Interviews: Red Vinter

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Death Metal/Doom Metal band Red Vinter from the USA. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did the name Red Vinter come from, and what does it represent for the band?

James: Mike came up with it from one of his novels. Red Winter, but pronounced with a Swedish accent, because some of the best metal in the world comes from Sweden.

Mike: I wrote a book called Runemaster: Shield Maiden’s Blade, and in it, there’s a violent Viking battle in a blizzard – Blood In The Frost! From that, the band name Red Winter hit me, but it seemed a little too generic, so we metalized it by changing Winter to Vinter.

2. Was the band formed with a clear vision of doom and death heaviness from the start, or did that sound develop naturally over time?

James: It was planned that way from the beginning. While specifics of the nature of the music might vary, the overall theme has been a constant.

BC: “Cryptic Site” feels deeply cinematic and unsettling.

3. What was the original spark or idea behind this track?

Mike: While writing riffs for a different song, I asked the guys if they had any song titles - Dylan came back with Cryptic Vision, which went to Cryptic Sight, then Site. From there, I built off what we had with Escape Velocity, thematically. 

4. The lyrics create a strong sense of disorientation and fear. Was there a real experience or concept that inspired that feeling?

Mike: Love hearing you say it, as that was the intent all along. When writing the lyrics, I let myself "travel" into this strange, unsettling world. As happens when writing stories, sometimes they take you places you never expected - which really fed into the vibe of this song. 

5. Ghost In The Fog is described as a major step forward. What changed in your approach between this record and Lumbering Menace?

James: To me, the biggest part was having the band become more acclimated with each other. I also tried to vary the drumming a bit more and dig into creating a mood with how the drums sit under the strings.

Mike: A lot of the early stuff James and I wrote together, with little to no input from anyone else. Ghost is not only an evolution of our songwriting, but Dylan contributed this time, not only with riffs but theme ideas as well. And, the more we play together in rehearsals and gigs, the more the band becomes the sum of the parts and not just one person's vision.

6. How did recording at 14:59 Studios shape the sound and atmosphere of the album?

James: It’s always nice to have a place that is comfortable to record in. Will Maravelas does a great job taming my overly critical self-evaluation.

Mike: Will has become a good friend of the band, and he gets what we're trying to achieve. So, we don't waste a lot of time trying to communicate what we're after. Instead, he dials in and records, mixes, and masters the songs so they sound as good, or in some cases better, than we could imagine. 

7. You co-produced the record with Will Maravelas. How did that collaboration influence the final outcome?

Mike: I touched on this a bit in the last answer, but Will and I have developed a common language of sorts when it comes to recording, mixing, mastering, and the production aspects. Since he's also in a death metal band (Caustic Abyss) and a doom band (Chalice of Suffering), not only does he speak the language already, but he has great ideas to enhance what we're laying down, songwise.

8. Your music leans heavily into slow, crushing doom elements. What draws you to that pacing instead of faster extreme metal styles?

James: Being old and having tendonitis, arthritis, etc., definitely helps stay away from the extremely fast tempos (HaHa). But also, there seems to be plenty of bands pushing the envelope in that direction, so pushing it in the other direction helps carve out a niche for us.

Mike: I spent decades in bands playing at lightspeed. Ironchrist was one of the fastest bands of the early 90s underground. More recently, my last band, Ghost Shadows, was cruising between 240-300bpm. But, there's something to be said for low and slow - allowing the notes, chords, and riffs to exhale the weight of your world through the speakers. There's just something about that heavy, bouncy, pounding groove that gets my blood flowing these days.

9. How do you approach building tension and atmosphere in a song without relying on speed or technical flash?

James: I think the lack of speed does a pretty good job itself of creating tension. Today’s society seems to be in a massive hurry with little attention span, so having a slow, crushing riff is going to be unsettling for people used to 10-second TikToks.

Mike: We love playing with size and volume. Like taking things from "small and delicate" to "steamrolling asphalt". Playing with picking patterns, start-stops, etc. Really just depends on what the song calls for, then we go into the toolbox and see what works to achieve the desired result. 

10. What bands or records have had the biggest influence on Red Vinter’s sound?

James: As a drummer, my influences are kinda varied. Chris Adler, Dave Grohl, Vinnie Paul, and Danny Carey. But overall, as a band, we seem to have been compared to Godflesh, or if Candlemass and Slayer had a baby.

Mike: From a riff writing perspective, Bolt Thrower, The Skull, Obituary, Mammoth Storm, early Death, plus who knows how many thrash bands. From the strings, Jo Bench from Bolt Thrower and Blacky from Voivod inspired my bass tone. Then I set about filling a sound field with complementary guitar tones, which turned out to be more high-gain, death metal-esque. So when we started looking for guitar players to join, their tone was very important. A lot of people hear doom and just think fuzz pedal, but that sort of guitar tone doesn't blend with our bass sound. Definitely not the "normal" way to do it, but I think it's part of what makes us unique. 

