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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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DEATH
METAL FROM ITALY
UNTIL
THE CASKET IS FULL… OF BOWELS
MIrko
Offender (vox) is answering.
1. Hello. First of all, could you say something to awaken our readers? They're all fucking asleep, they need something to kick their ass!
Hi there! I could easily start by saying that if for any chance you believe any these equations to be true: Twilight=horror, Dimmu Borgir=black metal, Behemoth=death metal, then you might find this interview uninteresting and offensive, in other words… leave the fucking page!!!
2. A couple of words to introduce MORBO? What should the readers read, before keeping on reading? :)
I guess that everyone can check out our biography for detailed infos, but in short words, Morbo is a death metal band composed by death metal freaks. We like the music we play raw, wild, real and organic and we keep distance from the mainstream music scene cuz we don’t like puppets doing things out of fashion without balls and emotions and most of all lacking of ATTITUDE.
3. According to the music available online, I have the feeling your first album "Addiction to musickal dissection" will be quite an improvement compared to the tape released on an American label. The songs seem to be better played, better constructed... Tell us more about this forthcoming album! What the fuck will we find inside?
The album is
definitively an improvement from what done previously. The ‘’Eternal
city of the dead’’ demo was an act of primordial fury released
through the speakers, the album is an entity spawned and unleashed
to the world. From beyond. The listener should expect an album of
8 death metal songs, raw, straight, dark, intense and in your fucking
face. We spent a lot of time through the songwriting making sure
we were doing the right thing 100%, being sure that the whole outfit
would have suit our needs. The record is full of energy and we are
totally satisfied the way it turned out.
4. The production
of this first album also seems to be very good for the style...
It's cool to hear that, because I sometimes have the feeling some
AUTOPSY-influenced bands decide to have a voluntary shitty and rotten
sound... It's not particularly good in my opinion. They probably
forgot AUTOPSY had a very good heavy and powerful production on
their first albums! Laziness, or lack of funds, or something else?
You are absolutely right when you say that sometimes people seem to forget how well produced were Autopsy from the very start. That’s what make them unique. They always played the sickest shit you can find on the globe with a difference. They always cared about having the right and real sound. And by well produced I obviously do not mean it the way most people seem to think nowadays, with super glossy, flat, plastic productions. Nuclear Blast way if you know what I mean, were all bands sound the same to me, from Testament to Hammerfall and from stupid death metal wannabes through useless pseudo-gothic bands. Autopsy were going against the stream since day one, they kept the real sound when death metal started to be over produced, they were slowing down when everyone jumped on the ‘’blastbeats parade’’. Bands that choose to be inspired by them need to have the right sound and, most of all, good riffs and songs. Morbo is not only inspired by Autopsy’s music, but we highly estimate their perspective and attitude towards the metal scene as well.
5. What is needed for the composition of good MORBO tracks? Is this about beer, bestial sex, or something else? Do you listen to AUTOPSY before each rehearsals so that you are in the right mood, or do you prefer to watch horror movies or something?
The thing that is most needed is passion my friend. As for all things, if you don’t have passion, then what you do is not worth it. And since the music we are talking about here is supposed to be REAL, we get inspiration from whatever can appeal us, doesn’t matter if it’s a book, a movie, an album, a band, a painting, real life or cosmic horrors. We love and breathe this music style every fucking day man, there’s no way we don’t get inspired, especially when you have horrors next door!!
6. Do you think a track of MORBO with blastbeats would be good? Or even little influences of jazz such as on mid-old DEATH records? There were not many morbid death metal bands to use little jazzy touches, or when they did, they lost the morbidity...
We generally don’t plan things during the songwriting, the only ‘’fast-close to grind’’ thing that you can hear on the album is on the ‘’Abominangel’’ song. There is no specific reasons why there is not more of that, I guess the songs are built more on a very classic approach to the formula, so there is no real reason to speed up the songs too much, the record is already intense as it is… it just didn’t happen this time. But we did ‘’experimented’’ on more slow/doomy parts, in order to get this dark monumental mood. Everything is more focused on the fact that all instruments and lyrics forge a vision for what the Morbo sound stands for. I always had admiration for bands that fulfilled in putting into their sound elements of styles that are kind of ‘’alien’’ to metal and of course, Celtic Frost is my personal top favourite highlight in this matter. Not too many succeeded like them though… Jazzy twists can be cool I guess, if you know how to get it through the songwriting into an exteme contest. Coroner and Cadaver are bands that pop up in my mind right now and talking about today’s death metal, DIskord from Norway are a very valid example of twisted psychotic, but still organic death metal.
7. When I look at your facebook page, it seems your album needed between 8 and 10 months to be totally recorded... What were the reasons for this? Lack of blood at the local abattoir?
Ahahahahah
‘’Lack of blood at the abattoir’’… that’s actually a cool song title!!
