘Hail our new Northern rulers’ - Fistful of Metal Magazine 

August 2024 saw the return of Manchester’s leading purveyors of groove laden, stoner/doom metal, Barbarian Hermit. Released on APF Records ‘Mean Sugar’ may just be the heaviest ever tribute to Northern life. Frontman Simon Scarlett comments, “The album is about what we know, and that is the bitter-sweetness of growing up in a northern town. It’s a crude representation of what it is to be us these past few years: Lads catapulted against our will into manhood, at a time when everything is changing, and yet here we stay under the comforting and watchful shadow of the Pennine hills.

The north is an invigorating place, there’s a post-industrial beauty here unlike anywhere else. It’s also a tough place, precarious and on the edge. Sometimes we can feel powerless and unheard; our response to this, is to pick up guitars, make noise and hammer down a punishing rhythm.”

Written over a 3 year period ‘Mean Sugar’ is a cathartic creation. Described by Metal Hammer as ’thuggish and thunderous’, the album is set against a back-drop that has seen people endure global pandemic, endless political turmoil, a cost of living crisis and war. During these times often the best coping mechanism is to go into a room with your friends and focus your energy on playing some very heavy and loud music.

Hailed by Noizze as 'an eighteen wheeler of slick grooves and gargantuan riffs’, ‘Mean Sugar’ was recorded by Joe Clayton at No Studio and mastered by Chris Fielding (Foel Studios), the album saw the return of original vocalist Simon Scarlett who helped craft the band’s debut ‘One’ EP, originally released in 2016 (and reissued on APF Records in 2021). 

‘Mean Sugar’ was released on 2nd August on CD and limited edition splatter vinyl as well as digitally. 

Order here -https://apfrecords.co.uk/albums/mean-sugar

Barbarian Hermit are:

Mike Regan (guitars), Adam Robertshaw (guitars), Rob Sutcliffe (bass), Gareth Manning (drums), Simon Scarlett (vocals).