How to Vilify a Fever Dream

Having just released their sophomore EP, we check in with Newcastle alt-metalcore quartet to chat singles vs EPs & albums, enduring misogyny in the metal scene, advice for girls wanting to make heavy music and more

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Image credit: Andrew Bromley

Since forming in late 2020, Newcastle metallers Vilify haven’t pulled any punches - both in their relentlessly heavy sounds as well as the heaviness of the subject matter their music tackles. Having just released their sophomore EP Fever Dream, Vilify are as potent and powerful as ever, unleashing five intense cuts that draw on everything from hardcore and nu metal to djent and deathcore.

Lyrically, the EP sees topics touched on including mental health struggles, exploring the escape from reality offered by sleep, calling out music industry charlatans and more, all delivered by frontwoman Amy McIntosh’s impressively commanding screams.

The release of Fever Dream comes off the back of a recent appearance at the iconic CVLTFEST, with the band taking the EP on the road for a string of shows around the country this May (see below for dates & deets).

With all this going on, we checked in with Vilify to chat about record titles and artwork, EPs and albums vs singles, challenges faced as a female-fronted heavy band, advice for girls wanting to get into metal and more!

Congratulations on the new EP! Is the record's title inspired by any personal experiences with fever dreams?

Thank you!! The first single off the EP “Light Bringer” is about Amy’s preference for being asleep rather than awake because of the serenity that sleep brings in comparison to what real life offers. The EP name ‘Fever Dream’ came about when we were doing the video for “Light Bringer” and we talked about how fever dreams are always so far from reality, but in the moment feel like real life.

There’s some cool cult ritual type stuff going on with the artwork, what’s the story there?

This is our first headline tour so the artwork seemed fitting based on our visuals and song meanings so far. It’s all linked if you look back to the original EP ‘Deadweight’. The new videos also contain easter eggs from the old videos if you look closely!

You’re about to set off on tour in support of the new EP, how are the fresh tracks feeling live?

We have only played “Light Bringer” live at Cvltfest so far, the other 4 new songs off the EP are yet to be played live, but they are feeling like a step up to us when we rehearse. We now have over an hours worth of songs to choose from which is nice, so we’ll mix our setlist up depending on the shows we do.

With two EPs now under your belt, is a full-length album on the cards?

We’ve discussed this a lot lately. If there is enough interest / demand for ‘Fever Dream’ we will definitely go for a full length album. We have ideas for it already as well as a handful of new songs we are currently working on.

How important are longer records in the metal scene compared to one-off singles in the pop and dance music worlds?

The metal scene still has the attention span / demand for full length albums, BUT full lengths absolutely can’t have fillers, nobody has the attention span for that when so many good albums have bangers from start to finish. If a song isn’t getting us excited after numerous tweaks and reworks, we don’t progress to tracking and we start again. We are lucky to have Chris Blancato keeping us on our toes in that regard.

We’d like to think that in 2024 things are a bit better than they are - do you still face challenges as a female-fronted metal band?

It’s definitely a lot better than it has been in previous years in regards to certain characters having strange views of females in bands. Luckily those types of characters seem to either die of old age, get themselves cancelled or the energy that it takes to be hateful all the time means they don’t leave the house any more, so they stick to mashing their keyboards. The Internet can still be fairly wild though.

What would you like to see change in the scene/industry?

One of the singles off our EP is called ‘Split Tongue’, which is about snakes in the industry who pretend they are out to help but are only out for their own gain or gratification. If those people could not exist that would be a great start. On a much more broad note, if the cost of touring could be made easier that would also be great. There’s been very few tours happening the last couple of years and many cancellations are still happening. That trickles down from the top and affects every band no matter what size.

What tips would you give to other girls wishing to pursue heavy metal?

Don’t hesitate or second guess yourself! Work hard at whatever it is you choose to do and enjoy the success based on your own merit so eventually gender will not even be part of the conversation.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

The lyrical content of this EP means a great deal to us. Please read the lyrics to the songs whilst listening. Vilify will be planning many more shows after this first tour. Keep a look out over at What We Did On The Weekend’s website for tickets to the Fever Dream tour and more.

What have you been listening to lately?

After seeing St. Sinner at a show recently we had to get them onto our tour straight away because they are amazing and will blow up. Apart from them, we have been slamming new Alpha Wolf, Diamond Construct and Stand Atlantic.