VITAL REMAINS Mainman Says He Has Written 20 Songs For Next Album

Guitarist Tony Lazaro of VITAL REMAINS was interviewed by Metal Hangar 18 after the band's March 2 performance at the RBF club in Sofia, Bulgaria with KRISIUN and MALEVOLENT CREATION. You can now watch the chat below.

When asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for VITAL REMAINS' long-awaited follow-up to 2007's "Icons of Evil", Lazaro said, "The songs [for the new album] have been written [for a long time] — some of them since 2008. I've written, like, two albums' worth of material; I have almost 20 songs.

"We will record the new album this year. Everything is kind of in place. We can't wait — after this tour — to get working on it again before we have another tour in the U.S. in May with DESTRUCTION. And then after that it's all about recording the new album this summer. So hopefully everything's gonna work out and we'll have the album recorded and it will be out finally this year."

Regarding whether fans can expect to hear new songs that are each at least six minutes long, just as they were on "Icons of Evil", Lazaro said, "The new album, the new songs are shorter." He added, "I've been writing the music since the beginning, since '89. I write all the music, and this is the first time that I wrote the songs shorter. The songs are averaging only about four minutes; the longest song, I think, is four and a half minutes. First time ever. But I tried to keep my style of writing in there — keep the speed, the brutality, the melodic stuff, and also put some old-school stuff in there and some classical stuff in there; some solo stuff, really good solos and melodies. It's everything you'd expect from VITAL REMAINS, but just in a shorter package."

VITAL REMAINS 2012 is:

Scott Wily – Vocals
Tony Lazaro – Guitar
Gator Collier – Bass
Brian Weber – Guitar
Alberto Allende - Drums

Restrain Records in 2007 released a high-quality double-vinyl presentation of VITAL REMAINS' latest abum, "Icons of Evil". The set includes 'brutal blasphemy spread over three sides, with the fourth side bearing an engraving," according to the band. "Comes in a gatefold cover with printed lyric sleeves!"

VITAL REMAINS' DVD, entitled "Evil Death Live", came out in 2007 via Metal Mind Productions. The disc includes footage of VITAL REMAINS' performance at the Metalmania Festival 2007 on April 24, 2007 in Katowice, Poland as well as an interview with Tony Lazaro (one of the band's founders) and Dave Suzuki, live bootleg material and many other surprises. Also available is a limited DVD+CD swing case edition, featuring a bonus CD containing songs recorded at the Metalmania gig.