Interviews

Eric Vanlerberghe - I Prevail 'How To Prevail With A Violent Nature'

Paul 'Browny' Brown

CEO/Founder and Editor-In-Chief

Sep 16, 2025

8 min read

As bands approach the release of album number four, in most cases they're seasoned professionals by this point - following a formula that's worked wonders with them before - or trying something different with the release strategy to keep fans on their toes.

For I Prevail, the lead-in time before releasing Violent Nature has been nothing short of tumultuous.

On May 15, 2025, the band announced they mutually parted ways with clean vocalist Brian Burkheiser after 10 epic years together. This caused a ripple effect within the fanbase and greater heavy music community, which at times - and still to this day - divided audiences with opinions on the matter.

Instead of letting all their hard work go to waste by throwing in the towel after losing a significant player in their overall soundscape, the boys soldiered on, vowing to following through with their high-energy shows and promotion for their forthcoming record, which drops on Friday, September 19th via Fearless Records.

But how did the band overcome these monumental hurdles and live up to their namesake? Well, that's just giving it all away isn't it.

Wall of Sound chatted with frontman Eric Vanlerberghe all about it and you can watch the full chat here or read on for the best bits...

Not ones to let such a traumatic shituation stall the locomotive machine their band has become, I Prevail banded together to continue their progress as musicians and utilise the talent within the fill the blank space left behind by their former clean vocalist.

Eric - known prominently for his ferocious screams and gruelling gutturals - also stepped into the limelight as the band's new clean singer, showcasing a side only previously displayed during harmonies or backup vocal sections.

Despite not being known for his singing abilities, the transition came much easier than expected when Eric was encouraged by his bandmates to step up to the plate. When questioned if it was a dauting process to take on this new approach, Vanlerberghe explained that there was no other option, especially with their extensive touring commitments.

"Over the past half decade or so, maybe a little longer, whether it was vocal injuries or other issues that potentially would've halted shows... between me and Dylan [Bowman], our guitarist who also sings live, it's like, well, shit, we have this whole tour to go... We just got to figure it out.

In the past, Dylan took 85-90% of the lifting, but there's parts that back in the day where he's playing and can't sing the part. So I just [said] 'Well, I gotta figure it out'."

And figuring it out was the easy part. In the past, Eric sporadically provided clean vocals on albums like Trauma and True Power; this time however he was stepping up to deliver both bone-crushing vocal aerobatics alongside his newfound singing skills. The way he was able to prevail (pun intended) was with encouragement from his band of brothers.

"Singing is mostly being confident and to have the guys in the band that I have on the other side of the vocal booth... knowing that if I hit a sour note or a flat note... I wasn't going to have people dodging me or avoiding eye contact. I knew that if I had a bad run in there, that they had my back.

That was a huge component of finding my voice, and I still am, I'm not saying I mastered it by any means, but to be in a position where you're like 'well shit we've gotta figure this out, we can't stop. Let's see what we can do! Let's sink or swim!'

And to have the guys that I have encouraging me and knowing that they weren't gonna be back there like 'ohhhh shiiiit!' scratching their head going 'what do we do?' That was a huge, huge foundation I could build myself up on, so I'm super grateful to have these guys with me."

That comradery would continue to elevate Eric's confidence both on stage and in studio, and as the album promotion turned from their heavy, title-track lead-single 'Violent Nature' into the moodier ballad love song 'Into Hell' - the greater vision was finally seen, appreciated and welcomed by the I Prevail community.

For many of us, knowing the band would continue with both their melodic AND heavy tunes meant we still would be getting foundations that made this outfit a household name in the scene. Personally, as a sucker for a ballad, it's safe to say that 'Into Hell' has made its way into the top spot of my Top Melodic I Prevail Song List, beating out 'Chaos', and proving the songs the band make without intention always end up being the biggest and most well received hits.

Fun Fact: 'Into Hell' wasn't intended to be the future classic it will later mould itself into, because Eric was simply experimenting and trying new things lyrically and vocally during its conception.

"That was one of the songs that the guys just let me steer the ship on, lyrically, and it just goes over a relationship where your partner may be dealing with something very, very difficult and very hard and challenging and loving that person through all of that - because both sides in a relationship aren't perfect and have their baggage if you will - but sometimes that can be a great weight or a hard burden for that one person to bear.

