Emerging from the vibrant underground of Chicago, What We Owe The Dead deliver a powerful and thought-provoking debut with “Rituals of the Collapse,” a Progressive Metal and Doom opus that intertwines crushing heaviness with philosophical depth. We had the opportunity to delve into the band’s creative vision, thematic foundations, and sonic explorations—revealing a collective that is as intellectually compelling as it is musically intense.
Tell us about the formation of What We Owe The Dead. How did this Chicago-based collective come together, and what led you toward the progressive metal landscape specifically?
Hi, I’m Riki, and I’m the vocalist for What We Owe The Dead, which was born more or less out of an earlier band called Uncouth. That version of the band ran for a solid number of years in the 2010s, kicking around in the “Doomed and Stoned” scene, picking up some momentum and playing some really fun gigs until the pandemic kicked off and things just kinda stopped. We used that opportunity to finally buckle down and work on the record that we hadn’t been recording while we were busy playing shows- and it was while we were recording that we decided to rename ourselves as a band, let go of a lot of the band’s past and become something that more accurately fit the vibe of what we had become as a band over the years and through the lineup changes.
The name “What We Owe The Dead” carries a profound philosophical resonance. What is the conceptual foundation behind this choice? In what way does it reflect your artistic mission?
I think first and foremost the name is meant to elicit a question, what DO we owe the dead? Voltare said we owe the dead “truth”, but the full quote is “We owe respect to the living; to the dead, we owe only the truth”. Now how much you believe Voltaire’s take might depend on how much you believe we owe the living respect, which, let’s be honest, in our modern society folks seem to respect the dollar more than they respect the living, and getting folks to agree on the truth seems a fool’s errand in all too many cases these days. So, what do we owe the dead? I don’t know, but I’m intrigued by the idea, and that’s the artistic mission more than anything, find what intrigues us, and engage with it.
Your debut, “Rituals of the Collapse,” marks a bold entry into today’s Progressive and Doom Metal scene. Can you walk us through the creative genesis of the album? What inspired the initial vision?
Well, as I said, a lot of the formation of the album came about during the thick of the pandemic, the structure, the themes. When constructing the album as a whole Karl, our guitarist, crafted a lot of the album’s elements as a loop as well as a balanced A side/B side, and I think we came close, within seconds from side to side. Some of the songs we’d been playing live for years, some have never been heard live, though that will be changing in the very near future. I don’t know that the album has a hard definitive point of genesis that I could look to as a start, let alone make sense of how the album came together outside of just years of writing and playing, and getting to know each other as musicians and how we work together and what we all bring to the table. Everything grows out of the 4 of us being in a room together.
The title evokes both ceremony and destruction, tradition and ending. How do these dualities manifest across the album’s narrative and sonic landscape?
I was raised Irish Catholic, and later in my life my mom converted to Wicca so I grew up with both a heavy dose of ceremony and tradition, as well as the bucking of those traditions. I’ve had run-ins with 2 separate cults in this country, hell, our country itself is a doom cult. Americans worship the end, we pray for downfalls, we entertain ourselves with no shortage of post-apocalyptic tales and visions, we court our demise as a matter of practice. It’s nigh impossible to be alive right now and not feel it, so how could all of that not find its way into the music? It’s heavy music for heavy times.
Progressive Metal is known for its technical demands, yet “Rituals of the Collapse” also feels deeply emotional. How do you balance instrumental complexity with narrative and thematic coherence?
I think a lot of that comes down to the different roles in the band. As the singer and lyricist I get to let the other members of the band focus on the instrumental complexity, and once they’ve worked out the core instrumental track, then I come in and see where it takes me. I’m lucky to have a bass player in James who brings a lot of groove and vibe and holds down the rhythmic backbone, Tim is a drummer who wants his parts to be challenging and surprising, and goes after wild aggressive patterns with aplomb, Karl constructed the album like a puzzle, writing the guitar parts and figuring out the musical themes and flow. I then got to come in and throw all of my emotional, mental baggage all over it, and with that combination of elements we just find our way to the songs.
Each track seems to function both as a self-contained piece and as part of a greater whole. How did you approach the album’s overall structure?
Well, as I mentioned earlier, Karl crafted a lot of the flow of the record, which pieces went where, what songs matched and balanced against other songs, etc. When he told the rest of us about the record being intended as a balanced loop that’s when I started looking at the songs that had finished lyrics, and the ones that didn’t, and I started crafting something of a narrative to the record. Some of those narrative elements remained for the finished product, some did not. But I think the bones of what was there in the conception still carries through and gives the record an arc if not exactly a story.
There’s a clear tension between moments of overwhelming heaviness and quieter, introspective passages. How do you orchestrate these dynamic contrasts?
Life is about contrast. There’s nothing more noticeably quiet than the lack of sound where sound was. Everything ebbs and flows, sometimes you just need a moment of quiet introspection. And sometimes you just need to bang out a couple loud chords and scream fuck.
The concept of “rituals” seems central to your work. In an age where traditional rites of passage are often deconstructed or lost, what role do you see music playing as a form of modern ritual?
