Italian Winterage have recently released their third full-length album "Nekyia" which became surprisingly much gloomier and darker than its predecessors. Also the classic influences were driven back and instead of this the band used some more cinematic elements. I had a very interesting chat with their major songwriter / violin player Gabriele Boschi where he explained a lot about this different approach of songwriting and his vision of music.

Enjoy reading and "Nekyia"!

Michael

Hi Gabriele, how are you doing?

I'm fine and the band is fine. We're at the end of our summer concerts where we played in Italy for the last months and in England.

With your third album you have a quite more heavy approach than on the predecessors and also the cover is much darker than before. Why did you choose to go this way?

Everything started with the main concept of the album. We are not used to creating concept albums but maybe Nekiya is closer to a concept album than the other albums were. We have a main theme which is the descending. The darker sound and the darker images, also in our videos and photo shootings, are because of the thematic. We decided to enrich the orchestral stuff but also the metal influence. Our previous albums were symphonic metal where you sometimes had to choose which side to emphasize -  metal stuff or orchestral parts. It's not so easy to put these two aspects and mix them together. We grew up a lot and with this album I guess both parts are dealing together much better. We had the space to emphasize both parts, especially the metal influence, following the thematic of the album. Even the orchestral stuff is much heavier and more bombastic. The dark tones of the album are because of its topic and we wanted to create a world around these themes we followed from the images, the cover artwork and from the music.

The title "Nekyia" originated in Greek mythology and it means like you said "to descend". What is the idea behind it?

The Nekyia is an ancient Greek ritual where the person who spells these rites descends into the underworld to speak with the spirits and to get advice for the future and more knowledge from them. We took this idea of descending and used it to express the idea of descending also into ourselves, to the inner depths of our spirit. I discovered that also Karl Gustav Jung, the philosopher and psychologist, took this ritual with this idea of descending into yourself to get to know better the unconscious and the visions he had. We wanted to do the same. The main idea of the album is the descend. We wanted to descend into ourselves to get to know better our feelings, all the emotions that  a human being could feel, the good and the bad ones. On The Inheritance Of Beauty, our previous album, the main topic was to discover the beauty which is hidden inside the human being. Now we wanted to focus on the totality of the emotions in the human beings, knowing and accepting them so that you will be able to overpass it and to cope with sadness and other negative emotions. The main theme of the album is about that and all the songs are connected to the main concept.

When I have a look at the song titles, I don't get any connection between Simurgh which is a fable animal in Persian mythology and Hecate who originated in Greek mythology. Is there some connection between all the songs except that they deal with ancient mythologies?

We love to tell different stories and we like to take different spots to make the songs different from each other. We decided to connect all the songs to the main concept, using different stories from different times. As you said, Simurgh is an ancient Persian story where a swarm of birds are looking for their god. They start to travel, following among seven valleys while each of the valleys represents a part of human spirit. They have to pass all these valleys and at the end of the journey they see a giant shadow representing a giant bird but suddenly they discover that this shadow is made by them. The main topic of the song is that you are the leader of yourself if you know yourself. A song like 'The Cult Of Hecate' is more related to the Greek word "Nekyia" because the goddess Hecate was traveling between the surface and the underworld to bring people there. 'Dark Enchantment' is related to an Italian philosopher Piero Ferrucci, who wrote a book called "The New Will". There he said that when you are feeling down and go through some really bad moments, all the reality becomes dark and it's like a spell is cast upon you. I particularly love this song because in the middle there is this ritual with some choirs which is like being in a temple where the crowd is casting this spell. 'La Fonte D'Essenza' which is in Italian is a very abstract song (laughs). The title means fountain of the essence. From that fountain water comes from and this water represents the totality of the emotions of human beings. These emotions stayed the same since the beginning of mankind; we just changed the way how we feel them and the variation in our reality. But love and hate are the same feelings the ancient Greek, Romans or whoever had and we have now. In this fountain you can have a bath and so you can get to know yourself better. This is related to the last song on the album, 'Resurrectio Ad Mundum', which means resurrection on earth - there you will be reborn as a human being because you know yourself better.

In the past you had much more classic influences than you have on "Nekyia". Was this planned right from the beginning?

I don't know if this is correct. Maybe this album is more cinematic than classic. We decided to put out symphonic influences more into cinematic stuff. Actually in one of our last songs, 'Metamorphosis, A Macabre Ritual', a song which is divided into two parts, the second part is totally taken by the "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saens who was a classical French composer at the end of the 19th century. We arranged it in a metal way. So I guess in Nekiya there are even more classical parts than on the previous album because there we took only small parts into the songs. For example in 'The Amazing Toymaker' we used "The Nutcracker" by Tschaikovsky or in The Harmonic Passage in the song 'Awakening' we used "Swan Lake" by him.

