Biography
There are (at least) six artists with the name Rival:
1) Rival is a Traditional Heavy/Power Metal from USA.
2) Rival is a Skinhead band from Detroit, USA.
3) Rival is a Belgian rapper.
4) Rival is a grime MC from Plaistow, East London.
5) Rival is a hardcore band from Manchester, England
6) Rival (real name: Valentin Rieff) is a trap producer from Germany.
1)Rival was formed in the hot Chicago summer of 1990 by founding drummer Gary Olson, bassist/vocalist John Johnson, and guitarists Neven Trivic and Chuck McNulty. Having been in previous cover bands with each other before at some point, this union was a mixture of just the right chemistry.
They entered a recording studio with limited funds, and emerged with a self-titled 5 song EP in 1991 consisting of all original material. This debut, stacked with crunching guitars, power drums, and melodic vocals from end to end, made quite an impact in the local scene. While the music was changing towards "alternative" in the states, Rival did not conform to the trend and stuck to their metal roots. As the band weathered the storm, they continued to write new material for a full-length release.
The beginnings of this new release titled "Modern World" were uncertain. Financing everything themselves, much of the material had already been recorded. But the quality was less than satisfactory, so the decision was made to upgrade to a better studio and continue. With countless delays and eventually a third engineer at the board, "Modern World" was finally released in the winter of 2000. Frustrated by the amount of time that had passed between each release, the band decided that if the new release didn't make the impact that they had hoped for, Rival would not continue.
The reviews were strong locally, but it wasn't until a German metal music magazine reviewer downloaded an mp3 sound file that got the sparks flying. The news spread quickly about Rival in the underground metal scene. As boxes of CDs were being shipped to Europe, the track titled "Death Stalker" from the "Modern World" disk was selected to be on the "best of the unsigned bands" compilation CD by Rock Hard and Heavy, Oder Was!? magazines. Soon to follow was an invitation to perform at the "Headbangers Open Air" and "Bang Your Head" festivals in the summer of 2002.
Because of the success of their two disks as well as their festival performances, Rival landed their very first record deal with Metal Blade. So with new material, Rival entered the studio late fall of 2003 to record the "State Of Mind" CD with a renewed sense of intensity. The result, 9 hard hitting, aggressive songs were created.
4) Born and raised in East London Rival aka Riv'z has gone from a young DJ to a Up and Coming MC. Music life as he calls it goes back to when he was kicked out of school. With little to do he found a interest in Mixing and within 6 months of being in his room holding sets with friends he was ready to become a DJ. With a Summer of mixing at a Youth center for local mc's he found he was later then given a hook up with Vortex of In Da Hood and would then be picked up by crew Highly Rated.
Rival is mainly known of his involvement with his team Alien Muzik whih has fellow Mc's, Producers such as: Rude Kid, Deathstar, Marger, Kwam, Danny D, G85, Nutcase, M.Gene, Ricochet and Wraps. Alien Muzik recently featured on Tim Westwoods show on BBC 1Xtra which can be found on Youtube.
He is also involved in a rap group going by the name of P.M.D ( Pat Man Down) which consists of many people he grew up with. P.M.D is currently working on tracks for a mixtape which has not been named of yet.
Rival is also working on a new project with a few Mc's called Greaze Gang but nothing has been spoken on it at the moment.
The crew brought him to mix at regular radio appearances at Axe Fm, Urbantingz and Heat Fm and with the likes of Big Narstie, L.Man, Hyper and Marcie Phonix as regular guests he soon got a little hearing from the streets. With this Rival decided to leave Highly Rated in late 2006 as he felt there was musically no respect with his role as a Dj.
With this music looks very different for the young DJ that started out. He is now a Mc alongside his team Alien Muzik. Rival also is a rapper with his crew P.M.D (Pat Man Down) And also has a project coming with other mc's still to be named called Greaze Gang.
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