Cover Story: Avernus • As Heavy As We Can Be
Avernus
Has Twenty-seven years between full-length albums for a band is a long time to wait.
But that’s exactly what happened to local doom metal pioneers Avernus. Formed in 1992 by drummer Rick Yifrach and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Rick McCoy — joined by guitarist Erik Kikke the following year (who was only 15 years old at the time)—there was an instant musical connection between them.
Born of a steady diet of doom, death, and gothic metal influences from well-revered UK bands such as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Cathedral, and Anathema—as well as being inspired by local legends Trouble—the band began to flesh out ideas that would wind up on the band’s 1993 debut demo A Delicate Tracery of Red.
The blueprint for doom metal is to evoke feelings of despair and melancholy while at the same time achieving cathartic results of ultimately feeling joyous again. Deep emotion and atmosphere are the main components of the genre. Oh, and the riffs have to be HEAVY. “There was definitely an idea when we set out to do this band,” McCoy explains. “Rick and I had the original idea for just a project before we even figured out how each other plays. It was to do something with not a ton of blast beats; we didn’t want to do anything like that. (We wanted) to keep it heavy, keep it dark, and keep it emotional. We were huge fans of Paradise Lost—those first two albums specifically (Lost Paradise and Gothic). Everything we’ve done has been through the lens of that it should be atmospheric, it should have emotion, and it should have feeling.”
STARTING POINT
Avernus recorded and released five demos and a split album before releasing its debut full-length album …of The Fallen in 1997. With the release of Avernus’s new album, Grievances (released on Sept. 20, 2024, via M-Theory Audio), one has to wonder what took so long to release it. “The short answer is… life happened,” McCoy exclaims with a chuckle. “We had started the band when we were all really young. I was the oldest at around 18 or 19, and the rest of the guys were maybe 15 or 16. The first few years of the band were us just getting older, growing, and turning into adults. The last thing we had put out, at least as the unit we are now, (was around) 1997-ish.”
According to McCoy, around that time, the cracks were starting to show, and some members were losing interest in the band. “Some of the other guys were going on to have families, getting married and stuff,” he remembers. “I went back to school and got a degree, started a career, and got married as well. And it was the last few years where we had all this music we were sitting on, and both Erik (Kikke) and (other guitarist) Jimmy (Genenz) specifically sat down and just started to build what we have today, which is the new album.”
Grievances have given Avernus a second chance at this late stage in their career. Fans and critics alike have been thoroughly impressed with the band’s comeback record. “That’s just the most wonderful feeling in the world when you can still reach people,” McCoy enthuses. “Because our music isn’t the most accessible. The fans (have been) excited and (are) telling us, ‘It’s so great you’re back, we’ve missed you!’ And that feels wonderful. I feel so grateful and thankful that I am still at this stage of my career that we get to do this. Because not everybody gets a second chance.”
THE GRIEVANCE PROCESS
In 2012, after a three-year hiatus, Avernus played its reunion show at Reggie’s Holiday of Horror festival, which became a major proponent of reigniting the fire under the band. Following the reunion show, Avernus felt that the time was right to get back to their roots and start creating new material.
To the band, the new album feels highly significant, almost like a breakthrough. The writing process for Grievances took about two years, and the album was recorded at four different studios. Recorded and engineered by Joe Scaletta and Andy Lagos, while mixing and mastering was handled by Charles Macak, the band took its time and created an album they’ve always wanted to make. “We knew that we just wanted to be heavy,” McCoy says. “We were feeling good and proud of these songs. I thought, if this is the last thing we do, I want to go out and make it as heavy as we can. The initial way that we went about it was Erik and Jimmy sitting down and saying, ‘Okay, let’s pick these riffs out.’ Then they basically started to make a skeleton of them and went and recorded it as rough tracks.”
Once the two achieved the guitar tones they were looking for, the tracks were sent off digitally to McCoy to develop different vocal lines, melodies, and lyrics. “We spent a lot of time trying to find different tones because we didn’t have any pressure,” McCoy admits. “We didn’t have a label (telling us that we) need to get this out now. So, we took advantage of that. I think we got really lucky as far as the way the album came out sounding. We spent a lot more time trying to find better gear and for people who really were able to capture what we were looking for.”
Lyrically, the band taps into who they have become as they have gotten older, with an emphasis on mortality. During the writing process, time was on the band’s side. By not having yet secured a recording contract at the time, the maturation process for the 10 tracks that appear on *Grievances* had time to ferment organically. “…Calling the Void,” “Nemesis,” “Return to Dust,” and “Quietus” were songs that we already had around as a couple of different versions recorded at one point, but they didn’t really come out that great,” Kikke explains. “There was just something that was missing. So, Jimmy took it upon himself to take those songs and a bunch of rehearsals we had, and he put together a quick demo he did out of his home studio. He sent everyone all the songs, arranged them, and put them in order. I think that’s the moment where we all said, ‘Let’s get this done!’ We had these songs and we were feeling pretty good about it, now it was just a point of getting all for of us in a room together.”
