Interviews About Albums: VHS - Quest For The Mighty Riff (2023)

In this new interview, we sat down with the Canadian Death Metal band VHS to ask some questions about their upcoming album "Quest For The Mighty Riff". 

1. What can you say about this new EP/CD?

Mike: The new album is probably not the worst thing you could spend a half an hour wasting your time with. It's definitely an album, it's got some songs about dragons and stuff and has some pretty awesome artwork with a wizard on it. If you saw a van with the art on the side you would definitely know that one righteous dude was driving said van. We are proud of the album and can't wait for the mountains of gold to drop down on us once it is released in May.

2. What is the meaning of the EP/CD name?

Mike: The album represents our eternal quest for writing the best riffs we can. It's been a long and arduous quest and people still say we suck so maybe we need to keep looking for these mighty riffs that keep escaping our grasp! Or some might say that we like to have fun with our album names and it's just another silly name in our continuing quest to keep death metal fans and make sure to poke fun at ourselves more than anything.

3. Who is the composer of the CD/EP?

Mike: The power of Crom flowed into my body and brought with it all of the riffs and lyrics for the album. It was divine intervention. Crom was tired of us having boring lyrics about horror movies and wanted us to try a sword and sorcery theme. Truthfully, my name is Mike and I write all of the music for VHS. Nice to meet you!

4. If you had to pick one song, which one would you pick?

Mike: This is like picking a favorite child. I think each of us in the band has a different favorite song. I know Andy's favorite song is "The Fighting Eagle." Mine is probably "Illias and His Magic Bow." I love the feel of the song and the drumming is very different from our usual style. I also threw in a few riffs that are a tribute to one of my earlier bands Unbound. If someone wanted to hear what this album is all about, checking out this song would be a good start.

5. Is there a special message in this EP/CD? If there is what it is?

Mike: The underlying message is that it doesn't matter how big your sword is as long as you swing it well. Just kidding. There's no real special message behind our music. We just like to have fun and hope that the fun translates to the listener. If we get someone to crack a smile, bang their head or check out a movie they hadn't heard of before then I would say we managed to do what we set out to achieve with our music.

6. Are there some lyrics that you'd love to share?

Mike: I've always really liked the lyric "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hun!" Wait.....did you mean our lyrics? Our lyrics don't matter since you can't understand the words anyway. I'm trying to make music my main hobby but can always fall back on cookie monster impersonator if things aren't going well.

7. What inspirations have been important for this album? Like musically or friends, family, someone you'd love to thank especially?

Mike: I'd like to thank myself for writing the best Sword and sorcery album ever released by a band called VHS. Seriously though, our songs are all inspired and based on classic and cult movies. Most of my family probably thinks we suck and I have no friends so I don't have any point of reference for friends inspiring the album! I guess my wife is a good person to bounce ideas off but even she hates most of our music! She's very opinionated!

8. Something to add?

Mike: Thanks for the interview! We have a new album called "Quest for the Mighty Riff" coming out May 19th on Wise Blood Records. You can grab a preorder now and check out the first single, "Cleave 'Em and Leave 'Em" now on our Bandcamp. http://vhshorror.bandcamp.com