Swedish gothic metal horror inspired act, Death At The Revel has released a few tunes here and there in which one was made into a video for the song "You've Met With A Terrible Fate, Haven't You?". This would lead the band to creating further material in terms of a possible EP or even full-length but for now the band releases their material in pieces. Frontman vocalist Vikki Violence discusses his horrifying band with of all it's scary-ness buried within.
1. What type of band are you?
Vikki: We are a band with pure horror/horror movie influences fused together with modern metalcore. The horror niche have been with us for years with past bands.
2. Tell us the brief history of your band.
Vikki: Me, Damaged L and Chx used to play in a band called Ragdolls, also horror-themed. The record label we had then wasn't really right for us and we got fed up by the genre, we wanted to play something different. We disbanded Ragdolls and we looked for 2 new members, a drummer and another guitarist. In Ragdolls I used to sing and play guitar but at that point I wanted to focus on vocals only. We found Suicide Rick and G.Martini at a site called ”Bandfinder.” They lived in the same town as us but we had never seen them before. Rick had recently moved there to study but got fed up with that and wanted to focus on music. Martini is 6 years younger than the rest of us so that was kinda self explanatory. He was only 16 when we found him and holy F- he could pound the drums. We knew right away we needed these two guys for this. We wanted to play a lot of heavier music and keep the horror niche, with this modern metal/metalcore sound it felt we had more freedom to expand song ideas into so much more than we could before. It didn't take more than 6 months before we had a bunch of solid songs which one of them turned into a music video. The day after the release of the music video producer Joey Sturgis found out about us and offered us to come work with him in the USA.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Vikki: We are based in a small town called Varberg, the hometown for 4 out of us 5 guys, Rick moved here a few years ago to study but we found him. The music scene here is not very active anymore, at least it doesn't feel like that anymore. Years ago a day wouldn't go by and there wasn't a show with a bunch of locals. The legends from here (not active anymore sadly) is the band ”Marissa Burns Trey.”
4. What is the story behind the name, Death At The Revel, if there is one to tell?
Vikki: When Damaged L and I sat down and forged the idea of starting this new band we immediately wanted to come up with a name for the band. We did all crazy kinds of voodoo stuff, browsed through the scripts of our favorite horror movies, did anagrams and then finally we came up with ”Death At Revel” and we said to each other ”What the F- does ”Revel” mean?” We looked it up and also found out there is a Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City that is called ”The Revel.” I thought it sounded cool ”Death At The Revel” Like it was the title of an old horror flick so we went with it without any doubts. HERE COMES THE BIG ONE: A few months later, a man and a woman was found dead in a hotel room at The Revel Casino and Hotel. With that scary stuff going on, we ain't
gonna change the band name!
5. Who are your musical influences?
Vikki: We have a lot and each one of us has it’s own that contributes to the bands sound. Damaged L listens to a lot, many underground bands from Sweden and take in a lot of that and put that sort of style into playing or changing riffs slightly in our songs. Rick and Martini listens to a lot of slightly technical meaty stuff (Bmth, Suicide Silence) that drives them put in more details in playing/writing Chx listens to a lot of nu-metal, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, Slipknot, simple unplugged music and he explores underrated genres, sometimes the most simple stuff is the best. I have influences from older bands and not much else than soundtracks and stuff I come up with myself. I've listened so much back and forth, analyzing songs of bands that I can’t use it as an influence. A clear head for me works the best.
6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Vikki: Our songs are about: thoughts of life & death, stuff that’s happened in our own lives, can be about the plot from a movie but with a great message all baked together but we use our horror niche to set it to a darker mood.
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Vikki: Yes, we do. Sometimes I write a song all by myself. Sometimes together in our practice room. Sometimes I go from a simple audio loop that sounds cool and I can write a song all around that. Every song we've made have a different writing story behind it actually. The most efficient way is when Rick shows me a few guitar riffs he’s come up with and that’s like giving me a big slate and I get to create everything else around it (drums, bass, keys, more guitars) then the other guys come in and take everything we've made and do their own minor changes to their playing style and that’s the icing on the cake.
8. Why did you want to release your music in a series of singles, in this case in the form of 3, this first single with 2 more to follow it?
Vikki: I think it will be easier to build up a fan base by releasing like 3 really good songs instead of a whole album. We don’t have a very big fan base yet and releasing an album now would be a bad move for us.
9. If you had to pick one song to show someone to introduce them to your music, which would you pick and why?
Vikki: “You've Met With A Terrible Fate, Haven’t You?” Because it has something for everyone in it. It’s not mega heavy like some of our songs are. It’s heavy enough mixed with loads of scary sounds and instruments composed together to give you goosebumps. A mixed bag that will suit most people.
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10. Why did you see ""You've Met With A Terrible Fate, Haven't You?" " to be a good single and video choice for all to hear and see? When can we expect the next single and video choice?
Vikki: Like I said in the question before I think that pretty much cover all that, you’ll have to go check it out for yourself hehe! We can’t tell you yet when the next single is going to be released, but it’s not far away!
11. Why did you see the horror, blood, scaryness, image to fit your band? What do you do, to make yourselves differ from all the other acts within this pool of concept and appeal?
Vikki: It’s always been there for me so it was an easy choice, it’s something that I've been interested in my whole life. It makes the whole play-in-a-band-thing more interesting for you as an artist. Make-up, stage clothes, themed photo/video shoots, put that into the modern metal sound. It’s so much more fun. If I was in a band without that, I think I would be bored within minutes. I think we also differ from other acts because simply I think most of them suck to be honest with all respect. I’m not saying that I’m better than anyone else but how most of other bands do it, I wouldn't. I want to do this my way to fill in all the missing pieces in what other bands are missing. And do it way way better.
12. Besides the singles, when can we expect an official release in terms of an EP or full-length from you guys, do you have anything like that in the works?
Vikki: We are working on it but it’s in the future, we’re writing new material as we speak and we want to release it as soon as possible, but it also need to be the right time for us and it’s not yet, but hopefully sooner than we think.
13. How about shows and touring, what do you have in-store?
Vikki: Right now we’re writing new material, working on to perfect our sound and other little secret stuff so we haven’t booked very in right now. We have only 2 shows in Sweden right now. June 18th @ Backstage Rock Bar and at Peace & Love Fest.
14. What do you guys have planned for the unforseen future?
Vikki: Very much, but we wanna keep that a secret for now. We’re looking for the right contacts now to help us out.
15. Anything else you'd like to add or would want to say?
Vikki: We wanna thank everyone that helped us so far, thank our fans for listening and thank you for this interview! Keep it scary!
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