Inner Strive: Symphonic Metal for a New Generation

Inner Strive went to Wolf Path Fest thinking they were playing a festival. Then they found out it was actually a competition. Then they won. Not a bad weekend.

The Bulgarian band is still relatively young, but in a pretty short time they have already reached the Bulgarian finals of Wacken Metal Battle and, more recently, took first place on the second night of Wolf Path Fest.

The funny part is that they don't seem particularly interested in acting like they've already made it. We are just at the beginning. Fair enough. But it is a pretty good beginning.

Ten minutes to prove yourself
Wolf Path Fest received 72 applications. Twenty bands eventually made it to the event, divided across two days, and each band had around ten minutes to convince the audience. Basically two songs. No pressure.

What made the competition even more interesting was that there wasn't a traditional jury deciding the winner. The crowd voted.

Inner Strive admitted that performing under those conditions felt very different from a regular concert. You don't have forty minutes to slowly win people over. You have two songs to show who you are.

You have to prove yourself. You have to show what you can do.

Apparently, they did. It was also the first award the band had ever won.

Symphonic metal, but without the corsets
Inner Strive describes its sound as symphonic power metal of a new generation. That's a pretty big statement for a band with only a couple of officially released songs. They know it. When I mentioned the description, their first reaction was basically: hopefully reality catches up.

But once they started explaining what they mean by it, the idea made much more sense. Yes, there is symphonic metal. Yes, there is power metal. But they are deliberately trying to move away from some of the things traditionally associated with both genres. No obsession with operatic vocals. No desire to recreate the classic symphonic metal image. And definitely no requirement for corsets.

Their newer material is also moving toward progressive metal, while the lyrics are more personal and introspective than the usual power metal anthem about battle, victory or whatever dragon needs to die this week.

They are still trying to find the perfect name for the sound. At one point, sophisticated noble metal was suggested. We might need a little more time with that one.

Bringing a choir to a metal show
There is another reason the symphonic side of Inner Strive feels more natural than decorative. Mihaela is a classically trained composer and works professionally as a choir conductor. So when the band decided to bring an actual choir onto the stage, finding singers wasn't exactly the hard part. Making a choir work inside a small metal venue was.

Metal bands are loud. Choirs generally aren't. That creates some interesting technical problems.

Still, the experiment worked well enough that they are already thinking about doing more of it, potentially including male voices in the future.

The bigger the choir, the better. I agree.

A concert shouldn't feel like rehearsal
The conversation became particularly interesting when we started talking about live performance. Inner Strive is very conscious about how a band looks, behaves and communicates on stage.

For them, professionalism isn't just playing the songs correctly. It includes the clothes. The transitions. The way the musicians interact. The way a complete set feels from beginning to end.

Mihaela pointed out that a lot of bands simply walk onstage wearing whatever they were wearing that afternoon. For Inner Strive, that kills part of the illusion. People paid to see a show. It shouldn't look like they accidentally walked into your rehearsal.

That doesn't mean they want giant costumes or classic symphonic metal theater either. The idea is simply to make everything feel intentional. When they perform a full set, they even build instrumental passages and transitions between songs instead of stopping every few minutes to ask the audience how they're doing.

The Pesh Mode described the goal perfectly. They want the concert to feel like a movie you get immersed in.

Something is growing in Bulgaria
Inner Strive also seems pretty optimistic about what is happening around them. The Bulgarian metal scene isn't enormous, but they are seeing more young bands releasing music that is not only well written, but actually well produced. Even very young musicians are already thinking about sound quality, performance and how to put together a proper live show.

There's some sunlight.

There is also more diversity onstage. During the conversation, we talked about how frequently women appear in some of the Bulgarian bands I had been discovering. Mihaela wasn't particularly impressed by the observation. For her, women playing metal is simply normal. Which is probably the best possible answer.

Mexico is coming
This October, Inner Strive will meet People As Machines when Battle of Metal arrives in Sofia. So what should a Mexican band prepare for when coming all the way to Bulgaria?

Their first advice was practical. Expect jet lag. Eat the local food. Try the alcohol.

As for the audience, that part is less predictable. It is an art to win the crowd. Some Bulgarian crowds can be difficult. Others will love you immediately. Apparently People as Machines will have to find out which one shows up.

And please, enough social media
We ended with the Rockers DEN question. If Inner Strive could remove one thing from the music industry, what would disappear?

After considering how expensive, difficult and complicated basically every part of being a band already is, they landed on something every independent musician probably understands. Social media. More specifically, the pressure to constantly feed it. Post something. Make another video. Create another reel. Do it again tomorrow.

Nowadays you have to be an influencer. You have to post all day long instead of making music.

The irony, of course, is that without social media we probably never would have found each other. Inner Strive knows that too. They just wouldn't mind spending a little less time making content about the band and a little more time actually being the band.

Hard to argue with that.

This October, we'll see what their version of symphonic metal for a new generation looks like when Battle of Metal: Mexico vs Bulgaria hits Sofia.