I Prevail don’t just grow or evolve with time—they experience a kind of metamorphosis, but not quite like butterflies. There’s nothing delicate to the band’s pumelling sound or ruthless form—a monstrous, vicious, and relentless growl that dictates how it feels to be human. Their sound mirrors who they are, that merciless pursuit of giving back what they received, no matter each adversity is hurled at them. But trauma, addiction, tumultuous interpersonal relationships, and loss have haunted the band throughout the years, and their albums and journey detail the chronicles of those experiences—their battles, their courage, and their strength, right up through to their latest release Violent Nature, out now on Fearless Records.
“We have faced almost everything I feel like we could have,” frontman Eric Vanlerberghe says. “Now every time there’s some wall or some hurdle, it’s like, ‘Well, how do I figure out how to get through it or figure out how to get over it’ and keep pushing. It’s just in our DNA.”
I Prevail’s DNA is inherently based on resilience. Intertwined with external strands of courage, fearlessness, and grit, the band’s DNA details that of the human experience and the innate desire for a life worth dreaming of. A dichotomy of looking forward to from the present with flashes of the past mirrored in reality, simultaneously finding catharsis in music and hoping that all that pain would be worth it.
“One thing I remember (feeling) early on was, ‘We want to have some sort of positive impact,’” Vanlerberghe reflects. “When I was growing up, there were a handful of records that really did a lot for me, and I was able to take things from (that) music, and it was really important to be able to put back—whether it was just one kid messaging us and saying that the song helped them get through something—(the same) kind of personal connection through (our) music, to be able to put back what I was able to take.”
Harnessing the experiences that turned Vanlerberghe to music and using them as fuel to continue moving forward and pushing, because if “you want that opportunity, you got you got to take it. Sometimes you get a chance and who knows if this chance’s ever going to come again.”
I Prevail’s career has prevailed—no pun intended—for over a decade and does so unabatedly. Consisting of drummer Gabe Helguera, bassist Jon Eberhard, guitarists Steve Menoian and Dylan Bowman, and Vanlergberghe, I Prevail earned Grammy nominations for their third album, TRAUMA—including Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance for the lead single “Bow Down”—alongside multiple gold and platinum certifications, a #1 hit on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, and nearly 3 billion streams worldwide.
One could say that their goal of resonating with just one person has been achieved—more than tenfold because what draws people to I Prevail is the same thing that drew the five musicians to music themselves—not only do the band detail the hero’s journey, but I Prevail define the idea of persevering not just out of spite, but because it’s what they grew up watching others do. “I think writing some of these heavy and angry songs, it’s a form of (catharsis) for me,” Vanlerberghe confesses.
What comes from the endurance of life and the development of a gritty exterior is the human spectrum of emotion, the need to simply release everything pent up inside when it exceeds a boiling point. So, I Prevail’s discography spans grief, anger, depression, apathy, sadness, fury, angst, all with an intensity that leaves heads swinging because they want to award that same catharsis to others.
“Listening to death metal, I’m not taking anything emotionally or personally out of this but that aggression and visceral feeling of screaming and banging your head … I think there’s something in that too,” he says. And I Prevail’s newest venture Violent Nature comes out swinging harder and faster than an MMA fighter, packing such a vicious punch you don’t have time to deflect the intensity. The band vigorously approach their new record with the question: “We have expanded on this, we’ve expanded on that, what can we do that can push the boundaries a little on the heavier side?”
Vanlerberghe has always been a songwriting force. “I’ve been writing lyrics for the band since the beginning,” he details. “The music and everything. It’s all been a collaborative effort. So, I like to think that the DNA is still intact even though it’s coming through a different mouthpiece or sounding a little different,” so while this was the first time, he was alone at the lyrical helm, all I Prevail has ever done is move forward—Why wouldn’t they now? Taking that new dynamic in stride, fate redirected them to the course they were meant to be on, where they “started pushing the heavier stuff, the heavier side of I Prevail.” And by then, resilience was just in the band’s nature; they “see how it feels and we start chasing that.”
That always-looking-forward nature is woven within every fibre of I Prevail, their attitudes constantly looking past the chaos and the uncertainty, whether it be within their lives or a new record. “Before we knew what the future held, we were already talking about, ‘All right, what’s this new era going to sound like? What ways are we going to push the sound? What are we going to lock in on and try to redo from the past, and learn from the past, and how can we do things better?’”
With Violent Nature, while they have those soaring, melodic choruses that have become a welcome fixture in their discography, they teased out the threads of who they were, the heaviness they were willing to explore, and the anger that comes within a genre like that. “Whether it’s not emotional or something you feel like you connect or relate to lyrically, it’s human emotion. You feel angry. I think some of the healthiest ways (to deal with it) is to mosh about it at a show.”
Vanlerberghe, Menoian, Helguera, Eberhard, and Bowman aim to recreate that same catharsis they found in music for others, with a symphony of trudging guitars, ferocious drumming, and punishing bass lines, to inspire mosh pits, yes, but to encapsulate their turmoil and struggles into songs that can be beloved by kids—or adults—looking for a place to belong, to be understood. Even throughout I Prevail’s potentially embittering journey, they maintain their wish to be positive, even if it’s through anger, and letting others know they aren’t alone in that. Violent Nature is I Prevail at their most ferocious, but it’s also them at their most resilient.
Violent Nature is out now, and you can order it from Fearless Records. Follow I Prevail on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Wiltshire
