From the depth of the Mediterranean, the first thing that comes to the mind is one of the excellent Italian death and black metal bands like Madvice, there is no doubt, Italy has great black metal and death metal bands. So, if you love extreme music you can’t ignore Madvice. After a short break due to COVID-19, the band is back to action once again by working on a new debut album. It’s worthy to be mentioned that the band’s latest studio album was released in 2018 entitled “Everything Comes to an End.” Rock Era Magazine has chatted with the band’s guitarist Maddalena Bellini and the vocalist Asator who told us more about his band and the whole Italian metal scene.
REM: First of all, how did you find each other to create the band?
Madvice: I and Raffaele have played together in another band for many years; at some point, we decided to start another project whose music is more extreme. After listening to my voice with an old band of mine, they called me as a singer. After a few months, I asked Marco to join the band as a drummer and so we completed the lineup.
REM: Tell us more about the various musical tastes of the members, which genres you personally prefer?
Madvice: Our favorite genres are thrash metal, modern extreme metal, and black metal.
REM: Through the new record, the band seems to have greatly improved. What are the changes you made through this record?
Madvice: Actually, our first album “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is just a “Tears for Fears” cover, we have rearranged and recorded it just for fun. This heat appeared in the first version of the album, then, we have recorded “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” later where we have found our real essence, even if I have to say that we are in perpetual evolution!
REM: So, who produced this album, and are you pleased with the record’s sound?
Madvice: I recorded and mixed our album and we are completely satisfied with the sound of it!
REM: Who is the main lyricist of the band and what is your main lyrical theme?
Madvice: I write the lyrics especially during my rage and depression, screaming and our music is my way to tame my demons, that’s why my lyrics are about inner struggles, death, and sorrow.
REM: If you could have a video made for one of your songs today, which song would you pick?
Madvice: We have already released three videos from our album “Everything Comes to an End”: a lyric video of “Nothingness”, an official video of “A Day to Fight, a Day to Suffer” and a lyric video of “The Gate”. If we would release another one, I think that we would pick the title track, “Everything Comes to an End”.
REM: Can you tell us about the new album “Everything Comes to an End” that came at this time the world is suffering from COVID-19?
Madvice: “Everything Comes to an End” was released almost two years ago, at the end of 2018, when none of us even imagined what would happen. We lived a very intense 2019, promoting the album in every way and playing in very beautiful places in East Europe. 2020 should have been an even more fun year, we had a lot of plans and gigs planned, but unfortunately, someone put the pitchfork on us (laughs)!
After an initial moment of discomfort, closed at home, we started working hard to compose and pre-produce the material for the new album, which will probably see the light at the beginning of 2021.
REM: Which changes would you like to see in the music industry to help the bands financially?
Madvice: In my opinion is very hard to live from music in 2020. There are too many people who play, too many bands. Almost no one buys albums, so you can only gain from live gigs. And people get lazier every day, so most of them don’t want to go to listen to new bands. Furthermore, if you want to have a chance to live from your music, you don’t have to play extreme metal!
REM: What’s your opinion about the Italian music scene? Do you think it receives enough support? How could It improve?
Madvice: I think the Italian underground music scene (the only one I know) is very good. In the past two years, I have met many cool Italian bands. But, in my opinion, they are not getting enough support. The audience of the shows is always too small, the only way to improve our scene is to have a larger crowd at concerts and selling more merchandise.
REM: How many gigs have you played? Which type of gigs do you prefer, whether it’s (clubs or festivals) and which of your performances would you consider as the best?
Madvice: We have played something like fifteen gigs, more ore less. Personally I prefer concerts at clubs because the crowd is there to see you. In festivals, the audience is bigger but most part of the crowd just comes to see the headliners. Anyway, I can say that our best performance has been at Cult of Parthenope Black Metal Fest 2019 last November. And this festival was really great!
REM: Ultimately, what is your goal as a band?
Madvice: We want to play more gigs as possible in the whole world. Last fall we made our first European BBBtour, we hope this was just the beginning!
REM: If someone asks you what metal is, which album would you hand them?
Madvice: With no doubt Metallica’s Black Album.
REM: Finally, would you like to tell our readers a final message?
Madvice: First of all, thank you so much for this interview, we really appreciate any kind of support! And I want to say something to the readers: if you like bands like At the Gates, Necrophobic, Hypocrisy, try to listen to our music, you could like it! See you soon!
Interviewed by: Yassine Siyaf
Edited by: Rana Atef
