Romanian black rock ‘n’ rollers Slicer, will be coming in a few days at Decibel Rebel Festival III, and RockOverdose took the chance to speak with them for their first visit in Greece exclusively for this show.
RockOverdose: Hello and welcome to RockOverdose. How are you guys? What is happening in the Slicer camp these days?
Slicer: Hey, thanks for having us. We’re getting ready for our first show with the new line-up and cooking up some new songs for the setlist off our next album.
Rockoverdose: Since it’s the first time we do an interview we would like you to say a couple of things about the band.
Slicer: Slicer started on whim. A friend of mine suggested I start a band with Liv from Raizing Hell and so I started looking for the right people for the job. I already had the name and logo made a long time ago, 2010 I think. It was supposed to be for a different project I gave up on, but maybe one day I’ll get back to it…
Somewhere in October of 2016 we rehearsed and Death Rock n Roll was born. Our first show was on 26th of April, 2017.
Ever since we’ve released two demos in 2017 and an album, “Stalking the Night” (a lyric from “Night of the Slicer”) on 13th of September 2023.
The recording of the album was brought with mismanagement, unprofessionalism and just good ol’ bad luck, that’s why it took us so long to release it, we actually had all the tracks recorded in 2018, but we decided to rerecord everything once Liv left the band. You could say it’s cursed (laughs).
RockOverdose: Which are the main influences of Slicer?
Slicer: Well the obvious influence is Midnight, but also early Motörhead and Metallica, Misfits, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, The Cramps, etc. There’s really just too many influences and some are outside of the metal/punk genre.
RockOverdose: I got to say I really like the image of the band. Why did you decide to go on stage with this?
Slicer: Previously I was in two other bands and in both of them I wore a mask on stage. I think I decided to start wearing a mask at my 4th show, I’ve always liked bands with a more theatrical live act, like Alice Cooper and Mercyful Fate/King Diamond.
A mask is also more practical than facepaint/corpsepaint as many venues don’t have a sink and mirror to wash it off backstage or even a backstage (laughs).
I think when I saw one of my first underground metal gigs, a bunch of dudes just got onstage with their street/work clothes and started playing and I just thought that was super lame and I felt ripped off.
This time we decided to all wear masks, but each one a different model, unlike Midnight.
For me a show is half image/stage presence, half music/execution. We basically do whatever we think is cool and what we’d like to see more of. And you say you like it so it works (laughs).
RockOverdise: Your debut album “Stalking The Night”, was released back in 2023. Are you guys working on a new album?
Slicer: Yes, we got about 6 or 7 songs done out of 9, one song specifically is done since 2019 and we never played it live, the others are a part of our set since then. I’m talking about “Bring Back the UGH”, “Wizards of Steel” and “Knife For An Eye”, which you’ll hear us play at Decibel Rebel, among newer ones like “Spectre Of Death”.
Hopefully we’ll start recording in the fall if the stars are right. Just like the previous album, this one will also be titled from a lyric from one of the songs off the album, but I can’t say more at this moment.
RockOverdose: Next March you are coming Greece in Decibel Rebel Festival in Kavala. How did that happen?
Slicer: We were contacted by the promoters to join the lineup of this year’s edition and we gladly accepted the invitation. We’re excited that we’re coming in Greece for the first time and we’re looking forward to future collaborations.
RockOverdose: This is the first time you play in Greece right?
Slicer: Yes, this is the first time we play in Greece and hopefully not the last, haha. But seriously I love Greece, I’ve been to two editions of Up the Hammers in Athens and to a Midnight show last year in Thessaloniki at the Eightball Club, which we’d love to play (wink, wink). I love the atmosphere, I feel very at home in Greece, I don’t know why, maybe I have some Greek genes or something (laughs).
RockOverdose: Have you ever played with any Greek band?
Slicer: We played with White Tower on the 21st of February at Rift of Hades in Bucharest. We’ve met at Up the Hammers three years ago I think and we party whenever we meet up. I don’t think we played with Greek bands before though.
RockOverdose: Would you like to add anything as the closing of the interview?
Slicer: Ars Longa, Vita Brevis! Thank you for your time and see you soon in Kavala!
Efharisto, haha!
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