West Midlands band Kensei lead us on a high energy into classic heavy metal, fusing powerful vocals and crushing riffs in a sound they fittingly describe as “raw brutality.”
The Black Country quintet of David Woodhouse (vocals), Matthew Sewell and Ian Heisman (guitars), Luke ‘Inky’ Bate (bass) and Luke Watton (drums) have known each other for years through their local music scene. The Kensei story began when Inky and Luke met in a pub and began to put plans in motion to start a band together. But they’ve quickly gained traction since releasing their debut single Lucid in 2022.
Describing the sound they’ve honed over the last couple of years, Inky told us: “Kensei is born from people who have been on the local scene since the mid-2000s. So that’s what we wanted to bring back to people: big, heavy, fast riffs with massive singalong choruses!”
That combination has proven a winning formula. Earlier this year, Kensi won Birmingam’s Metal 2 The Masses, which gave them the opportunity to play at heavy metal festival Bloodstock Open Air.
Inky told us: “Winning Metal to the Masses was an honour, especially in the birthplace of Heavy Metal. We have played the competition since the band’s inception with previous bands, so to finally win it after our 3rd final was a dream come true. Much love to the guys at Capsarx studios for putting it on and to Ironside Studios for lots of live footage and recaps of the whole thing.
“Bloodstock was amazing! We spent the whole weekend trying to advertise Kensei and get a massive crowd down for our set. We were giving away patches, badges, stickers and we even printed our own t-shirts and walked them around the festival with our set time on. And it did not disappoint! The tent was absolutely rammed from start to finish and to finish on one of the potentially biggest circle pits of the weekend in the tent was an absolute honour!
“We were hanging about getting ready to play at the back of the New Blood tent and we had a very random encounter with David Ellefson who was playing with Cultura Tres earlier in the day. He was an absolute gent and stopped and spoke to us for a good ten minutes. Lovely fellow! And the bands of the weekend for us were Green Lung, Evergrey, Opeth and Igorr.”
Our latest taste of the Kensei sound is Paralysis, which was released in September. It opens up with a darting riff over drawn out guitars and lively drums. That drops into a chugging riff supporting heavy vocals, before the opening riff returns to usher in a singalong chorus. The second chorus gives way to heavy guitars and a tasty “bleurgh” scream that give way to a delicious guitar solo, which dramatically sets up a final blast of the chorus.
On the track, Inky told us: “The reception has been amazing, hitting 10K views in the first week on socials and has been doing amazing on streaming platforms too. If you haven’t listened to it yet, then let us take you on an emotional journey! The song is about being a bit hollow, albeit at no fault of your own. We all have bad places and this song delves into that. Plus it’s got a sick ass BLEURGH.” Check it out in the video here:
That builds on a strong back catalogue of energetic heavy metal goodness, including three singles released earlier this year. The most recent was The Light, which opens up with a cool stabbing riff dropping into a heavy opening verse that ends with a powerful chorus led by intense vocals. Check it out in the lyric video here:
Kensei take the heavy metal energy to new heights on the excellent Pariah, which opens up with chugging chords and a spinning riff in the background. It drops into heavy drums and chugging guitars that set up a wild opening verse. The second verse opens up with the line “Abusing mother nature you human filth,” which sets the tone for a huge track that you can check out in the lyric video below. But a special mention has to go to their second single No Remorse, which is an absolute banger.
The Kensei sound has been shaped by bands like Trivium, In Flames, Gojira, God Forbid, KSE, Bullet for My Valentine, HIM, Dark Tranquility and many more.
And on what inspires them to write music, Luke told us: “Matt is our riff machine in the band. He delivers big heavy riffs and massive choruses, which gives Dave a lot to play with lyrically. We are not a band that likes to talk about space wars and killing people (well, not all the time anyway). We like to delve into things that people can relate to, and Dave has an inner Emo.”
There’s plenty to come from Kensei in 2025 with their gig calendar booking up nicely and plans for new music very soon, so keep your eye out for this band next year.
And Luke adds: “It isn’t a Kensei Show if we don’t have fried chicken or a kebab before the show! Props to Dixy Chicken on Broad Street and the one in Dudley and also the one round the corner from the Castle and Falcon with the diamontes in the seats and the sky tiles. Love ya babs.”
You can follow Kensei on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
GigRadar 