Montville Based Band Slated to Perform at Popular NYC Venue

When Valhalla first formed, the band played a few covers at a benefit concert for Darfur hosted by the International Concerns Club at  in 2009.

Two years later, and with a slightly different lineup, the band is still at it, but now they've played at places like The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, The Bamboozle music festival and on Friday night, May 27, The Bitter End in Manhattan's West Village.

"We want to make it big," said Greg Amato, the lead guitarist for Valhalla and a 2010 graduate of Montville Township High School. "It's something we want to do for the rest of our lives; and there is only one way to make that happen."

Besides Greg Amato, the band also consists of his brother, Dave, on bass, Matt Puleo on drums, lead vocalist Zach Matari and rhythm guitarist Fabricio Barreto. All are MTHS grads, except for Matari who is currently a junior at the school.

For many of the songs, Greg Amato comes up with some of the main riffs and chord progressions, but said that the songwriting process for Valhalla is collaborative.

"We'll all think and come up with it [the song]…everyone puts in some ideas," he said.

Matari writes most of the lyrics, which he began to list as, "About girls…"

Before Greg Amato cut him off: "And that's it."

"We have one song, 'Made in Uruguay,' that's about, basically, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, live your dream, be what you want to be," said Matari.

Barreto has "Made in Uruguay" tattooed to his arm.

Many members of the band have been playing their instruments since they were children. Puleo started playing drums around nine years ago.

"I always like to work on something in my own solitary world; music was something I could go and do by myself and have a sort of individual thing," he said. "It was always my refuge."

Besides being friends, the musicians also share many of the same tastes: they like classic rock, and started off playing covers of bands like Led Zeppelin and Guns 'N Roses. Matari said he likes Marvin Gaye, and a few members of the band listed more contemporary acts like Maroon 5 and Kings of Leon as influences.

When asked about their name, it wasn't the road in Montville or the hall of the dead in Norse mythology, but instead the lake that inspired them.

"I remember I was fishing one day at Lake Valhalla and thought, 'Valhalla would be a cool name for a band,'" said Greg Amato. "I didn't think too much about it."

Valhalla is scheduled to go on around 8 p.m. at The Bitter End on Friday night. They can be found at the Valhalla band website, Facebook and Myspace.