First of all congratulations to your excellent debut album Sad Symphony,how has the response been so far to the album in media coverage and fanresponse?
(Fabio "Thunder" vocals/Guitar) Yeah! They been mostly positive. All critics are very good for now.....we're very happy with it!!! We want to thank everybody for the great support!
The best way to start this interview is a introduction to the band Thunderstorm, where was the band formed and fill us in on every recording you have made so far and the response to them?
(Fabio "Thunder") Ok. The Band's roots date back to the earliest 90s, when I start a Classic Heavy Metal Band with a touch of Doom, and calls it "Thunderstorm". Afterwards the Band releases two demotapes ("Thunderstorm" and "Force of Evil"). In 1998, the Band splits up due to musical incompatibility. And in the fall of the same year, I set up a new Band, "Sad Symphony".Let Classic Metal apart, the Band aims at playing pure Doom Metal without any influence but Black Sabbath and their most recent "pupils" like Candlemass, Trouble and others. In the spring of the following year, the first demotape "signed" Sad Symphony gets released, featuring only two tracks. Soon, some labels among which "Northwind Records"get interested in the gloomy and ossianic sound that Sad Symphony propose. A few months later, the band changes monicker again, as it goes back to "Thunderstorm". Northwind Label had short before released another Band whose name was pretty similar to ours, they gave us the advice to change monicker in order to not make confusion of names.In June 2000, we signs for the same "Northwind Records" and enters the "New Sin Studios"(one from the best studio reconding for hard’n’heavy in Italy) in order to record their first album entitled "Sad Symphony" (like the old monicker).
The album Sad Symphony is very much a epic doom metal pleaser, I was already knocked out after the first 4 tracks on the album. Did you have the album ready before you signed with Northwind or did you started the album after the deal, fill us in on the recording and the studio work?
(OMAR, bass) I hope you get up to listening to all songs!(sure I did-Ed) As Fabio already said, we made a "promo" CD with 2 tracks: "Vision of death" & "The prophecy"(before called "Dark Prophecy") that were been changed on some little features in the new album (we hope in better!); played on "live" exhibitions added to "covers" of Black Sabbath, Candlemass, My Dying Bride, etc. We love these bands however we needed to express ourselves in a deeply way. So we started to compose others. After few months magazines reviewed "promo" CD; someone didn’t trust in us : "they play a old music", "surpassed…" , " there is no future for your music " but almost said that we were so courageous to take this way. Obviously , I know that the sound of this demo-CD is not at top, but we worked & learnt on our mistakes as you can hear! Following , we got contacts with some labels which was interested on our music & the most "appetizing" came out from Northwind. We met its "boss" Mauro (great person) who necessitated to have additional information to be really sure of our performances. So, recorded a tape with 3 new songs(not in a professional studio & just a copy for him), we signed the contract. An unwished target to us, just six months before. We worked so hard & finished all the tracks, before going into the recording studio. I’m talking about the "base" of the album: lyrics, rhythm guitars, bass, drum & some arrangements (the others was in our heads yet!). Helped by the studio technician(a genius with "crystal" ears), we gave the groove you can hear: little touches & keyboards-pads which build a velvet background where melodies slide away.
After a number of spins I find the album very atmospheric, there is also a melancholic moody classical feel to it. Was the sound of the album planned before the recordings or did it come during the studiowork?
(OMAR) Melancholic or melALCOHOLIC ! No I’m joking. As I said before we had a central idea which was developed at the studio phase. This CD is the result of many hours spent behind mixer, not to correct virtuosity or solos, as many bands did, though, harmonies was over their possibilities. You know what I’m talking about! We analyzed every single part or sequence to find out true essence. We believe that true "heart" of music beats into the sounds. The studio technician boosted all feelings of us, creating hard stuff. After every elaboration you could hear this sentence : "I can believe… is it really me?!". Jaded but happy(strange word said from a doomster!).
Being a heavy band from Italy, it looks like the scene have opened up after being introduced by Paul Chain and Death SS how much have these two meant for the Italian heavy rock scene in terms of media response and reaction internationally?
(Fabio "Thunder")Unfortunately almost hard’n’heavy Italian bands follows the metal-trend (power-symphonic metal) and it’s not easy for us… Italian Doom metal scene pratically does not exist….this is sadly. Reaction internationally is certainly better, specially countries like Germany, Sweden and Holland.