And when you love someone, you would do anything for 'em. You would do it whatever you could to bear that burden yourself. And that's where that song kind of stemmed from with the relationship [between] me and my fiancé. So that song's for her and we're grateful for the guys that saw my vision and helped me take it home.

It was one of those songs near the end of the record, we were wrapping it up... and this one kind of started getting legs and walking on its own. And once it got done and sent the record to the label, they were like, 'yeah, we want this one to be one of the singles'. I was like, 'what?' So it's crazy, man.

It's crazy that a song that was just like, 'yeah, I just want to put this out there and I kind of want to get this off my chest. I've been thinking about this a lot and want to write something like this' and for everyone else around that's involved to be like, 'yeah, this should be a single'. It's crazy, man. It's crazy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's always the things you are unsure about that end up being your best work yet. So kudos to Eric and the lads for following through with that gut feeling.

As for the core fiends and breakdown frothers - settle down your time has come - there's an unreleased song that's going to become a staple at I Prevail shows moving forward which will just erupt the pit into a frenzy with its ferociousness and circlepit-inducing tempo. From the second I first heard 'God', I was hooked. If you thought 'Violent Nature' was the heaviest thing the band had done since 'Body Bag', 'Choke' or 'Bow Down' - you ain't ready for this.

When the conversation turned from I Prevail's melodic anthems and their heavy hitters, I suggested the band could release a double album - one with heavy songs in the metal/deathcore genre and the other full of melodic songs - to which Eric reflected on an interview of the past stating:

"I've joked about this, I got to find the interview. This is years ago... they're like, 'what's the future of I Prevail?' I was like, 'Death Metal Country'. They thought I was joking, but here we are putting deathcore tropes in I Prevail songs.

'God' is just one breakdown. The whole point of that song was just like, let's just write one breakdown after the next. It's going to be a live song.

When we were working on it, we're like, all right, what's next? What would be complimentary to the next part? We weren't trying to do anything groundbreaking by any means. It was just a fun song that's just pure aggression, and if you think the lyricism is whack or corny, whatever, that's not what it was for.

I got something to say and I wanted bone crushing breakdowns. It's not supposed to be the top echelon a songwriting. It's supposed to be gut feeling just heavy. Fuck you fuck off energy."

When the album drops, make sure you remember where you first heard about it kids.

As the conversation started to wrap up, we reflected on the past and the obstacles and adversity I Prevail have overcome to get to where they are today and I asked Eric the big final question.

What would you say is the biggest discovery about your personal growth as a musician or a human being, and what advice would you pass on to fans who are struggling to find that light at the end of the tunnel?

To which the frontman paused and stated, "Oh man, that's a great question." before confidentally following it up with:

"I think one of the biggest things that I've learned is that nothing lasts forever. Whether it's a good or bad thing... If it's a good thing that's going on, soak it up, enjoy it. Remember where you're at. Take pictures. Live in that moment and enjoy it because who knows when it's coming back around. And the same goes for the other end where you are going through it.

I've just recently been digging out of my own hole, and what's gotten me through that is trying to remember that nothing lasts forever. As cheesy as it is, there's always that light at the end of the tunnel, and you wouldn't appreciate the highs if it wasn't for the lows and all that corny stuff, but it truly is the truth.

It's on you to see the challenges you're going through and to see how you can turn that lesson into internally and make yourself a better person or a better artist, or use that.

‍And not to drag our own band back into it, but that's where Trauma and True Power got the titles from. Trauma was all about things that we as a band and personally I was going through, and True Power was the realisation of looking back and living through that and learning and finding ways to, not cope, but to grow from those hardships was our strength and was our own power to learn that.

So I guess that's just a long-winded answer for anyone that's struggling is, it's tough in the moment, but try to see it as a challenge of how can this make you a better person? It's not going to last forever, no matter what you're going through. It may be a long time, but it's not going to be forever.

And soon you'll hit that peak and you'll have that hardship that you went through to make you a better person, and it's on you to figure that out.

But when you do, there's nothing greater than to look back and go, I did that shit.

And continuing on from the anecdote about I Prevail's album titles guiding you - first comes Trauma and your True Power follows... then you fuck shit up with your Violent Nature when you take life by the balls and reclaim your destiny.

Interview by Paul 'Browny' Brown @brownypaul

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