vianova are taking metalcore to bizarrely brilliant new places.
The German crew’s debut album, Hit It!, has plenty of the disgusting, techy breakdowns and aggressive vocal snarls you’d expect from the subgenre — but also four-on-the-floor dance beats, jazzy interludes and mesmerizing autotuned choruses. Add the playfully over-the-top soap opera unfolding across their smirking music videos and their love of heavy-metal memes, and it’s little wonder vocalist Alexander Kerski was anxious about how people would react when Hit It! dropped last September.
Turns out he had nothing to worry about. Revolver readers voted vianova one of the bands most likely to break out in 2026, while their wild first U.K. headline tour had fans copying their all-white stage fits as mosh pits turned to dancefloor flexing. “The energy in those rooms was incredible,” says Kerski a few weeks after their February run, still nursing his voice back to health. It’s something he’d better get used to: the band hits the road in May for a U.S. tour with alt-metal rising stars Thornhill, followed by slots at Louder Than Life and Aftershock. “The reception has been crazy so far… and I assume it will get crazier the farther we are from home.”
vianova came up through Berlin’s local metal scene. Guitarist Felix Vogelgesang moved from the south of Germany to the capital in 2014 to immerse himself in the city’s vibrant heavy-music community, dragging his drummer brother Paul along for the ride. Kerski — who cut his teeth learning to scream by watching Oli Sykes compilations on YouTube — joined a few years later. Bassist Raoul Zillani completed the lineup in 2020.
In the early days, the band took inspiration from Parkway Drive, August Burns Red and Northlane (as heard on their crushing 2022 EP, Looking For…). But it wasn’t long before vianova started dreaming bigger than simply being a hometown version of their favorite bands. “It got to the point where I didn’t just want to imitate what others were doing,” he says.
Tired of constant bludgeoning metalcore, Kerski returned to the music he grew up on: the Beatles, George Benson, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Jamiroquai. The rest of vianova were in an equally funky mood, evident in the groovy swagger of “Wheel of Fortune,” the first song written for Hit It!
“It felt so fresh compared to everything else we’d done,” says Kerski.
To keep the new vibes flowing, they teamed up with dubstep producer turned metalhead Leon Schmidt. “In my mind, there was no risk,” he says. “We wanted to make a statement record. The bigger risk would have been doing something that had been done before.”
Hit It! is a “critique of everything that I don’t like,” adds Kerski. But rather than grumbling, the band chased what felt exciting instead. “We didn’t anticipate how that would ripple in the real world, though.” Before long, fans were declaring their love for vianova across Reddit and other corners of the internet.
Kerski’s pushback against genre conventions didn’t stop with the music. It also extended to his lyrical approach across Hit It! “There seem to be a few topics that metalcore bands love to sing about,” he says with a grin, noting that aspirational anthems about overcoming some vague struggle top the list. “I heard so many of those that I just got very disillusioned by them. I wanted to talk about personal things in a really direct way — there’s such vulnerability that comes with that. I wanted to remove the layer of pseudo-artistic bullshit.”
He cites Tyler, the Creator’s 2019 masterpiece, IGOR, as an inspiration. “That whole record is about a rapper who’s in love with a guy that’s still obsessed with his ex-girlfriend. It’s pretty simple, but it doesn’t lose any power by only focusing on small, everyday stuff.”
The searing melancholy of “Future Nostalgia” captures Kerski daydreaming about becoming a successful musician playing to millions (“It’s a bit cheesy but I’m not trying to sugarcoat it”), while the album’s dramatic closer, “Obsolete,” describes a graphic designer confronting the possibility of being replaced by AI. Other tracks tackle struggling to pay rent, fears of growing older and finding the strength to push on.
“I love concept albums. But I wasn’t inspired to come up with a story that was strong enough, so Hit It! is just a snapshot in time,” he says. “I was expressing what I was going through. I don’t know if there’s a greater statement, but it’s very satisfying that people are connecting with these songs.”
Despite their playfully self-mocking social media posts, vianova are no joke.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but there’s still real emotions behind everything. There is humor, but it’s never fart-joke funny,” Kerski clarifies. “This is not an act either.” Instead, memes about their performances and metalcore clichés are an “extension” of the music, designed to send people down a rabbit hole that leads to Hit It! in full. With nearly 200,000 monthly listeners on Spotify — and mosh pits filling with fans in vianova cosplay — the plan seems to be working.
“Hit It! has this core feeling of melancholy, but it’s also happy, sad, relieved and has an appreciation for life. It’s a little all over the place,” he says. But vianova aren’t worried about that creative sprawl anymore. “I want to keep the doors open in every direction. We want vianova to be able to do everything.”
Even with their growing popularity, Kerski is under no illusion that vianova will connect with everyone. If you’re into the band’s unique sound, their concerts are a chance to celebrate Hit It! in all its chaotic glory. If you’re not, “you’ll just hear a bunch of weird fucking songs,” he says with a grin.
“We’re not trying to make something that is universally appealing. We are trying to make something that is so strong in being itself.”