Interview Interrogation: Silk N'Roots (Angola)

 
     Sub-Sahara Africa has seen many metal scenes being born over the past few decades and despite the vast amount of talent that resides over there, it's taken so long for the metal music industries across North America and Europe to open their doors to these bands. We have seen Overthrust (Botswana) play in Germany, Arcana XXII (Namibia) release their compilation "A Return to the Darkland / The Untold" through the German label Einheit Produktionen and of course Wacken Metal Battle seeing bands like Zombies Ate My Girlfriend (South Africa) win and play Wacken. Not that Germany is the only European county to support Sub-Saharan metal, Kishi from Angola released their EP "Khaos" via Portuguese label Nightfear Records. 

     Hoping to fly the Angolan flag higher is Silk N'Roots who released 3 singles last year and are already causing a buzz in the metal scene, the quartet introduced themselves to us and spoke about the band history, the documentary "Death Metal Angola", plans for the year ahead and the future for African Metal. Answers are from the band and bandmembers (where mentioned).

"Most African metal bands aren't even getting recognition in their own countries. I think they get heard more outside of Africa than inside."

     First of all let me (Animal) introduce the members of the band and provide some background on each one:

Busa - 
  
     Our mentor and guitar hero was born in Angola in the early 80s and was member of the band The Crystals by the late 90s; already playing hard and heavy rock at the time in Luanda. He spent 18 years in Europe (Portugal and France), away from his love for guitar playing and music. After his return home to Angola he was a founding member of another heavy band largely active in Angola (Dikamba) and about a year later started the idea of Silk N'Roots in 2018.


Vamp - 

     The smooth bassist that lays the groove was born in Portugal in the late 80s, and through his teens was already into hard and heavy music, he was part of a couple of bands during those years but with nothing much to show for. He moved to Angola to join his parents in 2012, and has been an active member of the rock movement in Luanda ever since, having been a founding member of Silk N'Roots as well. Although he left the band in 2020, he returned to the fold at the start of 2024.


Mag Oga - 

     The vocalist and frontman with a large fanbase, born in Angola the early 90s, he became interested in rock and heavy music with the advent of MTV back in the 90s, and was for several years the vocalist of the band Ovelha Negra. His vocal and charismatic stage presence earned him several invitations to participate in other projects, most noticeably at the festival Orley back in 2019 in which he was on stage with almost every band on the flyer singing at least one song with each one. He joined Silk N'Roots in the end of 2023.


Animal - 

     The guy that bangs the drums, born in Portugal in the late 70s, only discovered his love for rock in 1990 with the enormous amount of huge records bands released that year. He spent the whole decade participating in several garage projects with friends, while curating his own project (Faceless Story Tellers) and was the bassist of a covers band that played every other weekend in small venues. He came to Angola in 2009 to work, and was invited to join Silk N'Roots in 2020 after more than 20 years without playing the drums. Currently he is physically away from the band due to professional reasons.


Sy -

     The stand in drummer that bangs the drums harder than Animal, he was born in the same year as Mag, and as soon as he learnt to play some grooves he started being invited to be a part of several projects. He played with Surviving in Hell and Crazy Feeling amongst others, before eventually joining Ovelha Negra as well. After the latter's break up he spent 2 years away from the drum kits having been invited to step in for Animal in the first half of 2025.



Talk to us about how Silk N' Roots came about, is it true that you initially wanted to play melodic metal?

     Silk N'Roots was formed in 2018. And yes the initial idea was melodic metal, the original vocalist was a young lady called Kira, if you search our YouTube channel there's a first recording of our song "Zungueira" with her. 

     What happened in 2020 was a series of events - the former drummer decided to leave which led to Animal being invited and the subsequent time needed for him to fit in the group and re-learn how to play drums. A few months later both the bassist (Vamp) and the vocalist (Vamp's sister Kira) decided to leave as well, leaving Busa as the only original member, forcing him to rethink the goals for the band and so he invited 2 mates from his "sister band" Dikamba (which halted at the time due to COVID), Carlos (bass) and Tiago (vocals) to join and work as long as they wanted to.


     The original idea of melodic metal made sense with the original line-up and with a female vocalist (Kira was also the major lyricist at the time) but with the new line-up the idea kind of became a little off, especially with the new male vocalist (which can be heard on all 3 singles released since) being deeper and raspier, which prompted new compositions to pivot away from the melodic style and more into the more traditional heavy metal style. The old material was kept with just slight alterations and we still play those songs, whilst we started working on creating new music with this new vision. 

     Again, if you have the time you can dig deeper in our YouTube channel and you will notice the difference between old compositions with the initial idea (ex: Battle, Zungueira, Wolf, Sick Reality, Inesperado, Parasitas da Sociedade) and the newer compositions (ex: No Escape, Ego, Utopia Social). Although we only have 3 studio recorded songs, we have several videos of live shows that we published on our YouTube channel.


