Devourer, the Swedish black/death metal band formed in 2002, are preparing to release The Wicked Ones. This album is the studio debut of Oksana Falk, also known as Oksana Rage, as the band’s bassist and vocalist. In an interview with Bass Empire, she shared insights into her musical journey and the making of The Wicked Ones.
“I was so impressed by how massive [the Warwick Thumb] sounds.”
Reflecting on her main instrument, Oksana spoke about her steadfast loyalty to her Warwick Thumb bass guitar, stating, “My weapon of choice is a four-string Warwick Thumb bolt-on from 1997. I started playing bass around 12 years ago and wanted this particular instrument from when I began playing because I was so impressed by how massive it sounds. I have stayed true to it since I got it, and I will never sell this instrument. The only thing I replaced on it is the input jack because it started glitching, but that was just a year ago, and now it is a 27-year-old instrument, so it lasted a long time, considering how much I have been using it.
Oksana Falk highlights the qualities of her Warwick Thumb bass: “I think the original MEC pickups and 3-band EQ electronics are part of the Warwick sound, so I’m not going to replace them. The presence in the bottom-end and mid-range is so loved by me; they suit my sound, but no matter what style you play, I think you can get whatever sound you want with this bass guitar. It’s a heavyweight instrument with a bubinga body and wenge fretboard, but the body and neck shapes are ergonomic. You get used to it, and the sound is worth carrying a heavy bass for! The strings I use are an Ernie Ball regular slinky 130-45 set that is supposed to be for five-string basses; I just skip the first string. For a drop-A tuning, it sounds damn solid, so I just go for it.”
In terms of her gear for the new album, Oksana elaborated on the equipment that helped shape the album’s sound. “The Darkglass Alpha Omega 900 amp we used on the album has all the effects I need already built in: distortion, compression, and equalisation, so I only have a Boss TU-3 tuner pedal. I’m a fan of distorted bass sounds, but it was hard to get it both crispy, round, and dynamic at the same time. On the album, we solved it by having two bass channels: one channel is the Darkglass amp; it’s probably 90% of the sound, and the last 10% is grit from the Neural DSP Parallax plugin. We ran the line signal from the bass into a PreSonus Studio Channel before sending it to Parallax to add some tube drive, compression, and equalisation.”
She adds, “The sound we got from that setup makes the bass both clear and massive. I like being able to hear every touch on the strings and the strings rattling over the fretboard. The bass has a major part in the new album’s sound. John [Falk, guitars and drum programming] only used two guitars on it, instead of four like on the previous albums, so the bass is both the foundation of the sound and sometimes like a third guitar in the centre of the sound.”
“Being a metal musician to the bone, I, however, sometimes find inspiration in the dynamics of classical music and flamenco.”
Discussing the creative process, Oksana highlighted her unique approach to developing bass lines. “As part of the rhythm section, I know where the bass belongs in the mix, but sometimes it works well to make it stand out more. I find it fascinating to manoeuvre between heavy basslines and melodic passages. On the title-track, I found a good spot for a slapping part on a bridge. We made a music video for that song, so you can listen to it right now. Spicing it up like that can make a big difference in the feel of the whole song. In the song ‘Folly of Two’, which you can also listen to now on our Bandcamp page, there’s an intricate bass passage that took me a few days to figure out how to play. At first, I heard it in my head, and then I just found the right notes on the fretboard. Being a metal musician to the bone, I, however, sometimes find inspiration in the dynamics of classical music and flamenco. I’ve written riffs for Devourer on my bass, then showed them to John and shaped them together to become a whole part, with drums and guitars based on my bass riff. It’s a lot of fun and very interesting because our ways of writing differ. I incline towards the rhythmical death metal stuff, while John’s thing is a weird atmosphere and black metal anger, so I think we complete each other perfectly in that way.”
Reflecting on her role in the band’s creative process, she shared, Oksana shared, “I wrote all the lyrics for our new album, and I enjoyed doing that because I see the vocals as an instrument too, one that can make a song truly shine. Sometimes, I got so possessed by the rhythmical part of it that it took me forever to get what I wanted with the vocal arrangements, but it worked out well in the end.”
On the topic of the band’s direction for this album, Oksana reflected on their initial aim to start a new project. However, as the songs took shape, it became evident that they should continue as Devourer. “It doesn’t matter what the genre of the material is in Devourer; we try to keep our minds open and make the music we want to hear ourselves. On this album, we created something we both like: wicked and intense riffs with chilling melodies, with varying dynamics to keep it interesting throughout the whole album. After we finished writing the album, it felt sad to sum it up and let go because we both enjoyed the writing process, and it became part of our routine to work on it for almost a year. But releasing this album is just the next step in our story, which will continue as long as we are still around and able to play and make music.”
The Wicked Ones is now available for pre-order, and you can also pre-save it.
