AWS: Hungary screams with metal at the Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon

Março 21, 2018Março 21, 2018 Fernando Ferreira

For the first time Hungary has chosen a metal song to be the winners of “A Dal” (The Song), Hungary’s national selection television show for the Eurovision Song Contest. The post-hardcore / modern metal band, AWS are going to represent their country with their emotional song “Viszlát nyár” (Eng.: Goodbye, Summer) performed in their native language in Lisbon this May.

The band was founded in 2006 by Bence Brucker, Dániel Kökényes, Örs Siklósi, and Áron Veress in high school, who were later joined by current bass guitarist Soma Schiszler. Combining different elements of nu-metal, metalcore, post-hardcore and psychedelic rock, the band managed to produce 3 full-length albums, 3 singles and 7 video clips in the 12 years of their carreer. Following a decade of successful club shows and even major festival appearances from all over Hungary to Austria, Slovenia, Romania and the United Kingdom, the band was announced as one of the participants of A Dal in 2017.

The well deserved victory came as a big surprise, although the band united the Hungarian metal scene like no band before. Musicians from all over the country encouraged their fans to cast their votes for AWS from popular rock musicians of bands like Tankcsapda, and Road, to members of death metal band Kill With Hate. Also, fellow competitor metal band Leander Kills asked their fans too to support AWS with their votes.

A well-known name among lovers of heavy music in the underground metal scene, AWS was chosen from 8 entries who made it through to the final rounds of the show. These acts were judged by a four-member jury consisting of well-known figures of the Hungarian music and art scene. Unexpectedly, AWS sneaked into the super-final round in the company of 3 pop music acts to steal the show: in this final stage, people from all over the world were able to vote their favourite ones. This is what ultimately earned the band their triumph: AWS knocked pop music out of their way to claim the first place with the help of metal fans.

The dynamic winning song, featuring both clean and screamed vocals, was inspired by a family tragedy. Frontman Örs Siklósi comments:

“<Viszlát nyár> was put together in a summer camp in the company of a few bottles of wine.The lyrics are originally about my father, who passed away recently. We tried to make the video a little bit different. We didn’t want it to be only about my story, so other band members can relate to it as well. We’ve emptied all our family video archives to demonstrate the passing of time and to stress how important it is to look after our beloved ones, because nobody’s got too much time here to mess around.”

► AWS Facebook: facebook.com/awszenekar/

► AWS YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/AWSofficial

► AWS Instagram: www.instagram.com/awsofficial/

► EDGE Records Facebook: facebook.com/EdgeRecordsHungary/

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