God damn. You’re sure getting a heavy dose of me (Corey) before I disappear for a couple of weeks. And I’m not done yet! So let’s jump to the next topic at hand. It’s officially release day for Senescence, the debut full-length from progressive death metal outfit Vile Rites. Out through Carbonized Records, labeling this thing as “progressive death metal” is not doing it justice at all. While certainly a death metal record at the core, Senescence is an absolutely mind-melting experience spun with a barrage of riffs and solos that are equally as dark and aggressive as they are ambient and psychedelic, with loads of space between the varying ideas. When it comes to death metal, I haven’t found much better than this so far in 2024. It takes the genre exactly where I didn’t realize it needed to be taken to. Something like that at least! Basically, this is awesome stuff from concept to execution. To help us dive a little deeper into the Vile Rites world, vocalist/guitarist Alex Miletich took some time to answer our Profile questions. Give it a read, and hit that Bandcamp link while you do so. You know the drill at this point.

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How and when did you first get into playing music, or metal more specifically, and how did your band get its start? Any pushback from family/those close to you?

I got into the idea of playing music at a pretty young age when my dad showed me bands like Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and Foghat. I was attracted to the freedom of expression and the general style I saw on those old records, all the people in the bands just looked cool to me and I was attracted to their lifestyle, regardless of how much I understood of it at the time. I’d watch live DVDs of those bands as a kid and I fell in love with the idea of performing music like that, from Jimi lighting his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop Festival, to Pink Floyd live at Pompeii.

My start in music was playing violin when I was in elementary school, then I switched to trumpet in middle school before my parents finally let me get an electric guitar sometime in 6th or 7th grade. While my parents remained pretty supportive of my pursuit of music, I was raised in a Catholic family, so when I started to have an interest in heavy metal, and creating a career in music, there was definitely some growing pains that we eventually got over.

The band started as a more thrash focused project in Portland, OR, then I moved to Santa Rosa, CA and found new members for the final iteration of the band with much more death metal leanings.

How would you describe your band and what you play to someone who is completely in the dark?

When I’m asked to describe the genre of the band, I generally say “progressive death metal with a psychedelic twist and a taste of black metal”.

Is there one (or more) thing about your latest / upcoming album or about your band that no one will find in any interview or review that you care to divulge?

One thing is that the final song on the album “Banished to Solitude (Adrift on the Infinite Waves)” was actually mostly written before our first EP was recorded, but we decided to save this epic for a full length, and spend more time with it to fully polish it.

Any funny stories from playing shows / tours / festivals, etc?

On our recent West Coast tour, we played Richland Washington at Ray’s Golden Lion. During the opening band’s first song all the power in the venue shut off. The whole building had to be evacuated and when we got outside, we realized that the whole area had lost power. We ended up having to wait about 2 hours for the lights to come back on and the show went on. We didn’t play until after midnight and the show ended at almost 2 AM. Oddly enough, this has also happened to me in Detroit when I was out on tour with my other band, Mortuous. But that time, the power never came back on and the show was just cancelled.

What do you see as some of the great things happening in and around the metal scene (yours or just in general) and what are some of the worst things happening right now?

I’ve started to notice a lot of mixed bill shows, since things came back after COVID, which I think is pretty cool. It seems like the newer generation of metal heads is a bit more open to blending genres and it’s great to see kids out at shows going nuts regardless of what subgenre is happening on stage. Open mindedness is always a positive thing to me, so I guess the inverse of that would be closed mindedness, and people passing judgement on bands or records based on superficial ideas, versus giving everything a chance and actually listening to the music.

Most folks have passions for a cause or causes that are close to them. What, if any, are some of the most important issues (social/political/humorous/etc.) for you / your band and how do you insert those issues into your music?

Our music tends to draw from events in nature, so environmentalism and conservationism are both things that I find very important. I think one of the ways to spread those ideas is to help people relate to and understand nature and the balance of the world around us. Since most of my lyrics use events in nature as metaphors for our human experience, we hope that our fans might spend more time trying to relate with the world around them, versus being stuck in our human perspective all the time. We are “a part of” this world and nature, not “apart from” it.

Do you have day jobs or hobbies you want to share?

Both Stephen and I work for a company that manufactures electronics and pickups for musical instruments, and Aerin works for a screen-printing company, so we are all lucky enough to work pretty close to what we love.

What advice do you have for music critics and outlets out there? How can we all better serve the genre in the eyes of a hard-working musician?

Since all art is subjective, I would say that the best thing a critic can do is just being honest and transparent. Reward good music, not good PR. There are tons of awesome bands out there that don’t have nearly as much reach as bands that might not be as good, so bringing good music to light should always be the ultimate goal in my opinion, versus appeasing the egos of bands with more clout. I suppose that is a rule for journalism in general.

Any specific long term goal(s) in mind?

We just want to continue to make our music and get it in front of as many people as possible! We hope to remain active after the album drops, touring the rest of the US, as well as hopefully making it out to some international shows or fests.

When you’re not obsessing over your own material, what are some of your favorite albums to listen to currently?

We are all over the place when it comes to our listening habits. For death metal, I’ve been listening to the newest Hyperdontia, Necrot, Tomb Mold, Apparition, Laceration (our drummer is in this band), Slimelord, and we’re really looking forward to the new Siderean album, the single is awesome. I really liked the Castle Rat album that came out earlier this year, so I was listening to that one quite a bit. We listen to tons of 70’s prog bands such as Gentle Giant, Nektar, Captain Beyond, Rush, etc, as well as lots of psych, ambient, and krautrock. We’ll even throw on some country such as Nick Shoulders, or the classics like Blaze Foley or Townes Van Zandt fairly often.

What is the near future outlook for you or your band? Any specific events on the horizon that the masses should be aware of?

Our debut full-length drops August 16th via Carbonized Records! We just did a West Coast tour, so all we have on our show schedule currently is our local album release show in Santa Rosa, CA on the day of the release, but I am sure that will change soon as we look for more opportunities to get out on the road!

Summarize your band in one word.

Mesmerizing.

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Many thanks to Alex for the time!

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Senescence is out now through Carbonized Records. For more information on Vile Rites, give them a follow on Facebook or Instagram.