Brighton Newcomers VILLAINOUS Talk Us Through the Material on their Upcoming Self-Titled EP [Exclusive Feature]

Bursting out of Brighton, newcomers Villainous release their new EP on October 10th. Inspired by the power of Mastodon and Lamb Of God, the guile of the Deftones and Alice In Chains, and the proggy intrigue of Tool, the band talk us through the inspiration of their material.

“Overall in this EP we just wanted to show what the band was capable of, we have a really diverse sound, taking in Rock, Prog, and Metal influences, so we put 3 tracks that are all pretty different from each other.

1. In Solace
– “In Solace” was written chorus first, playing with noisy chord inversions in the studio, then Neil and Callum put a song round it, just wanting to see how many times they could change groove and feel while at the same tempo, I think we were listening to a lot of later Dillinger and Killer be Killed at the time, and it definitely shows, so we also kind of purposely put a more uplifting, almost psychedelic middle section. Sean then wrote his lyrics, about escaping to live in the Sun, and burning everyone he loved. He then did what turned out be a common theme in his lyrics is to put a more everyday double meaning to it, which is about isolation in general, how people are more connected than ever, but also lashing out more at each other randomly and dividing up into smaller factions.

2. Obsolete
– “Obsolete” came together really quickly as soon as we stumbled on to that main riff, the big grooving Mastodon/Red Fang sort of style we jam quite a lot, and we paired it with a piece Neil had been struggling to get further than the acoustic guitar part. The vocals were about a prostitute Sean met on an off strip bar in Vegas, who ended up telling her life story of use and abuse, and the odd contradiction she felt, that she hated everything the Johns had done to her, but still wanted the attention of being chosen by them. The three of us taking different spots on this really emphasizes the contrast in how she feels, Neil harsh vocals in the pre-chorus, and Nick adding an eerie harmony in the chorus.

3. Ephemeral
– “Ephemeral”’s writing was a little more thought out, and definitely took the longest to finish, record and produce. It took a while to figure out the direction of the song after we wrote that huge intro, and we never really do mellow songs, so decided to explore a more laid back feel, but then about half way through the heavy riffs came back into it, as they always seem to, and the middle section just gave way to what the producer thought was a synth pedal in the demos, but was just some very noisy chords from Neil, which he lays an epic, psychedelic ballad solo over the top of. Sean wrote this about the life cycle of a Mayfly, but then it got its second meaning about people not being thankful for the time they have, wasting it on what they’ll look back as seeming pretty pointless. The three vocals come into this again, with Nick doing his harmony thing early on to compliment the acoustic guitars so well, and Neil and Sean’s different harsh vocals come together in the chorus to create the dark atmospheric we were looking for.