My acquaintance with the young Swedish band Subcyde started when I downloaded thier 2004 demo off their website, mainly to check out their cover of Testament's 'Low'. Time went on, and suddenly their demo "2005" ended up in my postbox and damn the band had progressed quite a bit. They had got a sound more of their own, the production was better and that made the hard hitting music even more hard hitting, a great mix of modern and older thrash with a splash of nu-metal here and there. I got in touch with vocalist Antonio Ravina da Silva and he glady answered all my questions.

Hi there, how are things in Sweden as we speak and how do you look upon the state of the Swedish metal scene?

Hello Anders! Everything is fine here in Sweden the weather's been a bit hot for this time of the year but I am not complaining!

Well the Swedish metal scene is flowering in terms of underground bands there're a lot of good ones right now like Abused, Source Of Ignition, Canopy, Cellout, etc... There seems to be a good band in every genre of metal. Speaking of the metal scene at the record label level it's a bit pathetic the record labels say they're searching for so called "new" blood but what they really are searching for is the next Soilwork and that pisses me off a bit (let it be known that I have nothing against them, although I don't really understand what the fuss is about). And why does it piss me off? Well because new bands, like ourselves, which are really good don't get a chance to get through to the audience.

Will you start off by introducing yourself and tell us why you thrash away in Subcyde?

My name is Antonio Ravina da Silva. Born in Spain 1981 and raised in Portugal until I moved to Sweden in the beginning of 1996 where I'm currently living. I’m the vocalist of Subcyde. I thrash away in Subcyde because it's mainly THE band that plays the kind of music I love! My strengths are my determination, my will to push this band forward and probably my sincerity. My weaker sides are that maybe sometimes I may be a bit pushy and a bit too straightforward when I say stuff to people (sometimes I'm a bit raw in how I put certain things).

Will you introduce the rest of the band and tell us a bit about their strong and weak sides as well?

I'm not really going to talk about each and everyone's weaker sides. Firstly because who am I to judge that and secondly because I don't think that they want me to do that. They should do that themselves but I'm going to talk of what I think are their strong sides.

The rest of Subcyde:

Ola Englund – guitars:
The man with the never ending riffs. Always has an idea of where we are going to go with the next song. His strong side is that he's a devil with the guitar and he's great at artwork. I mean he must've fallen from the guitar tree and hit every branch on the way down!

Johan Wikforss – drums:
He's the spinal cord of this band. The man who we all follow. His strong side is that he's a wicked tight drummer and great fun to watch when he is chugging beer!

Martin Andersson – bass:
He has the fat ass grooves. A team player who stands up to his beliefs! His strong side is that he's a reliable man and we can always count on him.

When and how did Subcyde start?

Subcyde was started in 1997 as a Pantera cover band by Ola and Johan. They played together previous to '97 in a punk band and wanted to go heavier so they asked Martin to join them on the bass. The same year they asked me, a guy who just started going to their school and listened to metal too, if I wanted to try out to fill in the vocals spot. I thought about it and said yes. Jimmy joined in 2002, I think, to fill in as a backing guitarist. He has now quit the band due to personal reasons so after 6-7 demos and a lot of gigs in Stockholm here we are now!

What do you want to accomplish with the band?

Well I have a couple of goals that I want to accomplish. My short term goal is to finally get out of Stockholm and play somewhere else. That's going to happen soon so got to get a new short term goal. DOH!

My long term goal is to get a record deal and do an European tour. That would be great! My dream is just to play on stage in front of lots of people and see that they're having as much fun or more than I am.

You have so far released 2 demos, how have they been received?

Well actually this is our 6th-7th demo. We've been releasing demos since we started basically since we where 17 years old or so. We've been growing up and developing ourselves at the same time as the music we play. The latest demo has been getting good reviews by several swedish magazines, e-zines and lately we've seen a better turn up to our shows. So it's developing positively.

Your most recent "Demo 2005" consist of 4 heavy and powerful tracks, how do you feel about the music on the 2005 demo?

The latest demo is a good example of where we want to go, musically that is, it is probably our best demo. It has set a kind of mark on how we are going to write our songs from now on and this is very exciting. The demo is really heavy and diversified with songs that bare our sound without repeating themselves.

What do you expect from the demo?

I expect getting good reviews (and so far we have) and hopefully it will get some kind of buzz going in the record labels.

What do you feel Subcyde contribute to the thrash metal scene anno 2005?

I don't really know. Since I consider ourselves to be some kind of a thrash hybrid (not really thrash) hopefully we can get some other bands to start playing heavier music but most importantly I hope we can blow up the music scene (with a lot of help from fans of course) and get things rolling.

How would you describe your music to a metalhead not knowing of Subcyde?

Subcyde is all about adrenaline, power and a driven sense of energy. You can feel all that flow as you listen to the songs.

How did you end up with that band name and what does it represent?

Well at first we thought of "Diabolica" but another band (and the fact that it sound too eeeeeeviilllll... mohhahaha) had that name already so Johan sat down one night and reading the English dictionary (it's his favourite book) he found the word subside: wear off or die down; "The pain subsided" [syn: lessen] 2: sink to a lower level or form a depression; "the valleys subside"

After a quick change of letters, courtesy of Martins hip-hop period when he listened to Pharcyde, it became Subcyde. So no, no Mortal Kombat here... hehehe.

To me the band name represents the exact opposite of the definition of the word so that's kind of cool. A sound usually will subside but we want it to do the opposite!

