DUELIST

Our name is Duelist, we are a band from Zagreb, Croatia that formed in December 2019, some short time before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Since lockdown was in place, we couldn’t perform live, however, we found time to focus on developing our style and write plenty of songs.

With Luka Toth on guitar and vocals, Matija Vedriš on drums, and Tin Fiolić on guitar and vocals, we set out to make a record that’s a mix of a bunch of genres we three combined listened to and loved through the years, all while growing as musicians and friends in the process. Our music takes lots of inspiration from the groove and heavy metal, old-school rock, and hard rock, but we’ve also taken inspiration from more modern derivatives of rock and metal – to put it simply: interesting, energizing, and melodic riffs combined with rock lead and back vocals, crafting powerful, yet catchy songs – atmosphere and energy are key!

In 2021, Luka, Matija, and Tin met with Kiki Marcello, a musician/producer/photographer, to record Downfall, however as the recording process went on, Kiki had become interested in joining the band. As time progressed, he finally decided to take up bass guitar and join Duelist in 2022. We’ve released our first EP in September 2022. It consists of five songs that were mostly inspired and influenced by the heavy and alienating vibe that we all endured during the lockdown. Most of them deal with the feeling of isolation, struggles, and anxiety that we felt during the beginning of being told we shouldn’t move from home and be with other people.