Vihaan

Artist/Band name: VIHAAN
Title: INVICTA
Release Date: October 7th, 2014
Format: CD / DIGITAL
Label: SELF RELEASED
Genre: PROGRESSIVE METAL
Origin: UNITED STATES (Detroit, Michigan)

TRACKLIST & TIMES:
1. City (4:36)
2. Inflection (7:21)
3. Statue (7:36)
4. Episodes (3:18)
5. Smoke (3:49)
6. Valor (11:06)
7. Perception (9:04)

Vihaan was formed in 2012 by Lorenzo Piccirilli as solo project based just outside of Detroit, MI. The focus is on the music, songwriting, and a range of influences from modern progressive death metal, 70s prog rock, and jazz fusion.

The songs exist in a state of lucid schizophrenia; with lengthy, discordant, and mercurial metal sections juxtaposing moody

acoustic/jazz/blues infused passages. The drums’s complexity is masterfully nuanced and the dark death metal vocals are relentless and hard hitting.

Released in October of 2014, ‘Invicta’ is Vihaan’s debut album. Joining Lorenzo on the record is session work by Christopher Burrows (Drums) and Anthony Lipari (Vocals). Invicta was mixed by Chris and Lorenzo, and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Dysrhythmia, Behold… The Arctopus).

Bio:

My name is Lorenzo, and I started writing music for my solo project ‘Vihaan’ back in 2009. The music draws many inspirations; between 2009-2012, when the main writing took place, I was influenced by an eclectic group of artists, ranging from doom metal to jazz fusion.

It took a while to get the music right with many revisions. I finally had drums recorded by Chris Burrows in 2013 and vocals by Anthony Lipari in summer of 2014, with the album released in October 2014.

Genre:
I don’t want Vihaan to subscribe to a genre, and the only rule I follow is that the music must sound good. “Progressive Metal” is the closest genre and is vague enough for a project like Vihaan. I think a lot of groups today try to focus on the technical aspect of the music and try to emulate the sounds of popular bands to conform to a genre and in the process overlook solid songwriting.

Evolution of the initial musical and thematic elements:
I was just leaving a metalcore band (Ember’s Ashes) when I started writing this album and the first track I wrote was “Perception”. It was inspired by Between the Buried and Me’s song “Selkies”. There was a perfect fusion of prog rock and metal and I wanted to write something as epic as that song. It evolved from there as I started listening more to Opeth’s back catalogue, the Beatles, Mars Volta; which opened my eyes to endless possibilities. What really drove the songwriting was coming up with ideas that I wanted to hear, but never heard from a band before.

Ideas about the album:
You can always look back on something in hindsight and see flaws. I think this album captured a period of time I lived and I wouldn’t want to change a thing.

That said, the next album will sound much different, more polished in certain areas and less polished in others.

Reception:
It’s been small, but the people that do listen seem to like it.

Next step; live or studio:
We may be doing a small local show in early 2015. No big touring is planned.

Future plans:
Future is looking good. I’m excited to start writing more music that’ll be fresh and push the envelope.

Lyrics, themes and concepts:
I wrote the lyrics after the music, so I would say the bulk of the lyrics were inspired by the music itself. I just sat down and wrote what came to me while listening to the music. The lyrical themes deal with apocalyptic, paradoxical, and traumatic events.  

Preference; live or studio:
I’ve never been on “the road”, but that sounds more exciting than trying to nail a part for the 100th time in a studio.

Inspirations:
Opeth, Katatonia, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Camel, Rush, Pink Floyd, Kimbra, et cetera. There are too many to mention, but these are the main ones.

Preference; cater to the audience or music for its own sake:
Catering to an audience while not being true to your art is the lowest form of music and is really something I’m not interested in.

Greatest Accomplishment:
I feel like I’ve just begun, but so far releasing the debut album took around 5 years, so that’s the greatest accomplishment to date.

For moresimply go to Vihaan’s offical website,  Facebook, Bandcamp, Twitter pages and Youtube channel.