In a new, exclusive video for Metal Hammer, UK rising stars Alt Blk Era discuss the bands that have inspired them most, including Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy and Billie Eilish.
The duo - sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Becket-Messam - formed the group in 2020 and have quickly risen in acclaim for their unique fusion of styles and sounds, drawing on everything from metal to pop and electronica, landing them amongst the ranks of the genre-splicing stars of nu gen.
"Our first song in 2022 was like, alternative pop, and our last song in 2022 was metal," explains Nyrobi. "We've really been free and allowed ourselves to experiment with genres. It's really interesting, especially going through 2022 we dropped like nine songs and you can really hear what musical eras we were in, like when I found trap metal around May time and you can really hear the descent into the heavier stuff."
Watch the full video of Nyrobi and Chaya discussing their influences below.
Alt Blk Era released their debut album Rave Immortal in January. In her review, Emily Swingle wrote, "There’s a burning lust for life to Rave Immortal, an exhilarating yell of defiance. It’s the sound of celebration, whether it’s in the moshpit or on the dancefloor, or ideally both. The rip-roaring Run Rabbit plugs into the crossover mayhem of The Prodigy and Pendulum, My Drummer’s Girlfriend leans into devilishly cool electro- rock, and Catch Me If You Can is tinged with a haunting, gloomy hint of symphonic metal."
In an interview with Metal Hammer earlier this year, Nyrobi explained how she struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that leaves her in pain and with brain fog.
"It was important to me, as a person, and for thinking about the future of Alt Blk Era, to prove myself," she explained. "Because people neglect disabled people – it’s hard to be disabled in every single industry.”
“We’re already Black women and we’re already young, and let’s not add disabled to that pile. People have already got enough to say about us in the alternative scene, so I wanted to show that I could do everything that people thought that my disability wouldn’t allow me to.”
Rave Immortal is out now via Earache.
