Genoa's extreme metal masterminds Necrodeath have been infesting the underground with violence and occult subjects for the last 40 years and to this day they have kept their highly respected status as one of the finest bands that hail from Italy. The word came out recently about their upcoming final album Arimortis and their farewell tour in 2025, which is quite unfortunate for all the Necrodeath fans around the world, but on the brightside, the band will definitely go out with a bang. Before the album's release, I managed to get some words from the band's guitarist Pier Gonella and bassist Gianluca Fontana, regarding their upcoming album Arimortis, as well as their farewell tour in 2025 and the overall cult status that Necrodeath has maintained for the last 4 decades. I hope you will enjoy this interview and support Necrodeath on their final year in 2025, hopefully keeping the flame burning after the band's candle lights out.

Vladimir

Greetings Necrodeath, heartwarming welcome and hails on behalf of MetalBite. How are you doing lately?

PIER: Hello! Thank you for this interview. We're doing well, we're receiving great feedback on the two new singles we've released, and everything is going smoothly.

I have recently received your new album Arimortis, which is due to be released on January 17th, 2025. In my eyes, this is yet another heavy banger of an album which showcases how Necrodeath managed to uphold its extreme and relentless attitude 4 decades since its inception. How did the work on Arimortis come about?

PIER: Most of the work was done during the summer two years ago. Peso came up with most of the riffs and wrote the lyrics together with Flegias. Then, in the following months, we worked on the arrangements and also on the graphics.

Although this album is just two years apart from the predecessor Singin' In The Pain, the heaviness and the energy of the band is still present and the energy is just as strong, if not even stronger. Were you guys looking to improve on some significant aspects from the previous album or did you just take on this new album with a straightforward approach?

GL: Since this album can be considered a bit like our testament, so we approached it with a direct approach and without particular arrangements, to bring out the essence of Necrodeath. We have always been a very direct band that transmits its energy and passion both in the albums and live, so we wanted to transfer this into the latest work too, we are happy with Arimortis because it represents what we are.

In some aspects, I felt like Arimortis has taken on an even more atmospheric and death-defying work in comparison to Singin' In The Pain from 2023, and this is what got me so hooked right away in the first place, even though I think both albums are great on their own and should not be compared by any means. Was this something you've wanted to incorporate on this album or would you say it came out naturally that way?

GL: I think we can distinguish the two albums you mention, because Singin' in the Pain is a concept album inspired by Anthony Burgess' 1962 book "A Clockwork Orange" so the lyrics and atmosphere of the album are inspired by this book. Arimortis, on the other hand, is the album of our farewell to the scene, therefore it represents our legacy to future generations and a thank you to those who have always supported us, so I would say they are two different albums although with the same Necrodeath sound.

What really surprised me about this album is that you included a re-recorded version of the song "Necrosadist" from your first album Into The Macabre, but you also made a part 2 of "Metempsychosis" from your second album Fragments of Insanity. Even though I am a firm believer that some classic songs which were great firsthand should not be touched or reworked, I would actually make an exception in this case and say that this is by every right justified since the final output came out so great in the end. What's the story behind the re-recording of "Necrosadist" and also writing part 2 for "Metempsychosis"?

PIER: I agree that re-recording tracks from the early era, which have a very distinctive sound and riffs, is a delicate task. We had this experience a few years ago when we re-recorded the entire album Fragments of Insanity. We simply replayed the tracks with the current lineup and a more modern sound, but we didn't want to alter the structure of the songs. The same approach was taken this time. Necrosadist is a track we always perform live, and we aimed to record it with the same live energy. As for Metempsychosis, the idea was to start from the final riff and continue with a long improvisation, similar to what Venom did at the time with "At War with Satan".

I personally think that this album is a great way to celebrate the band's 40 years of existence, but unfortunately for us fans, Arimortis is said to be Necrodeath's swansong and that the band will disband after embarking on a tour in 2025. Could you tell me what is the main reason behind Necrodeath's plan to cease activity?

GL: Basically we have said everything we could in recent years, we have had fun but also angry, we have received great satisfaction but also disappointments, always facing all this firsthand. For a few years we have felt the need to end our career, having done everything we could with our own strength, so 2025 seemed like the best date to end a career that has lasted 40 years. We have no remorse or regrets, but a lot of experience that makes us end with a smile.