So what would you say for which movie could be your music the perfect soundtrack for?

Well, I became a film composer a few years ago and I am influenced by "Lord Of The Rings" and all the John Williams stuff in "Star Wars", "Jurassic Park" and "Harry Potter" but I also love newer soundtracks like "Dungeons And Dragons", "Dune" or "Interstellar". In my vision we play metal but my musical vision is to create a giant ensemble where the band is just included in the orchestra.

Did you have a classical musical education so that you are able to write such impressive arrangements?

Yes, I play the violin and almost everybody in my family is a classical musician. My father plays in an orchestra and I grew up in classical music. Actually I started my first lesson at the age of 2 (laughs) where I played a viola instead of a cello because there aren't such small cellos. I started my classical studies with the violin at the age of 8 and I graduated from that at the conservatory around 20 years ago. I also played in many orchestras. That was great for my skills to write and compose for the orchestra. If you just study and you just can play all the instruments it is one thing but if you spend hours and hours in lessons and concerts with different repertoires from classic to soundtracks to even pop music, you can feel and absorb the music. I always had an extremely active listening in the rehearsals and you get to know how to work with the instruments to make them sound perfect and also the intention of the composer. So you become able to reproduce it.

I remember that you put some Easter Eggs on the last album the fans had to find. Is this also the case here?

Yes, these Easter Eggs are just from classical composers. As I said, we took "Danse Macabre" in 'Metamorphosis, A Macabre Ritual' but there is also another one which is hidden and I guess nobody ever noticed it. It is in the first track 'Apertio Ad Profundum' – there's a little quotation of "Dies Irae" by Mozart and it's in the brass section.

When I remember some old Manowar interviews, it always comes to my mind that Joey DeMaio stated that Richard Wagner was the first person who played heavy metal. Would you agree that some classical music has many similarities to heavy metal?

Surely he was right but in my opinion he wasn't the first. You can also feel rock and metal in Vivaldi, for example "The Storm". Another early rock star was Niccolò Paganini as violinist because he was the very first who put himself on stage with other people accompanying him. And he was a virtuoso of his instruments who made variations and improvisations of his songs. I think that classical music and heavy metal are extremely connected by rhythmic, harmony and melodies. They can fit together very well.

And what are the biggest metal influences on you? Were you inspired by Ghost a little bit – listening to "Dark Enchantment" I somehow get reminded of "Spirit" not only because you are singing "Spirit Of Darkness" but also because of the melody there….

Well, not really by coincidence. I don't know this song but I will listen to it, you made me curious. Our main influences are Rhapsody Of Fire, we grew up with their songs and with their use of harmonies and combining orchestra and metal. They forged our way. I am also extremely inspired by Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Symphony X and also Dimmu Borgir.

The last words belong to you!

Thank you so much for this interview, Michael! I also want to thank all the people who will read the interview and who are curious to listen to our music. Please get into the depths of our lyrics because everything is going to be more superficial but if you dive deeper into the topic you can emerge yourself into a new universe.

Messiah from Switzerland is a legend (I guess). After a long time of inactivity (26 years), they released their new album "Fracmont" which was highly expected in the metal scene. Unfortunately, the release coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic which made it impossible for the band to promote the new album. I had the opportunity to ask drummer Steve Karrer some questions about the album, the circumstances of the release and some other things.

Michael

Hello everyone, everything okay in Switzerland?

Hello MetalBite. Everything according to the circumstances ok here.

Your new album is almost a year old. It was eagerly awaited and very positively received by the fans. Did you expect so much interest and support after such a long absence? After all, between the last two albums a completely new metal generation has grown up, so to speak.

We are still overwhelmed by the positive feedback we have received and are still receiving for Fracmont. After our first shows at the end of 2017, it was quickly clear to us that we still have a relatively good standing in the scene and people still know our name. What makes us incredibly happy, of course, is that we were also able to find some new followers in the "new" metal generation.

Was it difficult to write and record songs again after all that time, or was that a no-brainer?

Interestingly enough, we had no problems with songwriting at all. The band feeling from the 90's was back immediately and Brögi almost exploded with ideas. He gave us so many riff and song ideas that we just had to work them out together. This all happened together in our rehearsal room, just like back then. We recorded in two sessions and finished just in time before the first lockdown in Switzerland.