Honestly, I’m not thinking much about rites of passage because all of that was well and truly messed up well before my generation ever got there, and so many kids nowadays are growing up aware of the truly limited future in front of them that what right of passage could they need? They’re born into a world of shit, and with all the knowledge of the world (and no shortage of bullshit and lies) right in the palms of their hands.
I’m happy if folks still go to live shows. I’m happy if folks will listen to an album from beginning to end. But also, I don’t expect it, we’re in a time full of screaming distractions, and genuine fears. I think if folks can find their ways to the music that speaks to them, it can be a transformative experience.
One of the closest to religious experiences I’ve ever had was being high out of my mind, and probably on a little bit of mushrooms as well if I recall correctly, and peaking at an Acid Mothers Temple show as they were playing “Pink Lady Lemonade”. Saw the universe that night. I’d found no shortage of community, even if just in the moments, in year after year of mosh pits at Ozzfest in my youth. Those are my experiences and the ways music as ritualistic experience has played for me.
I’m kinda of the opinion that when it’s all said and done, and society has come down around our ears and the smoke clears and the dust settles, what will be left will be folks singing songs and telling stories around the fire at night. We sing from the moment we find we can make noise, and too many folks stop when we learn that it’s only worthwhile if it’s suppose to make us money by being good at it.
But we’ll find our way back to music as magick when the other distractions and discouragements fall away.
The word “collapse” can suggest societal disintegration, personal unraveling, or metaphysical transformation. Which aspects were you most interested in exploring?
I don’t think they’re entirely separate, especially not on this album.
There’s a balance between darkness and catharsis throughout the album. Do you see these “rituals” as destructive, redemptive—or perhaps both?
I’d say both, if I had to say. It’s cyclical, and not just because the record is cyclical, but because everything is. Growing up around a lot of prairie environment, something I learned as a kid was every year you have to burn away all the dead brush so there’s room for new growth to sprout. Nothing begins, nothing ends, everything comes from what’s before and leads to what comes after. We just ascribe beginnings and endings and meaning to try to make sense of it all.
Chicago has a rich tradition of Heavy and Experimental music. How has the city’s musical landscape shaped your sound and identity?
Chicago’s music roots are deep and varied in the ways that only a major hub of transportation with a wide and diverse population can be. The blues, jazz, house music, midwest emo, rap, queer punk, industrial, gospel… This city has produced and continues to produce some of the most incredible musicians on the planet. We’ve got no shortage of hidden away house shows, bars and clubs, and arenas and stadiums, to see live music at every price point. I think people anywhere who want to find nightlife and a scene and excitement and such will find it, but if they’re looking in Chicago, they’ll have more options than they know what to do with.
How could that not have an influence and make one be in love with music? Seeing all the things that can be done with music as an artform, how could that not make you want to expand your boundaries?
Which artists or albums—within or beyond metal—have most influenced your approach to Progressive composition? Are there any unexpected inspirations outside the genre?
Everyone in the band has their own influences and what they listen to, and we all have degrees of overlap. I think we collectively got very lucky to have grown up in exactly the era where metal was possibly at its most open in terms of what can be allowed to hit and have massive success, what sounds were allowed to fuse with heaviness and what could be created from there. Nu Metal is as nonsense a label as Grunge, and yet both were incredibly sincere genres in their eras, and both were more sonically diverse than their labels would betray.
I think it would be accurate to say Deftones are an influence, obviously bands like High on Fire, Mastodon, Mutoid Man, Inter Arma, and Baroness, who are all huge figures in the genre. Some of us are into a bit of the Desert Rock scene- Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, some of that stuff with groove and swagger, and no shortage of classic rock as well. Tim and Karl both cite Tool as an influence in their approaches. Tim is probably the proggiest of us in terms of direct influence with bands like Genesis, Yes, Rush, Iron Maiden, Between the Buried and Me, and Dir En Grey, plus no shortage of hardcore shows up in his drumming as well.
For me Soundgarden is in there, as is some Metallica, Kittie, STP, Alice in Chains, and the like. Karl was drawing from a lot of Death Metal and Black Metal when writing guitar parts for the record, and then we have definitely named riffs things like “Lamb of God riff” or “Gojira riff” or “Megadeth riff” when something rings with some recognizable influence when we’re writing a song.
As for more outside of the box inspirations, I am always drawing influence from David Bowie, Fiona Apple as well, Live’s first few records, and even a bit of Neil Diamond has made its way into some of my vocals.
Progressive Metal often pushes instrumental and sonic boundaries. Can you highlight specific techniques or compositional approaches you developed while working on this album?
I think trying to craft a record that works as a loop was probably the most specific we got with a focused compositional approach for the album. From song to song the writing progress can be as varied as writing out a full map of parts and where they go and all of that, or as loose as just all of us being in the room together jamming,
The production captures both intimacy and vastness. How did you approach the recording and mixing process to achieve this balance?
