In an interview with The Wikimetal Happy Hour , Felipe Machado , Leandro Caçoilo , Guilherme Martin , and Kiko Shred discussed how Andre Matos impacted VIPER 's new album .
In July, the band released Timeless , their first album of new material in 15 years , and the first with Leandro Caçoilo on vocals. When asked about the type of influence Andre's death might have had on the album, the members of VIPER clarified that the loss did not objectively impact the project, but probably had a subjective influence, and that the band's focus is on "looking ahead."
According to Felipe Machado, the group started thinking about a new album after their last tour with Andre Matos, when VIPER effectively returned to activity. For the guitarist, the death of VIPER's former vocalist in 2019 impacted the band subjectively, but it wasn't the motivation for a new album.
“In a way, Andre’s death also showed that everything is very ephemeral,” Felipe comments. “If you don’t do it, time passes, things pass, things end. This feeling, in a totally subjective way, ended up perhaps influencing us. It also showed that we could look to the future, that we didn’t need to depend on Andre’s past […] I think that, in a way, that death showed that we had to show the fans that we could survive.”
Guitarist Kiko Shred also clarified that the album wasn't a way for VIPER to try and relive the past, nor was it primarily made because of Andre's death. "We have this creativity, this artistic vein, and we simply wanted to express it," he says. "Many bands [come back] and end up living in the past, and that doesn't exist in VIPER. It was an artistic expression. The guys were composing, they wanted to record, they recorded an album, and, as Pit [ Passarell ] always says in interviews, honoring the past, but always looking to the future."
"Andre Matos's story is also intertwined with VIPER, so I think this album serves as a tribute to him," added Leandro Caçoilo.
Check out the full excerpt from the interview:
