I stumbled across these guys while writing my review for a St Louis, Missouri deathcore band  Abadonnia back in 2023, and found there was  (at the time) some crossover with a band from Kansas City called Vile Revelation. I checked those guys out and their debut EP, Ov Vultures and Flesh was also a pretty killer example of my current favorite genre, symphonic/orchestral deathcore.

I spoke with the then vocalist of both bands Branden O’Neill online, and we stayed in touch. Vile Revelation then released an EP called Cast From Eden earlier this year, which is pretty fucking killer, but I never got around to reviewing it (I have no excuse, sorry guys).

So to make amends for my laziness, I found out that they were playing at a local venue with Ohio deathcore bruisers Fathom (who I was also familiar with) about 30 minutes from my house, I felt like to atone for my lack of covering the EP, an interview was in order. Plus I always like to meet folks I have met online every so often. 

So, before the show, I met Branden and fellow Vile Revelation folks, Isaak Clarkson (guitars, composer, writer), and drummer Anthony Leasgang to find out about an excellent symphonic deathcore band right here in my own back yard.

So Brandon, you and I talked after I reviewed the Abaddonia EP last year,  which you did vocals on and when I researched them and shared the review with you, I found you were also in Vile Revelation, then I found your EP Of Vultures and Flesh from 2022. And then you stayed in touch and then lo and behold you’re playing here in Missouri. So anyway, talk to me a little bit about Vile Revelation and how you joined after leaving Abaddonia.

Branden : So, Isaak here (who was also in Abaddonia) actually found me in a Facebook group, just the Deathcore Metalcore fans group. He had made a post looking for a vocalist, which you don’t see like ever. Mostly you’re looking for guitarists, drummers, and bassists. And I just happened to comment on it that I’d be interested in Slam or Black and Deathcore. And we just happened to live three hours away and it just kind of worked out. We jumped together, and recorded the EP, the first EP. We’re kind of the core of the band.  Isaak does most of the writing for it. I’m just kind of there as a vibe check sometimes. Sometimes I’m not a vibe check. I give my input and then we just kind of go with what we decide is music.

So any ties with Abaddonia as well or just your own thing and he happened to be in Abaddonia at the time?

Isaak: So I had joined Abaddonia probably a year or two after they had started and they were in need of a vocalist and by that time I had already started Vile Revelation and I was like hey I’m in a band and I have a vocalist, so we did the Abaddonia EP after the first Vile Revelation EP.

And Anthony, you are the drummer and you’re the drummer for Fathom right? How did you join the band?

Anthony: Yeah I drum for Fathom. I just kind of came across Vile Revelation from a Facebook post about needing a drummer and it is a completely different pace than Fathom was trried because it’s more fast-paced and blast-beat-oriented.

Right, because Fathom’s newer stuff is a little more down-tempo, right? Alright, so is Abaddonia still a thing? Are you still in, are they around? Are you still doing it?

Isaak: We’re not involved with them anymore. I know they’re still working on stuff. They have some music coming out soon. Vile Revelation is its own thing right now.

So where are you based out of now? Where does Vile Revelation call home?

Isaak: I would say Columbia, Missouri.

All right, good, Columbia needs more metal. I was listening to your new EP, ‘Cast from Eden’, and comparing that to the last EP, ‘All Vultures and Flesh’. It’s a similar sound, I think, as far as the music, but it seems like lyrically you’ve steered a little more into space and aliens as far as, I mean, obviously first EP was called ‘Of Vultures and Flesh’. It was a little more death metal and blood and guts and stuff. Is that a permanent move? Is that something you’re just exploring with the EP and a couple of the subsequent songs?

Isaak: I wouldn’t say permanent, but I would say we’re definitely going to be going in that direction. At least for a while or a while with a few releases after this. It’s just such a wide subject to get into, that you can really do anything with it. You can have a lot of fun with that.

Branden: Yeah it’s more of an overarching theme is kind of what it is. It’s not going to be every song about aliens now, but it’s something we’ll touch on or maybe the songs relate to it, but don’t directly mention, but it’s kind of more just stuff that we kind of relate to. We enjoy conspiracy theories and stuff like that.

And it seems even though you’ve made that lyrical shift, the music’s stayed kind of that more orchestral/symphonic deathcore. You haven’t gone in a ‘beep boop, whir’,  Rings of Saturn type sound. So is that something you’re going to kind of stick with as well?

Isaak: I don’t really have any interest in going into that like Rings of Saturn type sound. But I definitely like to experiment with sounds, not just the symphonic or orchestral type stuff, but maybe some synth-type stuff. I just like to play with sounds a lot and figure out new stuff with sounds.

Are you the primary composer of the background and the symphonic stuff?

