Courtesy of Earache Records
CRITICALTOM: Are you still just one person, or do you have some new band
mates?
Davide: Originally the band was a duo: Giuliano (vocals, guitars, synths
and programming) and me, Davide (guitar, synths),. After a demo tape (Opera '98) and an album (Phormula 2000), we decided
to end our collaboration for personal and musical reasons. Now I'm the composer
of music and words, and I collaborate with a crazy human drummer and a new bass
player who is a jazz/prog addict, a screamer and a clean vocalist. I compose
synths and electronic with Paso who also collaborated with us in a remix
included in Rephormula. Moreover, he is our sound engineer.
CRITICALTOM: The term "black metal" may not be an accurate enough
designation for your music. What would you call it?
Davide: At the root of our project there is the strong will to be free
from every movement, to be free from the typical restriction of the musical
genres. We are in contact with black metal only for some musical choices and
not for the ideology. In our demo tape there is present a strong connection
with the Emperor stuff for the use of voice and the complex guitar lines. It
will be easy to understand that I prefer to not describe our musical style with
words, but, at the same time, I accept every label that people create for us,
usually "progressive black metal", "avantgarde metal" or
sperimental black metal".
CRITICALTOM: What does the name Ephel Duath mean?
Davide: Ephel Duath is taken from the
Tolkien mythology and it means "mountains of shadows". We were
fascinated by the sound that these two words create together: They are so
mysterious, dark and ancient....
CRITICALTOM: What subjects are your song about?
Davide: The lyrics are strongly associated with the mood created by our
music, so we adapted our feelings through metaphors, allegorical visions and
images to the notes. Our words are really personal but at the same time we want
to open them to all the possible interpretations to bring the reader in a more
active position. For this reason we use a lot of images; to not offer
interpretative direction to our words. In particular, the lyrics in Rephormula
are usually deep feelings filtered through natural images (I became a grass of
green, a pigment of colour filtered through a spectrum, a leave...). Recently I
am writing about the difficulties that I face when I'm in contact with a lot of
people that I don't know, or about the sudden sense of fury that governs my
mind in determined moments of pain and how this factor changes the world in
front of my eyes.
CRITICALTOM: What makes Ephel Duath different from other bands?
Davide: For Ephel Duath to be considered
different from other bands is really great.
Our will is to innovate, and for strong experimentation. That is basically for our desire for composing.
I see no limits for my music and the new album "The Painter's
Palette" will strongly confirm these words...
CRITICALTOM: What can we expect in the future from Ephel Duath?
Davide: The new album will be
recorded around July/August. We are
preparing a video clip for "The Embossed" and we are working really
hard to finally bring Ephel Duath on stage. For more information
www.ephelduath.net
CRITICALTOM: How do you make a song? Lyrics first or music first?
Davide: Our compositions are born
from the guitar lines that constitute a sort of skeleton. Second we insert the drum
(in past programming the drum machine, now acoustic drum parts), bass and key
parts follow. Voice is the last element that we insert in our songs. Sometimes it
is the music that searches ou the words...
CRITICALTOM: If you could set up your own tour, who would you like to tour
with?
Davide: Opeth, Katatonia or Ulver,
without doubt!
CRITICALTOM: Now that you have a release that is going to get worldwide distribution,
how would you like to introduce yourself to the music buying world?
Davide: Through our great will to
compose we create music that is really spontaneous, but at the same time rich
and ambitious. It represents the best
way that I've found to fully express my inner feelings. It is sort of a magic process,
through my music I know better who I am. It is for this reason that in the future I want to compose as much
as possible, maybe a new album every year...Thanks for the support!