On the other hand, I think that Arimortis as a farewell album would not only be a testament to the band's great work throughout the years, but also an example of the band going out with a bang, alongside the planned farewell tour. Are you guys satisfied to some degree, knowing that Necrodeath's chapter will be ending on such a high note?

PIER: Our idea is exactly this: to end our career in the best possible way. We are closing the Necrodeath chapter, but that doesn't mean we no longer feel like playing. That's why we wanted this album to be a final chapter worth remembering for its significance, and the same goes for the final tour.

So far, what are the plans for this upcoming tour in 2025? Can we expect any shows in Eastern or perhaps even Southern Europe?

GL: Arimortis, the latest Necrodeath album, will be released in January 2025, after which we will no longer produce anything. While for the last live shows, we are planning for 2025 with several concerts and festivals already scheduled, while others are still being confirmed, both in Italy and in Europe. We hope that requests will also arrive from Eastern and Southern Europe, we would be happy to come and bring our sound and greet all the fans.

In my eyes, a band such as Necrodeath is a very rare example of a band which still upholds its qualities and core values in their music, because not so many extreme metal acts manage to stay as strong such as yourselves, while still remaining highly influential to the masses. Since you guys are highly experienced and faithful to your cause, does that sort of mindset keep the engine rolling for the entire band when working on new material and going forward in general?

GL: Thank you, nice words thank you, we have always been consistent with our artistic path. Fortunately we have never been influenced by record companies and we have never followed the fashions of the moment. In all these years it has always been us who choose which direction to take and how to take the next step.

The fact that we had no outside influences or pressures definitely helped maintain our integrity and I think you can hear this in our discography.

We have remained anchored to our underground roots partly because no one has ever elevated us further, partly because it is the territory where we feel most at ease.

I personally consider Necrodeath to be a crucial band in the overall development of extreme metal subgenres such as black, death and thrash metal, and I think you are one of the most important bands that have come out of Italy alongside Death SS, Bulldozer, Mortuary Drape and Sadist. How do you guys feel about the fact that you played a big role in the development of Italy's metal scene and that you are still keeping your legacy intact?

PIER: Necrodeath were born and raised under the influence of bands like "Slayer," "Venom," and others from that era. When we write an album, we always look for new ideas, but it's natural for us to stick to our style because that's what we love, plain and simple. Passion is what drives us, certainly not money.

GL: The bands you mentioned are still on the road, so I think the driving force behind all this is the passion that binds us to music. We consider ourselves part of a scene and for many we have been a source of inspiration, this makes us proud and makes us understand that music has no boundaries.

I still look back when I first discovered Necrodeath with your cult classic debut Into The Macabre back in 2015 when I was still in high school, and I am proud to have your patch on my vest as an important memory of that love at first sight, but also the joy of discovering such a hidden gem at the age of 17. Fast forward almost ten years later and having this album remain so important to me, I still consider the discovery of Necrodeath to be one of the turning points in my musical journey and I just want to say thank you for the great music you have delivered. Did you have many fans reaching out to you and saying that your music played a big role in their lives?

GL: We're happy that a young guy like you approached metal thanks to us too! This is what makes us proud after all these years, having inspired new generations also thanks to our music. Over the course of all these years we have met many people who have thanked us for our music and even now during the concerts the same people continue to follow us, this is beautiful, because it makes you understand how music can unite people and create bonds thanks to the same passion. In fact, the new single "Storytellers of lies" is dedicated to our fans and the puppets you see in the video were created by one of them.

Thank you so much for this interview! Just as closing words, I'd like to say that I am highly looking forward to the release of this album, and I wish the best of luck to all of Necrodeath in 2025 with this awesome swansong of an album and the farewell tour which will bring down the curtains to close such a strong band chapter. Are there any final words?

GL: Thanks to you and MetalBite readers! we are ready to face the last year of the band, which is not intended to be a sad farewell but a party to celebrate our last birthday! So we invite everyone to listen to Arimortis and come to our concerts for a final farewell.