You released 3 singles in 2025 - 'Battle', 'Caso Mixa' and 'Zungueira' - can you talk through each single, what they mean, how you came up with them? Will this lead onto a debut EP or album in 2026?

     We need to clarify something, those 3 singles were not released in 2025, that was the year that we managed to gather the conditions to release them on to the streaming platforms. We are a self made band with zero support from sponsors, producers and / or labels, all we have done so far has been paid out of our own pockets which makes any progress harder and slower. We spend several hours weekly practicing, rehearsing and creating in our own rehearsal studio, but translating that into studio recordings is a whole different ball game. We have more than 17 original songs that we already played live, between older and newer material, plus 5 or 6 lyrics with composition ideas to work in the future, but it's very expensive to get into the studio to record and mix more songs.

• "Zungueira" was first recorded in 2019 and recorded again in 2020, this time with Animal behind the drums, and the song was nominated at the Angola Music Awards 2020 in the best rock song category. This song talks about the difficult lives that most Angolan women have. The term Zungueira means something like street vendor, and these women try to make a living by selling goods on the streets and / or informal markets, several times persecuted by police officers or robbed by street thugs. This song was later recorded once again in 2022 with the male singer, and that's the version you find on the streaming platforms.

 

• "Battle" is a song that talks about inner self struggles that most humans have these days, the amount of hurdles one has to overcome to achieve anything in life. This song was the first recorded after the initial members left, and it was released and played on national radio in December 2020.

 

• "Caso Mixa" is a pretty accurate description of all the corruption and related problems that occur in several areas of this country: Government, services, banking, even in street commerce. "Se continuarmos com a Mixa o Caso não vai acabar" is one of the strongest sentences in the song's pre-chorus, and it roughly translates as "if we keep paying our way to everything, the problem will never end". This song was recorded late 2020, released in January 2021 and was also nominated at the Angola Music Awards 2021 in the best rock music category.

Talk to us about the Angolan metal scene - it seems there has been some progress since the dark days of the civil war, that rock and metal was born as a result?


Busa -

     In my opinion rock and metal in Angola, specifically Luanda was not the result of the civil war. But yes there were some progress since those dark days, but also with some ups and downs.


Animal - 

     From what I have heard, there is history of rock n roll in Angola way back in the 60s, during the colonial times. Civil war is always tragic to mostly all civilian activities, and culture usually becomes a luxury in dark times, but as Busa said, back in the 90s whilst civil war was still raging, there were rock and heavy bands in Luanda paving the way for future generations. In the years I have been in the country, I noticed that COVID and it's limitations brought the rock movement to a halt... at least two big yearly festivals (Orley and Rock in Rio Catumbela) that were taking place regularly, after COVID never happened again... 


In a broader sense, African metal has come a long way over the past 2 decades, do you feel that African metal is getting the recognition it has been long for?

Busa:

     I agree that African metal has come a long way, but I still think that we don't receive the proper recognition worldwide. There are a lot of talented musicians on the whole continent, most struggle and leave their families to go abroad and seek recognition.


Vamp:

     Most African metal bands aren't even getting recognition in their own countries. I think they get heard more outside of Africa than inside.

How did you individually get into metal music and what do your parents think of it; are any of them into metal music?

Busa -

     My parents weren't into metal / rock music. I started hearing some rock and metal music on the MTV channel around 1994-95 and after I went abroad I had more access to metal and started to identify this more as my main music genre.


Vamp -

     I can't tell for sure when I started hearing metal, but rock was always present in my life, both my parents are rock lovers. I inherited my taste for progressive rock from my father and later on started hearing heavier sounds.


Mag -

     I started hearing rock and metal on MTV and on an alternative radio station. It sparked a curiosity in me and I started searching for more bands and sub-genres. I love metal music.


Sy: - 

     I started listening to rock and metal from my father, he was a big influence in my musical taste.


Animal: -

     Mum and Dad were into rock when I was a child, but also other genres, so I had lots of good music influences, but my love for hard rock and heavy metal came in 1990. Plenty of great bands and better albums came out that year, grunge popped off, different kinds of metal genres started to appear on my radar as well. 


In 2012 the documentary 'Death Metal Angola' was released, what was the reception like in the metal scene and wider public?

Busa -

     I didn't have access at all to this documentary. I heard about it in 2022, but from what I have seen, there were some things that I disagree with and that is why I didn't gave much thought about it. I didn't even knew the title of the documentary.

Vamp: - 

     I have only watched a short version of this documentary, and from what I have seen it was more related towards Huambo than any other Angolan cities. It didn't receive much feedback from it. To me it showed only one side of the whole metal scene in Angola.


What plans does the band have for 2026, any final comments?

     We are currently in a creative phase and are working internally to provide new tracks for the future. We are also doing gigs whenever we can and we're also participating in the Angolan heat of the Wacken Metal Battle, but it isn't our main focus for now. 

https://www.facebook.com/silknroots