Isaak: I write all the music, I mix, produce, master it, everything. So yeah, it’s really where I just get to play around with stuff.

So you’re gonna stick with the name Vile Revelation? Because I was looking at the new song “Starscourge”, I was like, ‘that’s a fucking cool name for a band!’.

Isaak: Yeah. That’s a cool name for a band that was doing alien type synth core but sticking with Vile Revelation in case we ever swing back to the old lyrics

Branden: It’s just kind of a good name to everything it’s kind of just like right realizing of something like shocking and horrible. It covers a lot of bases.

Let’s get the drummer involved here coming from Fathom. The new Fathom material. It’s definitely slowed down tempo-wise, and Vile Revelation is much faster. So are you relieved to be playing something fast again as well? Or are you happy to be playing slow and only doing fast part-time when you’re helping these guys out?

Anthony: The  Lurking Gloom (Fathom’s debut album) was fun, but it got exhausting. The new stuff on the EP Picture Poison, it’s a good middle ground between the old stuff and The Lurking Gloom. As far as Fathom goes, it’s like a good mid-pace. It’s not super slow, so it’s a perfect middle ground.

Okay so obviously Vile Revelation is doing orchestral/ symphonic deathcore and the debut EP was in 2022 and new EP was this year, so you’re in what I like to call  ‘PLS’ or ‘Post Lorna Shore’. It was around before that, and there were a lot of bands doing it before that, like Carnifex and such, but it didn’t get some of the notoriety. And then you get Lorna Shore, and then for whatever reason it blows up. Who are your influences? Is it Lorna Shore? Is it not? Is it someone else? Is it trying to do your own thing? Are you like ‘those guys fucking rule we want to sound like them, we WANT to do the blackened deathcore thing?’ Where are you at with kind of your influences Isaak, as the songwriter and composer?

Isaak: I would say definitely when I started the band, Lorna Shore was a big influence. Immortal era. Flesh Coffin, Immortal era. They were a big influence for me, but also some older stuff like Angelmaker, the Sanctum album. Random slam stuff. I was really into black metal when I was younger. So I wanted to bring some of that kind of vibe into it. But I would say Lorna Shore has still been a big influence. I wouldn’t say as a whole in the music, but specifically the riffs. Especially I think on songs like “Starscourge”, So in terms of guitar writing, I would say Lorna Shore is a big influence. In terms of the overall vibe of the songs, I would say bands like…A Wake In Providence, Worm Shepherd. And moving forward, my influence is definitely changing some. I would say more into the realm of that older Oceano sound, some Aversions Crown-type stuff.

So same question for you Branden, vocally. Obviously after Will Ramos. I listened to A Wake Providence for years and Will Ramos was okay for them as a vocalist. And then he blows up with the Lorna Shore EP and then obviously everyone is doing that super demonic style now. Seems like everyone’s trying to do that. What are your vocal influences?

Isaak: So the big two that really got me into singing how I like the sound are Colin Jeffs and Mark Poida from Aversions Crown,  the Tyrant and Servitude albums. They were really like what solidified my foundation locally. And then outside of that, I’d say Ben Deurr from Shadow of Intent. Definitely. Then,  I couldn’t…name them off the top of my head, but a ton of slam vocalists. I tend to be more comfortable in the guttural realm. It’s just a more enjoyable sound for me to make. So I kind of try to drag that in when I can.

(At this point, I start to realize how OLD I am and how YOUNG these guys are as they throw out ‘old’ bands like Angelmaker and Aversions Crown. I now find out Isaak isn’t even 21 yet. Anthony is 28 and Brandon is the elder statement at 32). 

And drumming, obviously Anthony, you’re playing two styles. You said you prefer the slower because it’s exhausting doing the faster. Who are your drumming influences when you’re playing for Vile or do you just play what he tells you and your influences are outside of that realm when it comes to your personal style?

Anthony: So with both bands, I mean it’s honestly whoever writes the song, it just pushes me to a limit. The way Isaak writes with the band, it pushes me as a drummer to just play what he writes instead of playing what I think I like in other bands. Because Isaak really just pushes the boundaries for me.

So Fathom is out of Ohio and Vile is here in Missouri, How do you get together to rehearse? 

Isaak: In today’s day and age it’s all digital; ‘Here I need you to play this’. It’s all digital. We had one rehearsal the day before our first show. I mean we all get our tracks and we’re all practicing on our own so we get there we have our click track and we all know what we’re doing and what’s coming so it just kind of…It’s a lot of self-practice.

I’m curious when you rehearse practice like that in today’s day and age, say you have feedback on a drum or a vocal line, you just text them, email them, that’s like, ‘hey, I need you at this point in this song to do this a little different’, or when you’re giving feedback on guitars or something. How does that happen when you’re not in a rehearsal space two or three times a week?