The Croatian black metal band Frozen Forest has been around for nearly 2 decades now, and over the years they certainly managed to uphold their well-deserved reputation with immense respect from their local scene, however it's been quite a while since the release of their first full-length album "Ancient Ritual" in 2016 and unfortunately nothing had come out since. In the meanwhile, new bands come and go, but Frozen Forest still remains amidst all the turmoir, hungry, frosty and anti-christian as ever before. I've spoken with their guitarist and vocalist Mihovil "Frost" Konečni, regarding the band's return on Heretic Feast last year, some plans regarding their second full-length and the potential future of the band, and we also talked about the time when he got the chance to meet Erik Danielsson of Watain. Stick around for this one if you are interested, and I hope you will enjoy it.

Vladimir

The music of Frozen Forest is very serious in the sense that the listener can clearly understand and feel the genuineness of the work that you put into what you create in the end. Are there any personal ideologies/beliefs/philosophies that fuel each and every one of you, some idea that inspires you to craft everything with passion and dedication?

Thank you very much for your kind words! I see that you have really understood what we are doing. We like to get into listeners' minds, get them on a trip and let them travel through our sonic journey. Frozen Forest's songwriting starts from lyrics and then we create the first main riff after which we all build and create story, energy and visuals through sound. Every second of our material is carefully selected and that's the reason why we are slow with recording new albums. Frozen Forest is the Unholy Psychedelic Trinity that despises the new modern world and we try to transfer our vision through the filter of Satanism, although we have many different topics. I think that is the only philosophy or belief that should be in this genre. For other ideologies or beliefs there are many other genres.

Many can clearly tell that you put a lot of effort in making a good show in the end, so I would like to know how significant is the overall performance for Frozen Forest? Also, do you prefer when working on new material or working on your entire band performance?

Our performance is actually one of the most important things for us. We put a lot of effort because this is not just the visual stuff or some "show" to entertain people. We perform rituals, transform the energy into the audience and get them into another dimension. Also, on the musical side, we do not use triggers and modern digital amps so our live sound is as vintage as it could be in today's world. I really love doing new material but that's the thing that I'm, in some way, always doing in my free time. The actual recording process is strenuous, exhausting and it takes time to get it done. If we were not from Croatia, this could be our job and we would have 5-6 albums by now because we have inspiration, but we don't have that much time.

This might be a bit of a comedic and dumb question, but I always wanted to know if you have ever been accidentally mistaken for Necro Forest by some people that aren't familiar with the Balkan metal scene?

It's not a dumb question but luckily we were never accidentally mistaken. They have pagan themes so we are different. We've played one show together in Zagreb and I was singing Mayhem's Freezing Moon with them. Nice memories!

When I went back to listen to Ancient Ritual, I noticed that the songs on that album were heavily influenced by the work of Watain and various other Swedish black metal bands. How come the Swedish black metal scene in particular was such an influence in your music?

I was always into Scandinavian BM but when it comes to making music, I prefer Swedish type of songwriting. At the time when we started playing, older Norwegians started playing much more progressive and symphonic stuff which I didn't like and on the other side, at the same time you have Funeral Mist's 'Salvation' or Watain's 'Casus Luciferi' in Sweden. When we started the band, we were, as well, obsessed by Dissection's magic and we started studying teachings by TOTBL. Watain was the only band that seriously continued this magic through music and that was the time I first saw Watain. Only few people in Croatia knew about the band and one friend said to me that she saw people vomit in the venue because of the stench of death. Of course, I went to their next concert in Slovenia and this was the first true underground black magic moment for me. Life changing experience that pushed Frozen Forest more towards that style. For me that was the only true black metal experience so I knew that was the only way of exposing black metal.

Since we've already mentioned Watain, I remembered that you even got to meet them two times in the past. Have you remained in close contacts with any of them and is anyone from Watain a fan of Frozen Forest?

I have met them many times and they are really great guys in private as they are on stage. They are truly dedicated. Many people in Croatia don't like them for some reason. As you can see – they were never here, but they visited Slovenia and Serbia a few times. Croatians are happy when they get gigs by various Mgla clones or plastic bands such as Dark Funeral. I was only in contact with Alvaro but they are busy and live on the other side of Europe but it would be great to tour with them. I have met many other people from the old school Black Metal scene and one thing worth mentioning was when Incubus from Inquisition told me that Frozen Forest is the part of the ancient Black Metal Cult because next year we mark 20 years since we started playing.

