Nik Bullen

Bullen is one of the founding members – with Miles "Rat" Ratledge – of Napalm Death, the band credited with creating the Grindcore genre. The duo had collaborated on fanzines and played together in a number of 'bedroom' bands from 1980 onwards and formed the first line-up of Napalm Death in May 1981 (when Bullen and Ratledge were 13 and 14 years old respectively). Bullen was initially the vocalist in the group, but later began to play bass and vocals after Justin Broadrick (Godflesh and Jesu) was invited to join the group on guitar in 1985. Bullen had previously been a collaborator with Broadrick in the power electronics project Final in 1983 and 1984. Bullen left Napalm Death in December 1986 (after recording the A-side of the band's debut album Scum which is credited with being the release which initiated the 'Grindcore' genre) due to an increasing dissatisfaction with the direction of the group and a desire to pursue his studies at university (where he studied English literature and philosophy). Bullen was invited to join Mick Harris (a fellow ex-member of Napalm Death) in Scorn in 1991: a more experimental project that moved away from the members previous work to explore dark breakbeat-driven rhythmic mantras informed by avant-garde modern composition, the reflective spaces of Dub and dark drone-based ambience. …