For me as the vocalist, working with our vocal producer Samuel Krumpos of Clockwork Audio we began to develop a short hand for the type of performance to deliver for each part of each song, thinking about size and scale and how complex or stripped back each line delivery should be. It wasn’t uncommon to hear something like “give me more bat wings” and know what I needed to deliver. Taking the time to go in-depth with each line of each track gave every song a new life and allowed meaning and intention to really be poured over, and I think that time and that attention made all the difference.
Were there particular tracks that marked a breakthrough or turning point in your artistic development?
Mother Scarlet was the last track to be finished, and the one that for me was the toughest to crack in terms of what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it, and how it would all fit together in what is instrumentally a beast of a song as well as the album closer, and it wasn’t until I was in the vocal booth to track it that all of the lyrics were finalized. Getting a handle on that track, made all of the rest of the record fall into place.
How do you translate the album’s emotional and musical complexity into a live performance? What are the main challenges of bringing “Rituals of the Collapse” to the stage?
Well, some of that remains to be seen. Our first show in this incarnation of the band has yet to be played, but I’ve definitely updated my vocal set up, incorporating 2 mics and a small board of effects pedals in preparation. I believe James has also added to his pedal board. Karl is a dangerous influence when it comes to pedals, his board is an absolute marvel.
Do the “rituals” you crafted in the studio take on new forms when performed live? How does the communal aspect of a concert reshape the experience?
Everything live takes on a different feel, there’s no way to perform in front of an audience and not feel the give and take of energy, there’s nothing like playing live, no feeling in the world.
Your work touches on existential and metaphysical themes. In your view, what role can art play in helping individuals process personal or collective turmoil?
Art is what we make when just saying something isn’t enough. It’s what we do as a default factory setting. We doodle, we sing, we bang on drums, we sculpt. Art is our most genuine form of expression. Making art conform to capital is our greatest crime against our very natures (that said, please do buy our record if you’re able, sales help us get to keep doing this).
Would you say “Rituals of the Collapse” offers preparation, reflection, healing—or all of these?
I think I’d just say Rituals of the Collapse offers a nice 47 mins of heavy, heady, vibey tunes, and I think it’s worth a listen
Progressive Metal often attracts listeners seeking both intellectual and emotional substance. What do you hope they carry with them after journeying through this album?
Honestly, if someone listens to this record and carries nothing more with them than a few bars they hum, we’ve done something right. If folks come away from the record affected or changed in some way, that would certainly feel pretty righteous, because I know what records did that for me (looking at you “Superunknown” and “White Pony”).
This debut positions What We Owe The Dead as a distinctive voice within Progressive Doom Metal. Where do you envision the band evolving musically from here?
I think our plan is to get weirder and become more ourselves, whatever that winds up meaning.
Are there specific concepts or sonic territories you’re eager to explore in future work?
I’ve been really getting into earlier Monster Magnet, and turning the band on to their “Dopes to Infinity” record, and I think something sonically a little spacey and groovy, maybe with a crooning vocal? It’s hard to say for sure. With the record out, I think our immediate focus is just to get these songs in front of as many folks as possible and we’ll figure out the new songs as they come.
How do you see your place within the broader Progressive and Doom Metal community—both in Chicago and internationally?
Oh goodness, that is so far outside of the realm of my consideration. Like, if someone else sees us having a place in a specific music scene that’s fantastic, but someone else would have to let me know.
If someone were to experience “Rituals of the Collapse” for the first time, in what setting or state of mind would you recommend they approach it?
I just hope they’ll listen to it in full, take the 47 mins, avoid interruptions, and listen straight through, that’s the best way to take it in, in my estimation. Bonus points if you let it loop around again for the cyclical vibes.
Looking back on the creation of this debut, what aspect of the process surprised you most? What did you discover about yourselves as artists along the way?
Every step of the way was a surprise, that’s the big fun of DIY, there’s always something you didn’t think of that you have to figure out in order to move forward. And in the end we had ourselves a record and got to hear ourselves in a way that we hadn’t before, with all the bells and whistles, as big and bombastic as we could conceptualize, you never quite know what it’s gonna be until you can step back from it in its finished form.
Finally, in a world often marked by fragmentation and uncertainty, what do you believe we truly owe the dead—and how does your music serve to honor that debt?
I don’t know what the dead might want of me, as far as I know- the dead want for nothing. So I hope the living will listen to it, enjoy it, think about it if they’re the analytical type, or just let it fill the silence of their day if they want nothing more of it than a distraction from or soundtrack for the rest of the world around them. And if on a random night of the week some point down the road, a bunch of people congregate in a venue and listen to us play some tracks off the record and they vibe with the folks around them and they have a good night, that’s all I could ever ask.
“Rituals of the Collapse” isn’t just an album—it’s a vessel for transformation, mourning, and revelation. What We Owe The Dead invite listeners into a space where sound becomes ceremony and collapse becomes creation. We thank the band for offering such a compelling glimpse into their world, and we look forward to witnessing where their journey leads next.
Purchase the album on Bandcamp: https://whatweowethedead.bandcamp.com/album/rituals-of-the-collapse
Stream “Rituals of the Collapse” via the YouTube player below: