Answered ELECTROCUTION, thank you!
Translated by Petra, thank you!
Recenze/review - ELECTROCUTION - Psychonolatry (2019):
Ave ELECTROCUTION! I'm just listening to your new album "Psychonolatry" and I think it is really great. In what do you see the progress in comparison to the previous album? Which kind of sound did you want achieve on the album and how are you satisfied with the result?
Alessio. I believe that Psychonolatry combines elements of the sound of the previous albums: Inside the Unreal is pure evil and devastation, while Metaphysincarnation incorporates more "refinements", that is more melody and harmony to make listening interesting. With this album we have tried to keep both these aspects.
Mick. Thank you for appreciating it. I think “Metaphysincarnation” is an album to listen, “Psychonolatry” is to live into the pit! I dislike so much my voice in “Meta”. On the contrary I did a good job on the latest album. I’m very satisfied with this one, because it is a very Death Metal assault as I wish from an album! The sound is what i like: the balance between violence, roughness, speed and clarity, melody, beat changing.
The band's history dates back to 1990. How was the idea to play death metal born? Who was your idol? Please remember for us! How is it to be a death metal band in Italy?
Mick. The way to Death Metal started from Thrash Metal for us. We was very influenced by Slayer, Metallica and, of course, a little bit of Iron Maiden (as you can notice into the second demo tape “The Real Doom”) when we started. But from 1990 to 1992 (when we recorded our first album) the Olympus of the bands we worshipped, gradually grew up with Sepultura, Death, Pestilence, Entombed, Dismember, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Suffocation and so on. But, at the end, you can recognize clearly in “Inside the Unreal” the main influences from Sepultura, Salyer, Deicide.
How has the new material for "Psychonolatry" been created? How exactly ELECTROCUTION creates/composes music?
Mick: Psychonolaty is born during two intense years of hard work of songwriting and of recording studio. The main composer has been Neil and I wrote all the lyrics, but we worked together to complete every song. Usually I met him at his recording studio to work on the stuff he composed. So, like an external listener, I can find what is to change and what is to move to another song or drop out. He is a volcano of killer riffs and usually you can create two songs with one he composes, hahaha. So I tell him my thoughts and usually he is agree with me. In any case together we find the primal song structure on which I fit one of a lot of the lyrics I already have wrote. I choose the lyrics with the meaning that best fitting the music vibes, then I adapt the words to the song metre. After this, the song evolves with the arrangement work by Vellacifer for the drums and Lehmann for the bass, till the completion with the final arrangement by Neil himself and Alessio for solos and harmonizations. In any case, the final step is made by Neil, as main producer.
Alessio. I wrote the most part of the solos on the album and the riffs for the song "Warped". It took some time to fully understand the sound of the band, but I think I did it thanks to the supervision of Mick and Neil. In fact I expect to have a bigger part in the composition of the next stuff.
In death metal sometimes one forgets about lyrics. What are the lyrics on the new album about and who is their author? Do you try to communicate something through them, to deliver some message?
Mick. I’m the author of all the lyrics and, for me, lyrics are always important. I take care of words, metre and every level of meaning.
I like to read books on philosophy, science and mind. I’m in a relentless quest of myself and a place in the world. One day I understood that there’s no corner of this planet where I can find the perfect place for me. I’m a sick misanthropic. So I decided to put on the lyrics, how I see the human mind. “Psychonolatry” is the union of Psycho and Iconolatry. This is the main idea behind the meaning of the songs of this album. The images that hitting us everyday are so many and so false and cheat that we can’t understand no more the difference between the real and the fake. Between the real and the image. Between the waking and sleeping. This album is a mind-blowing descent into the today human psyche.
Seemingly there’s an exception about the mood of this album: “Bulåggna”/”Bologna”. “Bologna” is the name of our city and the name become “Bulåggna” in our dialect. So we wrote a tribute to our city in two versions: Bologna’s dialect and English. I portrayed the city like a lady betrayed by her own citizens. She has been raped by the politicians whose use this important political place as whorehouse to oil the rotten wheels of the power. They use the city as slave or as a piece of meat to cannibalize and from which to steal the blood, drop by drop.
Who is the author of the cover art for the news release "Psychonolatry"? I like his work very much. How did you choose the motif for cover?
Mick. The great Gustavo Sazes! He made the cover of the latest Machine Head and some others like Arch Enemy, Morbid Angel, Cynic, etc… And the cover of our previous album.
I sent him a long text about the meaning of every song and he found the graphic idea in freedom. We like it so much!
You made big progress in the sound of ELECTROCUTION again. This is exactly the sound that suits me. Distinctive, readable, dynamic and at the same time unclean and dirty. In this form, it absolutely fits you. Where did you recording and who is signed under the resulting mix, mastering, etc.?
