(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries) By the end of 2023 Alien Vampires unleashed their sixth full length album “Return Me To Hell” which was released by Alfa Matrix. It also was the Italian formation’s first new studio album in six years. Behind the provocative image of the band hides talented artists who brought different Electronic influences together; from EBM to Dark-Electro to Industrial to Techno and even a touch of Dark-Pop “Return Me To Hell” first of all is the return of a great and unique formation. I talked about the album, image, side-projects and a few more things with Nysrok.

Q: You never stopped releasing EP’s, doing remixes and unleashing the massive boxset “Evil Lasts Forever” but “Return Me To Hell” is your first new studio-album since “Drag You To Hell” (2015). How comes it took that much time to release a new full length and what means this new work in the band’s history and evolution?

Nysrok: Well, I live in London, and my bandmate Nightstalker lives in Milan (Italy); a bit far in terms of logistics, travelling, etc.  As  far as I remember, we had a plan to release the first EP, and then the full length album, but then Covid came, and the rest is Salvatore Brizzi history, let’s see what’s going on next. Our approaching  to composition and recording is not so usual actually, it’s not about an acting, it is Salvatore Brizzi about our life, we are not playing a role, to communicate this kind of feelings it needs more time and accuracy.

Q: The album has been announced as dealing with themes of ‘depths of despair, pain, and personal struggles’, right? Can you tell us a bit more about the themes and how much does this work reflect who you are aside of the artists known as Alien Vampires?

Nysrok: Interesting question, the concept of “Return Me To Hell” was kind of misinterpreted by most of the fans I fear. The concept was all related to the loss of one my closest friends, with whom I had a strong esoteric connection, let’s say it was Cathartic, summoning the Egregore through all my bloods connected. It was creepy, lethargic, near death experience.

Also I can confirm that “Return Me To Hell” is closing the trilogy started with “Drag You To Hell”,  through “Kinky To Hell”. Next year we are going to celebrate 20 years of Alien Vampires!! And the new album will be Industrial-Metal-Goth oriented, end of an era, new one is coming… 

Q: It became a double album featuring twenty one songs. When did the writing process of this album started and how did it finally take shape? What have been the main challenges and difficulties you encountered?

Nysrok: We had many issues, if you consider that  one of our guests was Joy Jordison (ex-Slipknot)… Then unfortunately he died when all the material was ready to be mastered, so we wanted to wait, to be honest with you we were a bit lost… you know we also had a band called Electhrone with him and after his death we took some time off. Then we chose to add the song recorded with him but without his name in order to respect him, there would have been too much attention on that… and then suddenly Attila posted  on Instagram (Mayhem) talking about Jordison’s appearance on our album, at that point almost every magazines were talking about that.  Now you can easily understand, with this kind of issues, and with these kind of guests, the recording process is not  easy at all, when Jordison went to the studio in the US, it took almost three weeks recording the drums, of course if you record at home with your laptop, it’s easier, that’s not our way of working…

Q: So you Nysrok are now living in London. How is it living over there and what are the main differences with Italy and especially the impact/influence of this place to the music you’re composing?

Nysrok: I was living in London due to my parents, since 1993, would take ten interviews, to remember and talk about all the all experiences I had (laugh)… At that time you had a club event every night of the week. I saw both Black-Metal and Industrial scenes rising, so I can confirm, living here influenced me about Alien Vampires for sure, and for my previous band Aborym as well.

Q: Alien Vampires is a band with a strong, provocative, image but how important is this image and what does it reflect from yourself?

Nysrok: We were the first band introducing Satanic, BDSM, porn blasphemy, occultism, I’m talking  about the images and concept, in the harsh scene. For us it’s not important, it’s what we are, the funny thing is that after a while all the bands in the scene started imitating us. I always have an advice:  if you are not a devotee and not into esoterism and occultism, don’t talk about it because the dominating evil is taking everything back.

Q. Like you said you also had some great amazing collabs on this new album but also including guest vocals by cult model Dani Divine? How did you get in touch with her?

Nysrok: We know each other since always, we used to hang out in the same clubs in London, so the collaboration was quite easy, also she likes our music, and we love her style and attitude.

Q. Like you said another noticeable collab is your cover of “Assimilate” by Skinny Puppy featuring stars like Attila Csihar (Mayhem), Istvan Zilahy (Plasma Pool) next to the late Joey Jordison (Slipknot).  Anything more you want to tell us about them?

Nysrok: I used to play with Attila in Aborym, since 1999 to 2007, I became friend with Jordison around 2009 he was looking for members about his project (Scar The Martyr). He was a fan of Alien Vampires! His favorite song from Alien Vampires was “You Wish Me Dead Get In Line”. After some years together with Attila, Nightstalker and Zilahy, we formed Electhrone, the first song we recorded was the cover of “Assimilate”  because we all loved that song, we even got more material recorded, but after his death we decided to put all in a hiatus…

Q: I was really impressed by the mini-album “Death’s Dance” from your side-project Speed Injektion? Any further plans for this project and what about Hell_E9, Infernalien ao? What brings the future?

Nysrok: Thank you. About Speed Injektion we are preparing the new full-length which should be released end of 2024. For Hell_E9 we are ultimating the new EP is gone be released for Alfa Matrix soon… about  Infernalien  we are recording  a cover called “Satan’s Generation” (Impaled Nazarene) which will be included in the next EP, and we will have Faust (Emperor) at the drums. We keep ourselves busy ;-).

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Joey Jordison’s final recording was a cover of the Skinny Puppy cult hit “Assimilate”, featured on Alien Vampires’ new album “Return Me To Hell”, out via Alfa Matrix. The band recorded the cover in collaboration with Electhrone, Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Istvan Zilahy (Plasma Pool) next to the late Joey Jordison (Slipknot).

It was Attila Csihar, Mayhem Vocalist and Jordison’s former bandmate in Sinsaenum, who confirms it on Instagram.

Csihar took to Instagram to spotlight the recent cover of Skinny Puppy’s “Assimilate”, performed with the dark electro act Alien Vampires. He added, “This is, in fact, Joey Jordison’s last recording. RIP my Blood”. Jordison, the former Slipknot drummer, passed away unexpectedly in 2021 at the age of 46.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Attila Csihar (official) (@attilacsiharofficial)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com