You celebrated 7 years since the release of your debut full-length album Ancient Ritual at the Valhalla Festival, but in the meantime, I heard that there is a rumor that a new album is in the works. What can we expect so far from the new album and are you perhaps negotiating with some record label for a potential contract?

New album is almost finished with the writing process and next year we are going to put it out because it's 20 years of the band, as I mentioned, and we have many other plans. It's gonna be on a record label and it's gonna be one long epic Psychedelic Black Metal journey. We are going to put out an epic cover like from the 90s, booklet is going to be interesting as well and we are trying to sound as analog as we can in these modern times. I don't know what's with these new bands that accepted the new modern digital sound and 7-string guitars.

You've been absent for 5 years, but your show on both the Heretic Feast and Valhalla Festival marked a triumphant return of Frozen Forest. How was the atmosphere on both of these shows? Did the crazed fans miss seeing you perform live?

We were only absent from live shows because of the covid situation that fucked up the whole music scene. We have finally got the call for Heretic Feast and Valhalla Festival and eventually got the chance to perform in Split. Every show was great but Zlostavljanje festival in Split was really chaotic and the main reason is that we have had many fans down south since the beginning of the band and this was our first time in Split. Few promoters tried to get us there, but we were only in Trogir 12 years ago and many people from Split came to that show. People there are much more passionate about this kind of show.

From what I've seen you've had no trouble whatsoever during the Heretic Feast show in Kutina, especially amidst all the satanic panic caused by local Catholics that were trying to ban the whole show, including television channels that were also very much alarmed about the whole thing. Were you relieved in a way or perhaps a bit disappointed that not a single one of those angry mobs showed up to your show?

For me this whole situation was really funny. Few small minded persons were trying to ban this festival which was actually a great promotion for this event. On the other hand, the only thing that bothered me was actually that everyone who was involved was denying that this is the Satanic event. Why would you deny something that you stand for? Or do you? We were performing a Satanic ritual in Kutina so that was the lie. If someone asked me about this festival, I would tell everyone what's this festival about. But as I said, it was just a bunch of small minded people who you can mock and it's not ok to mock dumb people! Just ignore them. I saw that this year's edition of Heretic Feast was in Zagreb in a bigger venue but there were not so many visitors. I think that the problem is the high ticket price in combination with many bands that don't fit in this story if you ask me. This was supposed to be a Black Metal open air festival. We will see what will happen in the future.

When the angry Christian mob called you out on social media, did that bring any significant changes to your performance and did it help to better promote the show?

Many people asked me if I'm afraid to perform there, but I was not bothered by any of this. We are always doing our thing - our ritual and with our energy we possess bodies and minds of the people who are there. For example, many people don't even know that we are using real blood on our shows. It's really great when people come to me after the show and say "oh, you spilled fake blood or wine". I just put a smile on my face! So, no more or no less, we are always putting on the same show but we are building it through the years. It's going to be much more massive in the future.

So much has happened since you were on hold between 2018 and 2023, new bands come and go and all of a sudden, you're performing on the stage again. What is your view on the current status of the Croatian metal scene? Have there been any new artists/bands that drew your attention?

Actually we were never on hold. We've had some gigs in 2017. and 2018. with a drummer that played with us at the time and in 2019. We started seriously working on our second album and we've had rehearsals all the time. Then came the pandemic and series of earthquakes in Croatia and some personal problems that slowed things down. Danijel and I were still working on our new material despite everything and started to prepare for live rituals and then Klanje came back. Now the things are finally coming together and we are going to deliver one interesting Psychedelic Black Metal chaos. I was always into the Croatian metal scene, bought many albums/demos and tried to support many bands, some of them I invited to Zagreb to play and never got anything in return so I gave up with new bands. I just see many bands that are using AI covers, digital amp simulators and drum computers. In my opinion, Black metal is not the place for these things. Black metal is a primordial genre, you have to do everything by yourself and analog as much as you can and be totally devoted.

Thank you so much for doing this interview! Are there any final words you'd like to leave for all the fans of Frozen Forest?

Thank you very much for everything! I just want to tell people – beware!