Isaak: So, me and Brandon do get together a lot, just with him being closer to me. We get together a lot, we don’t necessarily practice, but we’re always working on stuff. A lot of the writing is for the most part collaborative. And that’s where we work out the, I would say the main kinks in the songs. And anything else beyond that, like…like the one rehearsal that we had. When everybody’s practiced on their own and they can play the songs how they’re meant to be played.

That’s kind of crazy. One practice. For this tour?

Isaak: Yep. One practice. Honestly, probably. I mean, when everybody plays the exact same songs on the exact same set list, the same click, same everything, as long as you can play your part. When it comes together it meshes just like you hear it on the road.

I think that’s a sign of changing times, right?  That’s The power of the internet.

Branden: Right, right. It was a huge shock to me because I came from like, rehearsing once a week with a Deathcore band, to sometimes two times a week, no click tracks, just everything, cab and all that. And we got the click tracks together and now, I would never go back.

With that said, the prevalence of that, do you think that it’s good for music overall? This kind of digitization, modernization of things, what do you think is something to be said for practicing and rehearsals and no-click tracks and all that stuff? Or is it good to have a little bit of both to keep things somewhat honest?

Isaak: I would say on the individual level, it definitely makes you a better musician to have to sit down on your own and hammer it out. Because I feel like when you’re practicing with a group, you can kind of lean on each other and you might not notice some of those little specific problems that you might have. I think that just practicing on your own, especially recording what you practice, taking videos or recording audio, and then listening back to it, you can really tell where you’re messing up, and what you need to change. But on the other side of that, I think playing as a group, especially writing as a group, definitely brings another level of cohesiveness into the music and just everything kind of blending together in a way that they wouldn’t. I think there’s ups and downs to it for sure.

Let’s talk about deathcore popularity right now. Now you see bands like Lorna Shore just blowing up. Do you think that kind of shift in popularity is good for the scene or bad for the scene, would you prefer Deathcore to stay Underground? Where do you feel with that kind of blow up? Especially even in that subgenre with the symphonic deathcore.

Branden: I think as a whole it’s good. I personally don’t like it, there’s a decent chunk of deathcore that I personally just don’t listen to. As the genre grows and there are more listeners, there’s more bands coming out, you get more variety and you can always find something in it that’s going to interest you. If you’re into an extreme metal genre, Deathcore has probably had some sort of crossover with it at this point and I think as a whole that’s good for it. As its popularity grows, I think Metalcore is going to get an even larger comeback.

Isaak: I think it’s definitely good overall to see bands blowing up in the way that they are. You definitely have those people that are like, oh, you know, it’s not underground anymore. I definitely think it’s good, it’s more accessible, you’re going to have more listeners, and you’re going to have more new people getting into the genre that wouldn’t have otherwise. I just think it’s great, it’s like we have rock stars again. I feel like we didn’t have rock stars for 10-15 years, so I definitely think it’s cool.

Everything I review now is digital. It was vinyl, it was CD, and you guys haven’t done physical for the Cast From Eden EP, your first EP was physical, but nothing physical since. What’s your stance on that? Is that a budgetary limitation? Just don’t want to do it? Just want to be digital because that’s what the kids are doing now?

Isaak: Definitely budget.  We definitely would have done physical that if we had had the budget for it. At that time we weren’t really playing shows. We didn’t have a great way to process physical copies online So we just kind of passed over that. I think in the next 10 years probably with the whole AI music thing, I think physical music could make a big comeback.

That would definitely be something to keep an eye on in the future. That’s a great point. I think it could be coming back. Same question for you Anthony, regarding Fathom??

Anthony: We have physical copies of the Picture Poison EP. Physical CDs are a thing that’s necessary, especially for a touring band because there are people that do one thing- physical. So it’s like people that do want them having them on tours and I use them because they buy those and it helps the band.

Where do you see Vile Revelation going from here because obviously you’re a young band. Literally.

Isaak: I would definitely keep an eye out for a full-length in the next year. Definitely going to be doing more tours.

So my question there is, a lot of bands, unfortunately, they do EPs, they do songs on Spotify, they do a full-length, it’s those reprocessed again. Is your full-length going to combine past releases or 10 new songs?

Isaak: They’ll be all new. Hoping to do a lot of touring in the next couple of years. Definitely more music coming out. We’re working on music all the time. New music, shows, and just kind of grinding it out. Right. Branden, any thoughts on that?

Branden: He  really pretty much covered it. We covered it in the influences where we’re going to look for a little adaptation and shift in sound. Now that we’ve got a pretty comfortable amount of shows under our belt, we kind of have an idea of what we like to do live, what we personally enjoy. We’re kind of getting better at it. I guess for lack of a better word, just vibes of the songs. Before we were a lot more chaotic. Now we’re getting to the point where we’re pretty comfortable like purveying what the song is about in the instrumental before you even get to the vocals. Definitely finding our sound.