How does the band work when you write music and who are the main writers?

Lately Ola and Johan are the main writers. Ola writes a couple of riffs and thinks of some cool drums for them, he then brings those ideas to Johan and he fixes the drums. Finally they bring those ideas to the rehearsal and we play around it a bit with me and Martin giving input on different parts. I usually write all that has to do with the vocals including lyrics.

Where do you find inspiration for the music?

I can't really talk for the others but for me it can be anything from movies, art, books and other music.

Can you mention 5 bands and 5 albums that have meant a lot to the sound of Subcyde?

Pantera and "Cowboys From Hell", Machine Head and "Burn My Eyes", Entombed and "Wolverine Blues", Slayer and "Divine Intervention" and lastly Sepultura with "Chaos A.D.".

Which elements in a song do you count as important in the band?

Hmm....a good fucking chorus! That's the most important… but hey I'm the vocalist of course I think the choruses are important! But seriously I think music history has proven what you can do with a really good chorus.

Of the tracks you so far has made, which one are your favourite and why?

'Sacred Scars' from the new demo is probably going to take the prize as my favourite. Why? Because it has it all, a good eerie intro, driven verse, great chorus and a heavy break down in the middle. Just pure adrenaline to me!!

Let's talk a bit about the lyrics, what are the lyrical themes you so far have touched?

I try not to repeat myself when writing lyrics but it's hard. The themes are usually about human nature, as I see it and I'm not a shrink, so I'm no expert. And very much about how people in power positions deceive and hide things from "us" other normal persons. It's also about the numbness of some and really how people just don't care. Now I'm not saying that I'm better than others in any way, I'm merely pointing out what people do, including myself.

How important is the lyrics for Subcyde and compared to the music?

At the very beginning of Subcyde the lyrics weren't that important but lately they're becoming more and more important to me. I mean I'm screaming/growling something and I sound mad, why not have something to be mad about? Something that helps me get out that extra anger out of me although compared to the music I think the music goes first, I have always thought that, but right now we've found a compromise where I get to write meaningful lyrics and I really do enjoy it. It brings meaning to my screaming.

Do you have anything you would like to tell with your lyrics?

Well as I pointed out before, that people seem not to care about anything and everyone is numb, also things that I think are fucked up.

Where do you find inspiration for your lyrics?

I try to find inspiration in anything that moves me at a deeper level, things that to an extent have an emotional effect on me. A good example is some of Jonny Cash's songs, like Nine Inch Nail's cover of Cash's 'Hurt', it's fucking awesome, that song has a life of it's own. So that kind of stuff inspires me.

How is it to witness a Subcyde live show?

Well I think I'll leave that question to people that has seen us. I would like to go on and on about how we put 100% in there and so but I'm just going to tell you this: You just got to be there!!

If I'm not totally mistaken, you are right now working on a new demo, what can you tell us abut the new material, do you have some song titles etc… and when will it be released?

The new demo (I'm psyched because it's going to rule) will be called "2006". Not very original but at least we know when it's going to be released… hehe. Only 1 of the tracks got a name and that's 'Redemption', a total of three songs have complete lyrics. I can tell you that this demo is going to have faster tracks than "2005", actually only one groovy song that reminds me of a mix of 'The Unknown' (from the "2005" demo) and 'The Devil's Hand' (from the "2004" demo). Check our website for more news.

Have you been approached by any labels yet…?

Actually yes! We sent demo "2004" to several labels and Black Mark answered our calls. They wanted some more material and we were about to record demo "2005" so we'll see...

If you could pick a label yourselves, which one would be perfect for releasing Subcyde's music?

I really don't know...we want to be in a label which cares about our music and really push it forward. Someone who believes in us is the most important thing I think.

How do you look upon the following bands?

Testament: Kings of thrash! Enough said!

Pantera: These are my heroes. Phil Anselmo is one of the main reasons I wanted to start in a metal band and of course Dimebag Darrell (RIP) a fucking god!

Kreator: I never was that much into them, didn't really like the vocals.

Soilwork: Funny you ask. I was at their show in Stockholm this week (got a ticket from a buddy for my birthday, he was trying to convert me) and I thought they were ok but it really isn't my cup of tea a bit tedious but good choruses on some songs ('Nerve' for example), I wouldn't go out and buy myself all their records, if you know what I mean.

Entombed: They're a very important cornerstone of the Swedish metal scene and I just love "Wolverine Blues".

Nu-metal in general: It depends...there are good nu-metal bands and bad nu-metal bands. I like the good ones!

How do you look upon the future of Subcyde?

What future holds you never know, I mean check out all the shit that's been happening out there in the world (earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, the fucking bird flue) so anything can happen tomorrow. I believe that we will get somewhere if we keep fighting, I, for one, am never going to quit and I know just how my dear friend Indiana Jones would say "fortune and fame" are out there for me!

Will you share your 5 all time favourite albums with Nocturnal Horde's readers?

Hmm....tough one...but I'll give a shot!

Pantera – Far Beyond Driven
Entombed – Wolverine Blues
Faith No More – King For A Day – Fool For A Lifetime
Rammstein – Reise, Reise
Down – Down II: A Bustle In Your Hedgerow

Thanks a ton for doing this interview, if you have something to add, feel free to add it now!

No, thank YOU for this interview. It's been great fun answering these questions, I think you guys at Nocturnal Horde are doing a great job so keep on the awesome work, take care, listen to Subcyde and we'll see you on the European tour!