Swedish band Carmilla offer up a fun and frenetic melodic metal sound with a strong death metal DNA that they describe as “energetic, melodic and modern.”
The band, from Gävle, around 100 miles north of Stockholm, was founded in 2017 when guitarist Håkan Ålander decided he was bored of playing cover songs. He wrote a few songs and recorded first single I Am The Danger, inspired by the Breaking Bad quote, with fellow guitarist Daniel Karlsson. They soon added Felix Björklund on bass before working with drummer Ronny Hemlin to produce their first tracks at Studio Claustrophobic.
Alena Yaskin provided the vocals for their early music, however, she was denied asylum by Sweden in late 2023 and had to leave the country. The search for her replacement saw the band work with three guest vocalists to cover her absence. And one of those guests was Jennie Pettersson, who’d just split from her band and was the perfect fit to complete the lineup. Alena’s vocals had a much gruffer, more intense screamy style, whereas Jennie’s is more melodic, yet still powerful, so the change certainly had a big effect on the band’s sound.
And on the sound they’ve crafted over the years, the band told us: “Our aim is to create modern music with a massive sound-picture.”
Our first taste of this was Fire At Will, which was released in April. It opens up with drawn-out guitars and sweeping synths that drop into a rapid-fire guitar riff. That feeds into a lively verse led by Jennie’s engaging vocals, opening with the line “Once again the world is at war, One step closer to our own demise.” it flows into a big catchy chorus, which ends with a chunky guitar riff dropping back into another engaging verse. The pace drops after the second chorus, with laid-back vocals gradually building in intensity, before a return of the cool riff sets up a final blast of the chorus.
On the track, the band said: “In terms of streams, it is more successful than the previous release (that we promoted quite a bit). We had some positive reviews and a very global audience. It appears we gained a new audience in the Pacific with Fire at Will. New listeners can expect some cool guitar riffs, vocal dominance in the versus and a catchy chorus.”
Carmilla have since followed that up with Rise, which was released at the end of last month. It opens up with dramatic synth sounds that give way to a fast-paced stabbing guitar riff and drums that continue as Jennie’s powerful vocals take over. It flows into a huge chorus led by impressive vocals “I will fight, I won’t give in, Mark my words, I will rise,” before the guitars bridge into a bigger verse. A second chorus drops into a darker section of heavy guitars under even more intense vocals, setting up a final chorus.
And there’s plenty more music to dig your teeth into in an impressive back catalogue, starting with their debut single Surrender Or Die released in 2019 followed by a mass of singles since. That also includes more recent tracks Pain Of Loss and Stand My Ground, the first two that Jennie contributed to.
The Carmilla sound has been influenced by the very diverse likes of Eddie Meduza, Kind Diamond, Orbit Culture, Whitney Houston and Helloween. And on what inspires them to write music, they told us: “War, Satan and other everyday events (maybe humour as well).”
There’s plenty more to come from Carmilla with the band busy working on more new music. They have two more tracks already recorded and a handful more written. They hope to release a new album by the end of the year and have a couple of local shows booked in for the spring and summer – but they’re open to more gigs.
You can follow Carmilla on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube.
Listen to Carmilla and more new music on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Metal and GigRadar Nordic
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