Going back a bit, Isaak, you said black metal was an influence moving forward, You can hear it in some of the keyboards and synths. What are the challenges of that when doing it live? It often sounds great on record, the orchestration is really powerful, really sets the atmosphere, live setting, they get washed out, you can’t hear them, and on a band like yours, it be in the pivotal part of the music? How do you make sure that that gets carried over live? Is it turning it up, is it turning guitars down, is it turning the drums down, is it just finding that perfect balance? It sounds like you’re the mix master guy on that. How do you make sure that what you record translates live?

Isaak: A lot of trust in the sound people. LOL. Trust the sound people. Um, especially the kind of band that we are. Being a lot of like digitally set up and, right. So, so we don’t use guitar amps.

Wait? Everything is digital? What about the drums? Anthony, you are a drummer but everything is digital?

Anthony: Yeah I don’t use a kick drum I use an electric kick pad because I run I was running a trigger with a real kick drum but trying to like something like what does that even look like? like Fathom was having to tour out of minivans sometimes and kick drums just took up a lot of extra room.I have the whole drum set. It has a snare and toms. There’s no kick drum. It’s just a little thing. Essentially as far as running a trigger. It’s the same kind of sound. It’s a human doing it. It’s not programmed. It’s a lot less room. It’s a lot less stress on the back.

Isaak, so back to black metal. When you’re looking at black metal, what are your influences as far as obviously the keyboard you use? And are we talking 90s black metal, 2000s black metal?

Isaak: I was big on that like second-wave black metal. Bands like Burzum and Dark Throne. OK. That’s what I was to do. I mean, this was me in sixth and seventh grade listening to them and that was before I even knew what Deathcore was. Right. But I was huge on that sound. I love that dark atmosphere that those sounds had. I just kind of wanted to recreate that.

Who are your influences on the compositions, and the orchestral parts?

Isaak; Lorna Shore , Immortal era is definitely a big influence. I like those guitars, But a lot of the orchestral influence that I have just came from my education. I did two years of music composition and music theory. So a lot of like Mozart, Chopin, things like that. Yeah. So yeah, that was, I studied a lot of that in school, so. I’m very comfortable writing orchestral parts. So I like to do it as much as I can because there’s not really much for me to do in the way of just writing an orchestra.

What comes first when you’re writing a song? The orchestra ? The riffs?

It’s normally an idea of a guitar part. Right. And then I’ll kind of build everything around that? It’s normally guitar and then I’ll immediately know what the drums should be with that riff. And then the orchestra, synths, all that, that comes way later. That all comes later. So I’ll normally, I’ll do a bare-bones skeleton of the song where it’s just guitar, bass, and drums. And then I’ll go into production, I’ll do all of my synths, orchestra, whatever that may be. And then we do the vocals very last.

Does Branden have lyrical input?

Isaak: So I write all the lyrics. I write all the lyrics and a good chunk of the vocal patterns, but that’s definitely a collaborative work between me and Branden.

Branden: So yeah, we just get into the studio together and I’ll toss him ideas. We’ll record. We like that. We don’t like that. We just kind of refine that original idea until it’s at a place where we like it.

Anything I forgot you want to make sure people are aware of when they read this and go buy your music or listen to your music that I’ve missed.

I would just say definitely check out our latest song “Starscourge” on all streaming platforms. I would say that’s definitely the best music that we’ve done so far.. And there’s going to be a lot more like that coming in the future. So be sure to keep an eye out, check out “Starscourge”. A lot more shows coming up next year for sure.

So then, with more shows, who do you want to tour with?

Anthony: That’s a big question. Fathom’s toured with a lot of cool bands that I think would also fit this band.

Isaak: Shout out Errors of Humanity. I would love for Vile to do a tour with them. They’re a super similar vibe to what we’re doing. I think it’ll be really cool to do a tour with them

Branden: I think the The Green Leaves are sick.

Adam: Wretched Tongues. I’ve been to the tour with them this year. Great dudes. There’s definitely a lot of up-and-coming bands for sure that we’d like to get on with.

So you’d ideally like to tour with other young, upcoming bands?

Isaak: Yeah but It’s hard finding good up and coming deathcore bands that can match about where the same level you are. Because they’re either like big or they’re…They don’t ride right. It’s a hard middle ground. I like Synestia as well Yeah, I love their classical Compositions. I’d like to tour with them.

Check out both Vile Revelation and Fathom below and grab some merch!

 

Vile Revelation Bandcamp

Vile Revelation Facebook

Vile Revelation Merch @CKB Records

Fathom Facebook

Fathom Merch