Ultimately, the band signed with M-Theory Audio, which reunited Avernus with former label rep for Century Media Records and Metal Blade Records’ Marco Barbieri. According to McCoy, Barbieri has championed the band since the early days by placing their track, “Godlessness” (from their 1995 demo of the same name), on the Metal Blade Metal Massacre XII compilation album series. “At that time, we were sending the demo out to different labels, but we weren’t really getting anybody who was interested,” McCoys reflects. “However, “Godlessness” was a little bit different, and we sent it to Metal Blade, and Marco Barbieri heard it. He was working there at the time and reached out and said, ‘Hey, I would like to put you guys on this comp.’ After that, we started writing songs that would eventually become …of The Fallen. And he wanted to put that out, too. In fact, he was considering doing his own label on the side just to push that album because he believed in us. However, we went with a different label at that time.”
Nevertheless, the band and Barbieri stayed in contact over the years through social media, and when Avernus had completed Grievances, Kikke sent a copy of it to Barbieri for his esteemed opinion. “He basically said, ‘I want to sign you guys.’” McCoy enthuses. “And it was that quick, and it was that easy. We didn’t talk to anybody else. He’s just very to the point. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything. We like that honesty. Plus, he’s a fan of the band, and that is really important.”
TRIUMPHANT RETURN
The band played only two shows in 2024, including a hometown comeback appearance at Heavy Chicago II at Avondale Music Hall on Friday, Nov. 11. Being the band’s first live show in nine years, a few butterflies were floating around in their stomachs before taking the stage that night. “If I’m being honest… I was nervous,” Kikke admitted. “It had been years before we had performed as a whole. Heavy Chicago is such a fun festival to play. It was just such a fun night, and it felt so good. That was a monumental night for us because that was the first step (in realizing) that, ‘Hey, we’re back!’”
Even though the band had made a triumphant return that night, they didn’t really know what to expect beforehand. “We had been practicing pretty hardcore up to that point,” McCoy remembers. “It was one of those where the things that could have went wrong were going wrong. Our drummer Ricky Yifrach broke his arm a week before that show. So, we found Chris (Avgerin), who’s just a fantastic drummer, and he filled in for us. The fans’ energy was really creating more energy for us. People were coming up saying, ‘Dude, thank you so much for that, I was so excited to see you!’”
The overwhelming enthusiasm and support from the fans after the release of Grievances hasn’t gone unnoticed by the band, either. “This was a long and arduous road,” Kikke admits. “There were a lot of things that were getting in our way, but we had amazing family and friends who stood by us. Our fans who emailed us or had left comments in the comment sections showed us that we didn’t want to let anyone down and to get the record out at the very least. It took us by surprise. We didn’t expect this response, and it’s been overwhelming. We’re extremely fortunate and humbled to be greeted in this way.”
ONWARD AND UPWARD
Although the band doesn’t play live very often, they are confirmed for the upcoming Milwaukee Metal Fest on Friday, May 16th. However, the band doesn’t have any immediate plans for a long-form tour. “I don’t think there’ll be touring only because, for one, a lot of us have other circumstances: families, work, stuff like that,” McCoy confesses. “That probably would get in the way of doing a big tour. What we’re looking to do, though, is high-profile shows. Any tours will probably be more of a Midwestern run or a show here (in Chicago), maybe a show in Milwaukee or somewhere drivable within eight to 10 hours. I don’t see us ever getting in a van and doing a full couple of months across the country. That’s not going to happen.”
According to Kikke, Avernus is content to go with the flow. “We do want to play more shows. We are starting to get some offers; there’s some really great festivals out there. We’re just going to try and do what makes the most sense.”
However, the band’s main focus currently is writing new material, as they are determined not to let another 27 years pass before their next record. “There was a lot of material we were working on over that mysterious time between the reunion in 2012 up until the current day,” Kikke explains. “There was a lot of stuff that we did that I felt pretty good about resurfacing just by going through all that stuff. In some of the rehearsals we had recently prepping for Heavy Chicago and the record release show (on Dec. 7, 2024), we started working on a few different ideas. And we already have lots of stuff in line. A lot of it I think is going to be a complimentary follow-up to *Grievances*. It sounds heavy and menacing… and that’s what we’re going for.”
McCoy feels the songwriting process is right on track and that the band isn’t lacking motivation to complete a new album. “The way we approach our songs is as if these are mini-movies that we’re writing the soundtrack for,” he concludes. “Some of the songs on Grievances aren’t super heavy as far as the keyboards go, and some are; it just depends. There’s been times when we felt like, why are we doing this if nobody cares? But people do care, and that’s the motivator right there. I don’t know what (the new album’s) going to sound like, but I do know it’s not going to take another 27 years!”
Grievances is out now through M-Theory Audio.
– Kelley Simms
Category: Cover Story, Featured, Monthly