Neil. Glad to know you like our sound. We recorded, mixed and mastered at Evil Mass Sudio. It’s my studio! I personally took care of the production of the record already in the writing phase. I tried to be a fan first of all, then I tried to represent and enhance the sound of each element, trying to be as accurate as possible to the playing of each of us. I also tried to give the right mix to an album that for me, as a producer and musician, is one of the most satisfying goals of my career.
Mick. Neil is a great producer and sound engineer. He found the sound we like. He have an infinite patience and a solid sound knowledge those allowed him to find the balance of everything. Exactly as you are saying.
Lehmann. Neil has putted soul, heart and time on this new album. This is his first complete work, in which he expresses himself on all sides, from songwriting to the master. It was a tough test, but in life you have to get involved to improve your skills, and I would say that my twenty-year music companion has fully succeeded.
I know about you that you were originally playing classical, traditional death metal. As time run you approached the more technical death metal by the natural development. How did you decide on this? Does the technical death metal mean for you more possibilities, a bigger diversity? Are you able to express your feelings better by technical death metal than by different genre?
Mick. The songwriting, for us, is primarily instinctive. So we aren’t looking for something technical or not. Personally I don’t think we play so technical. Just a little. I think we evolved naturally because the music we do follows the style we like to listen to. Moreover, I think that a little bit of technical helps you to express your feeling better. When you have more kind of colours and the technical to mix them you can make many more paintings! Potentially we could compose and execute a very Technical Death Metal, but we don’t like it so much, because we need to play (and listen of course) something by which we can let get out our stream of violence, instinct and anger; not: complex harmonies, tons of notes, extreme drumming and everchanging beats.
When I go through your discography, you have really gone a long way. It's possible to see that you're working hard as a band. How often are you meeting at the rehearsal room? Are you an honest band that regularly rehearses or you are more like “punkers” and you have rehearsals more in free regime?
Mick. What’s a honest band? Hahaha! Man, we’re not honest nor punkers, we’re the third kind: “fucking lazy”, hahaha. We do rehearsals together very rarely. We like more having fun on stage, hahaha.
Death metal isn’t a style, which would be very popular for many fans. And this is the reason, why the support is more important. I remember from the old times it was common to buy CD, t-shirt of the favorite bands and support them, to go to their concert. But the times have changed. The internet and downloading of the music are in charge now. How do you perceive these changes as a band? Did you somehow have to adapt your continuation? What about the fans, are they somehow different?
Mick. As we all know, Internet is killing the music business. The bands produce new music and do tours only if someone pay for it. If fans want to listen to new shit have to support that. As every band we spend time, work and money to go ahead. There’s no secret. I think that, as every time in the history, we all have to evolve. I think that the live gig is slowly dying. We don't need to go nowhere to see a show or to listen to music. We're into the net together and alone to share our reaction to the show. The bands those want to live need to change the media. New fans want this new fucking shit!
And what do you think about the current trend to go with music to the edge? I mean, as fast as possible, loudest, as complicated as possible? Sometimes I feel like there are playing some machines instead of the real musicians. Personally, I like only a few bands from the technical death metal genre. What do you think about it?
Mick. I don't like at all many of these new plastic productions (not only Tech Death). I like many kinds of Death Metal (Tech Death as well) but it depends on how it is be played.
I think we need to make an effort to understand that we (the previous generations) hardly can accept the changes. Do you remember when you were younger? The older generations didn't undertstand and didn't like Death Metal or extreme music.
At the time you have started to play, thrash metal was very popular, but also black metal or punk. Which bands had the biggest impact on you? Is there any musician who was your biggest idol and also who was the reason for you to start creating the music? When I tell someone today that I have been listening to a lot of RAMONES in my beginnings and I like them until today, nobody believes me :)).
Mick. I started to listen to Metal in 1996 with such bands as Iron Maiden and Metallica. I can't remember how many times I watched to the "Live After Death" video tape, dreaming to be like them.
One friend of mine here whispers me to ask about some funny stories from the history of ELECTROCUTION. Would you have any for us? How about the first underground concerts?
Neil. I remember one of the latest gig, hahaha. I was playing and doing headbanging but when I expected to ear the Mick's growl, nothing happens. So I stopped headbanging and looked around. Mick was disappeared. But looking better I saw him: he was doing crowd surfing!
Mick. Hahaha. Yes! I remember. The fans were so crazy that I couldn't resist to the stage diving!!!
In the end, I have to ask one thing. Aren't you going with a new album some European tour? I would quite like to hear how the album "Psychonolatry” sounds live, maybe somewhere in the Czech Republic. Are you planning some European tour with the new album?
Mick. Yes man! We're working to arrange some gigs around Europe. Czech Republic is for sure one of the countries we'd like to play.
Thank you very much for the interview. I wish you a lot of sold out concerts and excited fans. Additionally, I wish you also all the best in your personal life, and I will look forward to some of your show.
Thank you man! A big hail to you, to Deadly Storm Zine and to all the readers!!! Keep the horns up!!!
Recenze/review - ELECTROCUTION - Psychonolatry (2019):
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