Sad Symphony is very close to Memory Garden the swedish doom giants, not only the vocals also the melody lines and the arrangements, early Candlemass is also a huge ingredience on the album. Is Candlemass and Memory Garden a huge inspiration for Thunderstorm?
(OMAR) About the voice, Fabio will explain in the 9th answer; while about the music, already others reviewers said we are so close to these two bands & I ‘m so proud(every Doom band is been influenced ‘cause they are the Doom!).They play 100% "pure" Doom & though we can "swinging" on this line, we cannot take a totally different way: we’ll risk to do not play Doom. I’m not saying that we are clones of "Memory Garden" or "Candlemass" we give to this kind of music our personal touch & I hope as you felt this likeness, you also can understand variations of the principal "theme". You can’t forget bands like: Cathedral, Manilla Road, St. Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram. We take a bit of anyone , composing our "puzzle" &, sometimes, we solve it.
More on the album, beside the obvious link to the the mentioned bands there is also a gothic feel along with a progressive metal attitude, how would you in your opinion describe the vibe that Sad Symphony have?
(OMAR) There’s this element all along the album. The "journey" starts with "Ascension": our "spirit" takes the hand of listener in a new world & culminating with" Sad Symphony "(the song), where we tried to mix Doom with gothic wave. All in all, as you check before, there are bands like "My Dying Bride"(Like Gods of the Sun, Turn Lose the Swans), "Paradise Lost" (Icon, Draconian Times) we consider so important to our musical development. The song which give the name at the CD is the core of mankind sad side that live in all the people. It’s a part of the human nature, you cannot try to hide it. It could seem a bit "catchy" compared to the rest of album, but it was the only way to express the vibe we needed. Progressive approaching to the sadness is the consequence of the rage & fear felt before. Without this two strong sensations there is just one way: depression. No action, no reaction. All is static, freeze up. Just a "Faded Memory" take listeners out of state of unconsciousness.
Talking about the album cover, a wonderful painting that I feel symbolise the creation that this album have, do you agree?
(Fabio "Thunder")Yes I agree! The cover-album is a painting of Alessandro Magnasco,called "Il Lissandrino" (Genova, Italy 1667-1749) and the title of this painting is: "Sacrilege Theft" ("Furto Sacrilegro" in italian language).This painting is sad, obscure and a bit emotional, exactly as Thunderstorm sound!
One of the most significant ingredients on the album is the fantastic vocal arrangements, did you worked hard on them or did they come in a one-take session?
(Fabio "Thunder") Oh…. I worked very hard at vocal arrangements , but nothing is mmmm…"artificial".First of all I follow my heart!
Since you recorded the album as a trio with a help of a keyboard player now with a second guitarist in the lineup is it much more easier to re-create all the various string arrangements that is created here on the album in a live situation?
(OMAR) You hit the mark! Playing like a trio was like a provocation, in a music world where as bigger is your band, as better is your music!(a stereotype of modern metal). We kept this structure until the recording session. Rejected idea of keyboards(substantially we are a Doom band not gothic or dark) the problem of the second guitarist came up. Cause the power of the guitars was impossible to reproduce on stage whit just one. Besides Fabio had a big weight to bear (rhythm , lead guitar & voice!!!) So we called an old friend (Sandro) to help us. In facts on live performances results are great: a deep impact of stony guitars. You can see ears blow up! Fabio can also take a care about his voice & getting closer, as next as he can, to the big work he did on album.
Finally about the next plans for Thunderstorm, when is the next album out, have you plans to release any eps, is it a tour on the way to support the album etc.etc fill us in on the upcoming plans for Thunderstorm
(Fabio "Thunder") Well, first of all, we would like to play a lot in order to promote "Sad Symphony". As for what concerns new songs… actually for the time being, we haven’t written anything new… a couple of riffs is all what we’ve done. In fact I can’t compose "under command"at all, I just write down the songs when I have the inspiration to do so, and it’s indeed those precious times that could make me able to arrange a song in half an hour. However, I guess we’ll record our second album sometime in the middle of 2002, but it’s not to be excluded that before that date, some limited edition of a mini-cd might be released, perhaps including Live and unreleased versions… we will see.
By Gabriel Lilliehook
For more info on these Italian doom giants check out their official Website or by email: thunderstormlair@tin.it
To order their fantastic
debut album Sad Symphony get in touch with the bands label Northwind Records
either their website
or by email info@northwindrecords.com