Blending theatrical flair with crushing riffs, Tardigrade Inferno continues to carve out its own distinct space in the metal scene. Fronted by Darya Rorria, the band is known for fusing dark humour, striking visuals, and genre-defying sound into an immersive experience.
With their new album Hush released in March, they dive into heavier, gloomier territory while keeping their signature irony intact. Inspired by everything from death metal to the cinematic styles of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, Hush marks a bold evolution—one we explored in our chat with Darya.
Welcome to Tardigrade Inferno
Hi Darya, welcome to Femme Metal Webzine! How are you doing, and how’s life treating you these days?
Hello, dear! I’m OK—struggling and laughing, just as usual.
Your upcoming album Hush was released on the 5th March. What can you share about its production?
I am so excited about it! This album is more aggressive, gloomy, but more jocular and kinda mocking. We used more thoughtful songwriting and dared to refer to various genres and artists—death metal, vintage rock, Tim Burton and of course Danny Elfman, there are also Deftones and Lady Gaga in our list.
We sound even more vintage this time, and there’s a live approach, so everyone can hear that we are a real band playing real metal. Vladimir Lehtinen helped us to capture all the raw energy we wanted with studio precision.
The new album Hush
If Hush picks up where 2023’s Burn the Circus left off, what underlying lyrical threads link the two projects, and how are they further developed?
The entering track The Final Show reminds us of what happened before and leads us further. There’s nothing but life experience and true emotions, every one of our releases is a result of developing our mind, which is influenced by the things that happen to us. We use the language of irony, sarcasm and of course humour. These things connect our lyrics through the whole discography.
The visual storytelling
Tardigrade Inferno places strong emphasis on visual storytelling, from costumes to on-stage personas. With four official videos already out, what does the creative process behind your videos look like—from initial concept to final cut?
I love this question! Well, we always think of and search for the interesting places and remember them, we sketch the cool ideas and then when the time comes — bring them to light. Sometimes they’ve got to mature in our mysterious archives.
We brainstorm the concept and then search for the real working solutions, sometimes we change the entire concept and rewrite it from scratch. I personally make almost all decorations, makeup and costumes, but in the last couple of years I prefer to get some help from makeup artist and costume designers.
The visual storytelling [cont]
I sewed all the dolls, for example. This creative process is very fascinating, exhausting yet satisfying—when you see what you suffered for your feel euphoria. And when people notice the aesthetic—I almost disintegrate. We direct the videos by ourselves, all previous releases were directed and cut by Maxim, but for Hush, I debuted as a director for All In Your Head and Dead Fish Smile.
Tardigrade Inferno and the cover artwork
The cover artwork for Hush was created by artist Milena Kress in a dark-aesthetic style and for the first time, it is an oil on canvas. How the collaboration with Milena happened? And which was the main challenge in creating an oil on canvas? It’s also the first time that the band’s mascot, the Tardigrade, is absent from the cover. What led to make this choice and what it symbolizes?
We decided that we want an analogue painting as an art, and we have recently met with Milena Kress. Our friend and producer Vladimir Lehtinen introduced us, and we thought that this is it, we’ve got to give it a try. She got our idea and vibes and painted this art pretty quickly. Yes, it wasn’t an easy quest to develop the concept, but the realization itself went well.
The mascot Tardigrade is missing
Tardigrade is missing there for a reason. We wanted this art to be different, to mark that we are kinda different. It symbolizes growing up, but shows that every adult is just a child inside, facing his own fragility and responsibility for everything he makes in life.
The next plans for Tardigrade Inferno
What’s next for Tardigrade Inferno? Are there any plans for a possible European tour?
Our Hush tour was started on March 21st, there were 26 shows. After coming back home we’ll just rest and start making exclusive things related to Hush. There are also many ideas we have to make into music, so we’re gonna start to work on the next album really soon. We are working on the touring expansion, subscribe to our social media to stay informed.
Closing words
Thank you so much Darya for taking the time to chat with us! Do you have any final thoughts or messages you’d like to share with our readers and your fans?
Thank you for your questions, it’s been a pleasure to answer them. My message to the world is—stay strong, don’t be afraid to be weak and ask for help, wash your hands and subscribe to our email newsletter tardigradeinferno.com.