Well.. yes, we basically started the guitar sessions last year around
February I think… so certainly it took some time to finish the whole
album. The main reason for that is because we all live far from
each other, with me living in Norway, Andrea in Rome, Giorgio and
David in Sicily. The great thing is that we didn’t even have to
sit down and talk about the sound that we wanted to have. We just
wanted it to be HEAVY and that’s how it turned out to be!! I had
to post schedule the vocal sessions from August to October, so that
has to be added on top as well. We took our time to make it the
way our minds were naturally set for the project.
8. The musicians of MORBO are all involved in many other metal projects (If I look at Metal-archives, I have the feeling you are involved in half of the new old school Italian Death metal wave Haha). So, should MORBO be considered as a project, full-time band, or something else? (I know some peoples play in 10 bands, but all of these are their main and priority band ahah)
We are all involved in other projects yes, especially Giorgio and David are very busy. Me and Andrea know each other since the early 90’s, we have been active in the death metal scene of Rome ever since and been collaborating now and then through the years. We see many things from the same perspective and that reflects in the Morbo music as well. We all take this band very seriously and it’s not just a project anymore for sure!
9. There's a video for your song "Pagan altar" that looks like a cartoon. Who did this? It's funny to see the mouths moving... But I'm sorry to tell you... It lacks of tits AhAh
‘’Pagan Seducer’’… Ahahah! Yeah that’s quite cheesy isn’t it!? A guy called Andrea (Headbanging Prod.) did it, he works with movies production and did the animated trailer for us. You don’t see tits cuz the people featured on the cover artwork are skeletons therefore their tits rotted away!!!
10. I thought "MORBO" meant something like morbid, but in fact it stands for "disease".
According to
Google, the best friend of your own privacy, "MORBOSO"
stands for "morbidity"... The two words look very close,
I have the feeling you Italians are very optimistic peoples and
suggest any kind of disease is morbid ahah
Ahahahah !! yeah,
it stands for virulent disease, and that includes religion and corruption
as well!!! The word ‘’morbid’’ always reminds me to Celtic Frost
anyway ahahah!!
11. What's
your favorite AUTOPSY album? In my opinion, the best one is the
first one "Severed survival"... (I don't believe it when
some peoples quote "Shitfun" as their fave Autopsy release...)
Well yeah… ‘’Shitfun’’ not for sure..! My personal fave is propbably ‘’Mental Funeral’’, even though some of their all time highlights are on the first one of course, but I guess everyone in the band has its’ own fave.. I really love the ‘’shorter’’ releases by Autopsy as well, like ‘’Fiend for blood’’ and ‘’Retribution for the dead’’ are so dark and deep that give me the chill down my spine just to think of it…
12. Since you are a fan of AUTOPSY and are macerating into underground metal since a couple of years, you probably know a couple of AUTOPSY-influenced bands... What are your favorite ones according to your morbid tastes? Do you make a difference between an AUTOPSY-influenced band and an AUTOPSY-Ripoff band?
I definitively make difference between rip off bands and inspired ones, it only depends on the quality of the riffs/songs and sound!!! As my personal faves, to name a few, I would say Morbus Chron, Maim, Nekrowretch, Bastars Priest and on top of everything Obliteration…
13A. The last 3-4 years, the Italian old school Death metal scene became more powerful... This was quite surprising, because this genre was very quiet before... Would you say it's due to the crisis, that some peoples found life was too full of shit, awakened (Like zombies) and decided to do whatever they want... As if it was their last months of life on earth?
We have always had up and downs in Italy regarding the metal scene. It’s been prolific and pioneering during the 80’s and then I don’t know what happened. Recently it’s true, there has been quite an improvement in more than a genre, to name some quality names on the extreme side I would say Blasphemophager, Haemophagus, Bunker 66, Noia, Barbarian… We Italians have a few reasons to be pissed for sure and it’s about fucking time to shout it out loud!!!
13B. What are the good Death metal bands in Italy, according to your own morbid tastes? Would you make a difference between the Italian old school death and brutal death bands, or are there links between the genres and peoples?
I can easily answer the first part of the question with the previous answer, as for the second part, I would only talk about good and bad death metal, never really been into what they call ‘’brutal DM’’ in general, it seems more that some kind of bands are racing in speed with horrible drum sound and boring music anyway… the ‘’brutal death metal’’ thing died worldwide after Deicide’s ‘’Legion’’ for what concerns me…
14. If MORBO was a cunt, how would you describe it? Would it rather be the fat ugly one, or the very juicy one?
Ahahaha! I see music as a process full of climaxes, pretty close to what an orgasm is… so if Morbo was a pussy, it had to be pink, shaved, tight and tasty, sorry if that sounds disappointing!!!
15. Your first album will be available on CD, vynil and tape... It seems to me, there are not many other formats left :) What are the next projects of the band? What should the reading-zombies expect from MORBO in the future? It's time to conclude, and let the reading-zombies fall in their morbid sleep again... Until a new purulent Death metal album comes out!
We will fix the album release soon and after that the plan is to have a release party both in Rome and in Oslo, since 2 of the labels putting out respectively tape and LP, are Italian and Norwegian. After that, more gigs I would say, and we already have ideas on the new songs, so a small release like a 7” or a split might be considered. Thanks for the question and … KEEP THE DEAD ALIVE!!!!
