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Vicious Alliance

Arms: To us, terror EBM is hard dance music that incorporates distorted vocals, harsh melodies, heavy duty club beats. Bands like Grendel, God Module, Tactical Sekt, and Hocico are good examples of terror EBM bands. But what I think is really important about terror is that you have a message, and a really strong message, like a band like Tactical Sekt has a message. Our message is about being against a nationalistic, corporate future, protecting the environment, and resisting the erosion of civil liberties. That's kind of what makes us terror EBM. We are terrified of this dark future, and we're trying to bring this vision.

Visually, the band has this very old-school militaristic visual scheme going on. How do you feel that it relates to the concept that you're trying to convey? It is something that is very associated with EBM in general, so how do you feel you're doing something different with it to get your message across?

Arms: We try to incorporate an older, stronger, more nationalistic and militaristic view. You don't see us wearing modern camouflage or Iraq war uniforms. When I think of old-school EBM bands like Leæther Strip, we are trying to go for that older, more heavily nationalistic feeling, like an old Dark Empires sort of feel.

How would you say that your music has developed since the band first started? How have you improved or progressed into what you now sound like?

Arms: When we began, we had a single keyboard player, and it was Natalia and I performing the vocals. It was just us and a keyboard player. Now we have a live percussionist. Our old keyboardist moved on. We have a new keyboardist, and that brings a lot more live equipment. We have wireless microphones now. We have a stage show. We have flags. We have swords. We have gas masks. We have smoke machines. The music evolved, too. We started out with a lot of softer beats, slower tempos. Now it's a lot stronger, it's a lot heavier, and a lot more powerful.

You definitely have a strong live performance. How would you say that it compares not only to these other groups you're performing with at Nuclearfest, but other groups of your particular genre? How do you feel you stand out?

Bridgeman: I feel like one of the things we're bringing is the overall energy to the stage, unlike most bigger terror EBM bands. They play just these big, big festivals. We like to get out, and we want to connect with our fans, and we want to play as much as possible, and deliver as much energy to our fans. We want to involve them and bring them on stage with us. I don't think I've ever once seen a band on stage with Tactical Sekt or Hocico.

Arms: Well, let's not attack these great bands.

Bridgeman: Believe me, they are fantastic bands. I'm not attacking them. I'm saying that's what separates us from them. We have such energy and we want to keep going and we want to play shows almost every day if we can. We love playing live. That's what we're all about. If there's no live performance, there's no energy.

Arms: We try to involve the crowd as much as possible. The more people are energized, the more we're energized, and we try to play off of that.

Kowalski: We don't only bring just the music onto the stage. We like to bring the show itself. We have a lot of stuff on stage that we can play with, you know? It's just fun. It's like a movie. We like to make it theatrical.

Arms: We have swords and toy guns and such.

Kowalski: Yeah, it's theatrical and a little different. We don't like to just stand there and sing and scream. We like to bring the energy with us.

Shunk: Eli wants to try to get out to the crowd to get them moving and dancing. You know, it's boring when you're up on stage and nobody's doing anything and they're just sitting there. We try to pump the crowd as much as possible to get them moving, dancing, feeling the music, so Eli gets out there. That's another way to connect with the fans. He's out there, making it more personal.

So what's next for Vicious Alliance? What are your plans for the next step in what you do?

Arms: We want to continue to play live shows. We'd like to hopefully get signed to one of the major labels for electronic music. We'd like to continue to keep delivering strong performances, playing some more festivals, and play everywhere we possibly can. We'd like to keep doing what we love.

Kowalski: We want to say thank you to everyone who listens to Vicious Alliance and supports our music, because we need you guys. And whenever you guys can come out, come out and see us, watch us.

Arms: Without you guys... You guys provide the energy, and you provide the enthusiasm that we feed off of. We appeal to you to come out and support us, and we'll support you.