Interview: The Vice vocalist, guitarist Rickard

By Neil Shumate, OOTB Publications

Stockholm, Sweden’s dark gritty metal four-piece The Vice have released a powerful single and eye-catching video for “Waltz de Anina” from their recently released latest heavy hitting 3-song EP The Red Tape Sessions (Nobel Demon).

The Vice vocalist and guitarist Rickard took time to discuss: the song and video, recording the EP, his favorite music genres, touring stateside, and he previews their upcoming new full-length album—their fourth LP since forming 14 years ago—due out later this year.

The music video for “Waltz de Anima” is phenomenal and kind of haunting. How did the production of the video come together to define the song itself?

Glad you liked it! And can't say we're other than extremely pleased ourselves.

We've done numerous videos in the past with Jimmy Johansson (Superlinopuro Productions, Ill Bill, Crashdiet, Martyrdöd, among others), so we knew it would be a good looking fucker; though, we didn't have any big set pieces figured out, so we just ended up focusing on making it as beautiful as it could ever be.

Only used a few other elements beside ourselves—like the discoball and the snow—having the colors and pacing carrying the heaviest load.

And with a couple of weeks of distance to the recording, I still think we managed to capture that regal, majestic tone of the song perfectly.

With your music sometimes being a blend and fusion of sorts, which genre(s) is your personal favorite and why that genre?

Rock 'n' Roll and Black Metal are the two genres that have made the biggest impact throughout my life, and I still love 'em both to death and beyond.

The straightforward, mean-ass-motherf.....-attitude on top of mindblowingly great songs from Rock'n'Roll-Royals such as: Guns 'n' Roses, The Rolling Stones, W.A.S.P, Motley Crue; and the viciousness, the blackened ambience aiming for the darker corners of the soul of great Black Metal acts like: Dissection, Emperor, Mayhem, Deathspell Omega has created; those two genres cover most of my musical cravings.

Just let me have some Oasis, Miley Cyrus and Lil Wayne every now and then also, and I'm set for life. [laughs]

How did you approach The Red Tape Sessions differently than your earliest releases, including Let Me Go and Dead Canary Run?

The Red Tape Sessions was certainly a quite different recording than most of our previous ones, as we went into the studio with a very loose, laidback, shoot from the hip-kinda attitude.

All songs had some room for whatever ideas and whims that we would get in the studio.

Not the way we have worked in the past, and actually I can't really recall exactly why we took this approach.

But if I had to guess, it had something to do with absolutely unbridled self-esteem, die-hard dedication and just rock ‘n’ fkn’ roll! And I'm glad we did, the songs turned out really nice and it was a very fruitful and fun session overall.

Do you have plans to tour the states?

No dates set right now; we're currently working on getting managers, booking agencies who can help us in getting out on the road, so that's step one.

But, it's just a matter of time. I f’kn love the states and have been over there a bunch of times and will be there in a heartbeat, as soon as we get a good opportunity!

Looking ahead into 2026, what are your goals and plans for the new year?

We're working on our next full length album and it will be released sometime in the later half of 2026, so that's taking up most of our focus at the moment.

And, when looking back upon our previous albums, videos, singles, whole career actually, it is with great fondness and absolute pride.

However, this next album will be something completely different.

It will be a neonsoaked, grimy, bleak, beautiful, unique piece of work. Concrete and streetlights mixed with the cold, dark, Northern harshness; 90's culture, total dedication, passion and madness straight from our hearts and souls.

It will be an album that doesn't come around too often; so I can promise, you won't regret being there for it!

But also, getting back on the stages—playing live is something that we will get going as soon as possible.

We've played together as a quartet since last year when Joel joined the ranks, taking over the duty as lead guitarist.

And while we were pretty sure it would turn out great, none of us could have imagined it would be such a smooth transition leaving that comfortable trio-setting.

And, there's some very interesting chemistry within the band right now, which has to be unleashed on the stages, so looking forward to a very interesting year to say the least.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

As I mentioned, the album coming next year is gonna be one for the books; so, to the readers of this interview: Check out our latest EP The Red Tape Sessions and work your way back in our catalogue (and don't miss the many videos we've done, all available via Noble Demon Records’ Youtube Channel) for a hint as to where this sinister, metal-Avalanche might be heading.

Enjoy the music, stay tuned and stay cool.

And finally: A sincere thanks to you for showing interest and appreciation for what we do! Truly rewarding, so keep up the good work and hope to talk again soon.

Cheers!

Watch "Waltz de Anima"