Morning Metal – Interview with Vyc Vypyr – A Hero’s Grave

by Jamie Grant

10/20/2014

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Who are the members of Vyc Vypyr and what do you play?

Raffaele Guarna – I am the guitarist and vocalist.

Allessandro Guarna – Guitar!

Chris Buttera – Drums.

Where did the name Vyc Vypyr come from? Before I saw you guys live, I thought Vyc Vypyr was the solo member.

The band being huge fans of vintage video games, Vyc Vypyr is actually a reference to retro Nintendo gaming. It is the name of the ship in an old school space shooter called Gradius. We’re not sure what the ship has to do with snakes, but it just sounded really cool!

Your debut album, “A Hero’s Grave” comes out on Wednesday. Tell us about it.

A Hero’s Grave is basically an homage to old school speed metal and really reflects our influences and musical style and the direction we wish metal would have taken and remained in to this day. It’s not really a concept record but there is an underlying theme across the record of conflict and warfare throughout the ages and the struggles that humans have faced in the past and continue in the present.

You worked with Mike Bond, tell us how that experience was?

Mike Bond has been our producer since we first started creating and recording music with the band Descendant (Chris and Raf). He is easy to work with, has a great ear for our sound and doesn’t let us get away with any egotistical nonsense or high flying BS. He definitely keeps us grounded in the studio and has a pretty hilarious and sarcastic sense of humor, which can really help defuse tension when a take isn’t going right or there is a band conflict. He’s also an absolute genius behind the mixing board and basically takes any ideas we have and turns them into a tight and professional sounding package.

The band draws a lot of influences from classic metal bands. Do you find it difficult to appeal to a younger generation with music that might be more accustomed to the past?

It is certainly an uphill battle to get the younger crowd interested in old school metal. There’s an underlying mindset of “we don’t get them and they don’t get us” but I think that a lot of kids recognize that the music they like now is just an evolution of something that was popular decades ago, and sometimes they will hear our stuff and think its new and different because they just simply haven’t heard it before, even though it is highly influenced by classic metal. Our main problem is not so much with the younger crowd but the ones who are so stuck in their ways and genres when it comes to metal. The ones who think if you’re not hardcore you shouldn’t exist, or if you’re not extreme metal you’re just shit. Those guys give us heartburn. We always try to incorporate some of the new trends or playing styles in our stuff. We aren’t too confined in our musical interests.

If you had to name your number one influence for your respective instrument, who would it be?

Raffaele – Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, no question.

Chris – Neil Peart of Rush or Dave Grohl.

Allessandro – Megadeth or Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge.

What is a musical influence that you might not necessarily try to incorporate into the band, but absolutely love?

Raf: I’m a huge fan of slide guitar and guys like John Butler. I also really like some of the older techno like Crystal Method and Chemical Brothers and film and video game soundtracks. I’d like to incorporate a bit more jazz and Mexican guitar stuff in our music, stuff like Rodrigo and Gabriela would play.

Chris: Queens Of The Stone Age, Thin Lizzy, The Tea Party, and stoner rock like COC.

Allessandro: A lot of progressive stuff like Rush, Yes, and Dream Theater.

What is your opinion on the local metal scene in Ottawa and the metal scene in general?

I think it would be nice if there weren’t so many niche bands or genre bands in Ottawa. It is almost impossible to find a band that suits our style when we are setting up a gig, we always have to go way more extreme or way too soft when choosing opening acts.

One of the coolest bands in Ottawa is called Criticull and they’re described as funk metal, but you really can’t pin them down to any genre and that’s great! I think there’s generally a pretty good community of musicians out there who want to support the metal scene but we’ve got to be less close minded about who we can play with or what constitutes a real “metal” show. The reason I listen to heavy metal is because I think the most talented players and greatest songs exist in that style of music, so why do I have to listen to 3 metal bands play the exact same set 3 times in a row when I go see a metal show? A little more variety would be nice. I guess in our case that means a little less death metal and a little less metal-core but that doesn’t mean I’m picking on those styles or I don’t like the music, it just means if everyone wants to do the same genres, you limit the options of a scene.

How do you feel about categorizing genres? Such as a death metal band and a deathcore band, and how people will actually argue to the point that they get mad at each other.

I think I started answering this question in the last response. Genres and labels really drive us nuts. The coolest bands are always the ones that defy conventions. Personally, I really like Avenged Sevenfold, but there are people who just absolutely hate them because they didn’t want to be held down by the label of being a “metal-core” band. I could say that all death metal sounds the same and people would try to crucify me, but let’s face it, genres kind of keep you confined to a certain sound (and if you’re doing death metal, you really just want to be Cannibal Corpse anyway haha).

Basically, if you want to stay confined in a genre, you can do it pretty easily, and some people will definitely like it, but the music will get stale over time. In the end all I can say is that I really like good music and I don’t care what genre it adheres to. Revocation is a band that is far heavier than anything I would ever write, but they do it well and they sound amazing, so I’m a fan. Mastodon started out as almost a kind of death thrash band but they morphed into something completely different and they’re still awesome, so I’m a fan.

Does Vyc Vypyr have any scheduled shows coming up in the next few weeks?

Our priority right now is to get the record out and play the CD release show which happens this Thursday Oct 23^rd at House of Targ.

Nothing scheduled right now after that.

Any shout-outs to promoters, fans, family, etc?

Shout out to all our families and friends, Mike Bond, Paul “Yogi” Granger and CKCU!

Guys, thank you for sitting down with us and answering these. Best of luck to you guys with the new album!