Invent Animate released one of the best metal albums of 2023, bold statement especially it only being April but Heavener is an absolute beast of an album. This is the second album Marcus Vik and Invent Animate have done together, the first being Greyview which came out on March 13th, 2020 aka the day the world stopped. I asked what it was like releasing an album and seeing the world stop directly after.
‘People keep saying it was bad and we definitely felt it at the time…but I’m a big believer in everything happens for a reason…and I think releasing Greyview…exactly before COVID…releasing and treating the album during COVID definitely changed our mindset throughout the whole thing. Honestly I don’t think Heavener would have been a thing the way it is now if it wasn’t for COVID…’
I asked him what that time off and being home brought to the themes and writing of the album and he said it changed everyone’s minds to what’s most important.
‘The album…lyrically shaped itself…we wrote one song about grief and then we were like “well this made me think of my grief…I think a lot of us just put that into perspective…because grief is…not a spectrum but there are stages to it…even though most of the album is about grief there are songs about a lot of other topics that (are) about a lot of self reflecting. It is weird to be vulnerable in a public sense and this album we’ve been open during interviews…also in shows telling people what it’s about.’
He continues about how the songs were written about their personal experiences but were open to fit anyone dealing with anyone form or grief or profound sadness.
This album showed the skill of everyone in the band and Marcus told me about what he wanted to bring to Heavener in terms of his vocals.
‘Let’s take the screaming part because that’s the fuckin boring part(laughs) With the screaming I wanted to definitely be more brutal and have way more attitude…because that just what you want to be as a vocalist…I also wanted to implement more panic and emotion and…anxiety to the vocals.’
He talked about using some different styles of clean singing, falsetto, and add more experimental elements to his vocal approach.
We chat a lot about the scene as a whole and what he sees is coming from it from a bands point of view. Overall an amazing discussion of heavy music and the importance of it in todays global society, check it out!
[Spreaker: Decker] [Spotify: Invent Animate]