On "Fracmont" you play mainly mid-tempo death metal, which is paired with a lot of dark sounds. Were you not in the mood for fast songs anymore?

Sorry, I can't go that fast anymore.... Haha!!! We didn't really think about that. But of course, we recorded fast songs with 'Singularity' for example. But it was important to us how the songs work in the end and not in which tempo they are played.

Lyrically, it's also about religion, especially the Catholic Church, as in the past. If you look back to the 80s or 90s and compare the church of that time with today's situation, what would you find? After all, with Pope Francis, a rather open head of the church is in power.

For me, not much has really changed. The church again provided us with enough current topics for the new album. Of course, we also like to help ourselves to old stories.

On the cover of "Fracmont" you can see a cloaked figure with bloody hands, standing in a mountain lake and surrounded by vultures. Is this supposed to show Pontius Pilate, who was supposedly immersed in Lake Piluatus at Fracmont? Maybe you can tell something more about it?

Exactly, that's what the ingenious artwork by Björn Goosses is supposed to represent. Behind it is the Pilatus saga. The story is divided into two parts, just like the song musically. First part is about the origin of Pontius Pilate, his terrible family of Pontians. Roman governor of Judea, judge of Jesus, persecutor of the Jews. According to the legends, Pontius' body was disposed of in various places until it was finally dumped at Fracmont (today called Pilate) in the mountain lake below. Thunderstorms, plagues, bad harvests, witch squadrons at the Fracmont characterize the legend. Innocent people who disturbed the spirit of Pilate at Fracmont were executed by the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages.
Here is a link to the whole saga: https://www.bergwelten.com/a/die-pilatus-sage (in German; M.)

"Fracmont" was published in the middle of the pandemic. I bet you had imagined that a little differently, didn't you?

Well, we couldn't have planned it better, could we? Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, we had to cancel the planned release show, which would have been a very important occasion for us. The show has been postponed 2 times now and will now take place on 9/17/2022. But I don't think that we will still christen the record then. The sad thing is, if you can't promote a new record live, it gets forgotten a bit.

In the meantime, you have been able to play live again, in September you will play around the corner from me in Bochum (which is also postponed now into 2022). How did it feel to finally be able to perform in front of other people again?

We played a very special show in Switzerland at the end of May. We came up with the idea that instead of a live stream that we've seen so many times before, we wanted to give a real concert for our loyal fans. It should shorten the long dry spell of this pandemic a bit and please their minds as well as ours. So, we played two identical sets for 50 spectators each. They had to sit with a lot of distance and wear masks. Furthermore, there was nothing to drink during the whole event. However, the feedback was largely positive, and I think we were able to set a small example. For us as a band it was also very good to experience the whole live process again. We will definitely always remember this show. But we wouldn't repeat something like that again.

Which three songs are best received by the audience? Are there any favorites?

I can't say too much about the new songs yet, because we've only presented some of them once. But I think 'Fracmont' went down quite well. Of the old songs 'Extreme Cold Weather', 'Choir Of Horrors' and 'Hymn To Abramelin/Messiah' should never be missing in a set. These are always received very euphorically.

What are your plans for the coming months? New music, many concerts?

For now, we are looking forward to the upcoming shows. Unfortunately, the show from September 3rd in Bochum has been postponed to September 2022. But there is the Schoonebeek Deathfest in Holland on September 4th, the Swiss Rock Cruise at Lake Constance together with many friendly bands like Coroner, Requiem, Disparaged and many more from October 15th to 17th. And on November 20th at the Old Capitol in Langenthal (Switzerland). Depending on the development of the pandemic, more shows might follow. We hope for a more reliable year 2022 and until then we will dare to write new songs. Brögi still has a lot of ideas.

Suppose I had to recommend Messiah to a metal newbie, which album, apart from "Fracmont", would I have to recommend to him?

I would recommend Choir Of Horrors and also Hymn To Abramelin to him.

Last but not least, which albums by bands from Switzerland should every good metal household own?

You should definitely get all the albums of Coroner. I don't need to mention Celtic Frost ;-) The just released record of Requiem "Collapse Into Chaos" is absolutely killer, then the last record of Comaniac "Holodox", Poltergeist "Feather Of Truth" also bang in properly. It's definitely worth to search a bit for bands from Switzerland, there are so many, which would blow up this frame here.

The last words belong to you!

I thank you for your interview and wish for the whole metal community in the near future as many concerts as possible and further cool, new metal music! Giving up is not valid! Cheerz!

Thank you very much for the interview!