Rising To The Masses: By Virtue Fall

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Before the first riffs echo through the fields of Catton Park, we are diving head first into the pulse-pounding world of the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock 2024. So grab your backstage pass, tune your senses, and join us as we explore the stories, inspirations, and the relentless drive of the bands who are rising to the masses! Introducing By Virtue Fall…

How would you describe your band to someone who’s never heard you?

By Virtue Fall is a relentless force fusing the ferocity of Killswitch Engage, the intricate brutality of Lamb of God, and the melodic intensity of Fightstar.

Tell us about your band’s origin story. How did you all come together?

All of us at one point or another had been in bands together so all knew each other really well, in early 2024 the line-up of By Virtue Fall was finally cemented.

What song would you recommend for someone’s first listen of your band?

Abandon Hope (Pre-save now here)

Describe your songwriting process. How do you create your music?

So we tend to come up with ideas individually – three of us in the band are guitarists so we’ll often come up with riffs or song ideas at home and then get together to flesh things out. We demo absolutely everything so it makes learning parts a lot easier for everyone.

What are your musical influences?

Our biggest influences are probably Machine Head, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, August Burns Red, Periphery and Fightstar! We like to think we’re a unique blend of all of them!

What’s the story behind your band name?

By Virtue Fall comes from a quote from a Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure. We were going through different quotes and sayings that we liked and thought that the message behind “Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall” was really interesting and felt unique.

What’s your guilty pleasure music outside of metal?

There’s nothing like blasting out 80s pop & electro in a van on the way to a show!

Tell us about your most memorable live performance or tour experience.

In our previous band, we did a 6-date tour around the UK with a hometown show in Norwich on the last night. To have so many people supporting us was an incredible feeling which absolutely translated to the final of Metal to the Masses this year – the reaction we got from a sold out Brickmakers in Norwich was special and something we won’t ever forget.

What’s the most challenging aspect of being a metal band in today’s music industry?

Individuality? So many bands are going down the super low-tuned, backing tracks & click route (which we’d never knock, hey, we have interludes!) but I think it feels like the number of bands that just get up and play without any backing or reinforcement is becoming smaller. We like to pride ourselves on the ability to get up on stage and pull on a full-bore performance with 4 instruments and vocals!

Any advice for other aspiring metal musicians?

Take advantage of the opportunities available to you! We’re all very normal dudes with jobs and families but Metal to the Masses has given us an amazing platform in playing on the New Blood Stage – some may scoff at “Battle of the Bands” but we’ve made good friends along the way and now get to share this amazing memory with each other.

What’s next after Bloodstock for the band?

So we’ve just released our first single, Abandon Hope, from our upcoming 7-track EP. There’s work to be done on that still over the couple of months before it gets released and then we have a sick Halloween show planned in Norwich.

How do you stay motivated during creative slumps?

Between guitarists Traf & Royse, we have a huge back-catalogue of riffs and song ideas so we’ve never far from a spark… Sometimes the best thing to do is put the guitar down and go for a walk!

By Virtue Fall are set to play The Hopical Storm New Blood Stage On Friday 9th August 2024.