Avralize: Express Yourself
German genre-splicers AVRALIZE made a lasting impression with their full length debut album Freaks in 2024. Whilst embedded in the metalcore domain, the quartet have also blended funk, prog and electronic elements to set themselves apart in a very saturated pool of hopefuls. Striking while the iron is hot, their latest instalment liminal draws ever closer and is poised to push their songwriting into new, uncharted territories.
“liminal represents the transition from our old selves into who we are now and beyond,” explains vocalist Severin Sailer. “We are always evolving, we don’t know what we will become in the future. We really love the theme and the aesthetic and it fits the new album really well because it’s quite abstract. Our sound has become more diverse and feels a lot more natural to us. We’ve been pushing to develop our style and just become comfortable being ourselves and express our creativity.”
“We didn’t focus too much on the direction we wanted to take with liminal and just started making music which hypes us up and just went with the flow,” adds drummer Bastian Gölz. “With Freaks we were very conscious of our arrangements and them having to be a certain way. This time we experimented a lot more with the drums and our guitar tone to make it sound a bit more unique, which we feel made it sound a bit heavier. We didn’t want to follow the same techniques as a lot of bands use and it has created something we feel is quite special. We also wanted to step away from the stereotypical metalcore song structures as well, like every song needing a breakdown.”
AVRALIZE utilise a wealth of instrumentation and intricate layering when constructing their compositions. This can mean a lot of tweaking to ensure everything sits well in the arrangement and avoids certain aspects clashing in the mix. There is a fine line between hitting that sweet spot and stubbornly chasing perfectionism. Bastian found himself walking that tightrope. “We fell into the trap of spending a lot of time scrutinising the arrangement of some songs. The song wanderlust in particular, we spent like six hours on the structure and layers of the synths and atmospherics, it became really tough. I think the best ideas are definitely the ones which feel natural and come straight to your mind so you don’t overthink it!”
Deciding how many singles to release prior to the final product can be a bit of a balancing act. You want to give the listeners a varied impression of what you’ve been working on but also don’t want to ruin too much of the surprise element. AVRALIZE opted to release a significant portion of the album in staggered fashion and this provided a good indication of what the overall reaction to the full release would become. “We’re so glad that the listeners have been enjoying the new singles and the numbers seem to be rising,” grins Severin. “We couldn’t ask for anything more. I feel like it can be a bit dangerous at first releasing a lot of singles upfront but I feel like it gives the listeners a good idea of our influences, what we wanted to achieve with this album. We’re very happy with the comments we’ve received, particularly with bite my tongue, as we felt the song was quite experimental but everyone is really enjoying it.”
“medicine seems to be going down very well too and that’s probably one of our craziest songs on this album but I think that’s what people have appreciated about it,” adds Bastian.
To fully appreciate the energy and enthusiasm that AVRALIZE pour into their creations they really have to be witnessed in a live capacity. 2025 bestowed them with some of the biggest shows in their career to date and this has helped provide them with additional reassurance that they are on the right track. “We’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of sick festival shows, especially RADAR,” informs Severin. “That was one of our favourite shows this year. It was one of the first times we’ve played outside Germany and a lot of people already knew our songs so it was such a great feeling. We hope we can come back to the UK soon. We put a lot of effort into our lives shows. We want them to be energetic, fancy, full of joy and excitement. I love playing live and to get to come together with so many people and just enjoy music together is the most fun thing about being in a band. When we receive that energy back from the crowd it’s just amazing.”
“It’s been really cool, we got to play Summer Breeze and Wacken in Germany and also recorded some live videos,” adds Bastian. “Looking back at it I was like ‘holy shit’, I couldn’t believe how many people we played to. When you’re on stage and in the moment you’re kind of in tunnel vision and focusing on your playing but it was great to see so many people having fun at our shows!”
liminal is out now via Arising Empire. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS125 here:
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