11. There’s a strong cinematic quality in your writing. Do you think in terms of imagery or storytelling when composing?

Mike: Definitely. I've always secretly wanted to make big-budget sci-fi movies ala the sorts of stories you see in Heavy Metal magazine. And I've been writing comic books and graphic novels for over 20 years now, which requires the writer to think visually. So, it just naturally carries over into the music. 

12. What role does silence or space play in your music, especially in contrast to the heavy sections?

James: It is pretty crucial to the atmosphere you mention. Those seemingly strange 1 or 2 beat pauses can throw you out of your comfort zone and create some internal dissonance in what you thought was coming next.

13. How do you keep repetition in doom metal feeling engaging instead of static? 

James: I think one thing the band does really well is combine the doomy feeling with a bit less repetition than you might get from a more traditional doom band. The riffs change with slight variations so that while the overall feeling might be the same, there are nuances that keep it fresh.

Mike: I can deny having ADHD all day long, but my attention span was built for speed metal, lol.

14. What was the most challenging track to write or record on the new album? 

James: For drums, recording Ghost in the Fog and Bleeding out were absolute misery. They ended up sounding really powerful, but I do not want to repeat that process.

Mike: Kill The Sun was laborious to write. When we began working on it, we tried to do something different, songwriting-wise, where Dylan and I sat down and tossed riffs back and forth to create a song. While the final product is likely the heaviest thing we've ever done, the song went through four or five versions, some wildly different than the final product, before we landed that plane. It became comical because we'd show James what we had so far to get his opinion. But, in order to form said opinion, he would write the drums for that version, then play it for days before he replied to us. After the third or fourth overhaul, James told us, "You better not change this song again." LOL. But we changed it once (maybe twice) more. It was originally supposed to be the title track and was one of the faster songs on the record. But we got so frustrated with it at one point, we were going to shelve it, hence the album title change to Ghost In The Fog. Overall, it took longer to write this one than all the rest combined.

15. “Ashes” and “Insurgent” have been getting radio traction. Did you expect that kind of underground response?

James: I think Insurgent was kind of poised to happen. The lyrical content deals with the endless greed of our oligarchs and how we happily contribute to their control and our demise. Given the way the world has moved in the last couple of years, I think that resonates with listeners.

Mike: The timing on both was pretty wild. We, coincidentally, dropped the Ashes single right after the LA wildfires in early 2025. A song about life burning you to the ground and you fighting to rise back up definitely seemed like a soundtrack for that catastrophe. Insurgent got its push, again coincidentally, about the same time as the ICE protests around the USA - it even landed on a local Minneapolis "Protest Playlist" with a pile of other anti-tyranny/anti-fascism songs.

16. How does it feel bringing new material like “Cryptic Site” to a live setting for the first time at Sinkfest II?

James: It’s always so nerve-racking for me to play a song live for the first time. I think the crowd really dug it, though, and we got plenty of good feedback on it afterwards.

Mike: I love playing that song - it's just a blast to perform. So, getting to debut it at Sinkfest was really cool - and the crowd really loved it.

17. If Ghost In The Fog had a physical place or landscape, what would it look like? 

James: I think of something like a Scottish cemetery, or a Louisiana swamp when I hear the song. Overall, for the album, it’s more akin to Room 101 from 1984; it’s the place you dread being, and we’re trying to help guide you out of it.

18. Is there any direction or trend in modern metal you deliberately avoid? 

James: To me, the worst part of modern metal is the seeming insistence on quantizing everything perfectly to the grid, and sample replacing many, if not all, of the drums. While we do record to a click, we prefer not to have everything edited to “perfection” and let a little bit of our humanity show in our work.

Mike: I came up in the early days of extreme metal, where sounding like someone else was almost an insult. Speaking as a lead singer, I work hard to sound like me and not anyone else. I see/hear/read a lot of people who are either new(er) to metal or only into modern stuff say things like "this (insert musician) doesn't sound enough like (insert that musician) to be good". That's just foreign to me. And, I think that's why so many newer bands don't stand out and find their niche. The world doesn't need 100 Jeff Loomis's or 1000 George Corpsegrinders. It does need all the individuals making killer, unique metal it can get.

19. What do you want listeners to feel after sitting with this music alone in the dark?

James: You are not alone; someone else out here has been through this.

Mike: What James said. And, I'll add, music is always there for you - it never leaves you, never betrays you, never screws you over. Hopefully, our songs help some have a blast listening to loud, heavy music. Hopefully, it helps others make it through tough times so they can live to fight another day.

20. What’s next for Red Vinter after this release cycle?

James: We have a couple of festival dates lined up, including the Blue Collar Metal Fest and Northern Wisconsin Metal Fest, later this summer.

Mike: Make more caveman metal and share it with anyone and everyone we can.

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