LIFEND
LIFEND : not a typical
melodic death metal band. Especially with their new demo "Shattering :
Reality" have proven that they can play original music with lot of variety.
Bands like LIFEND really can give a refreshing breath to the Swedish Death
Metal, although they are from Italy.
1.FIRST OF CONGRATULATIONS FOR
“SHATTERING REALITY”!
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Mat: Thank you so much Christine! I'm
very happy to know there are such people like you in the world and your
compliments are definitively a panacea for Lifend's members....
2.SO, WHAT HAPPENED TO LIFEND FROM
"ETWINED EMOTIONS" TILL NOW?
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Andrea: From every point of view, many
things have changed from Lifend’s first release to this last one. Our sound
has evolved for many reasons: to make easy the introduction of new elements
and influences in Lifend’s music, to drive our proposal to more technical
territories, to explain in a better way what we feel and what we have to
say through our particular form of art. We left behind the “gothic-oriented”
sound of the early days to reach for solutions that sound more Swedish
death metal, without forgetting, as usual, to include acoustic parts and
deep emotive melodies. This solutions, that you can taste during the listening
of “Shattering:Reality”, make it possible to our sound to have more impact
both in studio and “live” performances. This evolution in our proposal
is no doubt due to the change of line up that happened in September 2002,
when I replaced Damiano at the lead guitar: I came from the brutal death/grind
scene, so I think that my way of composing has had an important influence
in making our sound “harder”, especially in the new songs composed in these
last months. I have also to give you an important new: Davide (synth/keyboard)
left the band in June because of his work. So our sound will have to evolve
again: our future program for the synth/keys parts is to work with two
different session musicians, so I believe that working with different personalities
will make our proposal more various than in the past.
3.TELL US A FEW GENERAL THINGS ABOUT
"SHATTERING REALITY" AND POINT OUT THE DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES WITH
YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASE.
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Andrea: I must start telling that “Shattering:Reality”
doesn’t contain our most recent material: all three songs were born
when I was only a listener of Lifend’s music, so I rearranged them with
the other members after I joined the band. I think that “Shattering…” underlines
a period of transition in our proposal evolutions: it is the thin passage
from the softer sound of “Entwined…” (which I use to call “gothic”, though
it could sound inappropriate for a music that has always been “death”)
to the songs that are going to complete our next release. I can point out
some differences, such as the song structures, more complicated and cerebral
than the direct and simple ones of the past - a solution that enables us
to be more introspective in our proposal - and the more evident opposition
between acoustic parts and death metal riffs - opposition that correctly
explains (on the musical level) the meaning inside our moniker, the duality
Life / End. If I had to point out similarities to “Entwined Emotions”,
I would say that, in spite of our constant evolution, the band has always
maintained (and forever will) its trade mark made of violence, impact and
melody.
4.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO?
WHAT INSPIRES YOU? WHY DID YOU NAME THE ALBUM "SHATTERING REALITY"? WHAT
DO YOU WANT TO EXPRESS WITH IT?
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Sara: We deeply differ from one another
but we share ideals that make us one, the most important of which lives
within our moniker. It is the fact that there’s only one sad truth in a
life of uncertainties: the end of existence, the only knowledge we have
from our birth on. It is the life/death dichotomy that mirrors in the duality
of our own music. Our texts develop from this point: one of us decides
to show everything of himself, everything he can see through his soul,
even without being able to understand it. The lyrics comes to life from
a person only each time, but its anguish and rage are common to all of
us. It is as our thoughts came from one soul only, like different tributaries
of one river to one sea…
5.SPEAK ABOUT THE ARTWORK AND ITS CONNECTION
WITH THE LYRICS. WHAT DOES IT REPRESENT?
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Mat: I have to answer to you just me,
'cause I'm responsible for the artwork...or better, I've re-edited and
manipulated one of the most expressive pictures I've ever admired, that
is David's "La Mort de Maràt". This is the essence of drama, the
end of a man's existence, the moment, the thousandth of second, the instant
in which the subject of the action recognizes that his material life is
coming to an end...This is what we want to explain and to paint in our
musical and lyrical proposal. Through images full of metaphors and ossimores
we speak about the duality and the relativity of the human being and above
all we focus our attention on the concreteness end of this cold and mechanical
life.
6.HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS? ARE
THERE ANY PLANS FOR TOURING OR PERFORMING LIVE OUTSIDE ITALY?
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Mat: Yes. Between 2002 and the first
months of 2003 we've played about 30/35 live shows and of course and compatibly
with our business commitments we're planning, together with our Belgian
management Hardebaran, some performances outside Italy. I’ll keep you informed!
And on this subject, if you or someone else can set some gigs for us in
Greece we will be very grateful...you know, as I've already said in the
interview you did for our fist mcd "Entwined Emotions", your land is something
extraordinary!
7.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A FAN TO CONVINCE
HIM BUY YOUR RELEASE INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ELSE?
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Mat: I have to persuade nobody and
I don't want to do it. I can only say that our dramatic music and the message
it brings within isn't so easy and accessible to everyone. If you are looking
for something different and original and above all if you feel that this
icy existence is too much ephemeral, try to listen to our tracks and to
read our intense lyrics...
8.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST PART
IN YOUR MUSIC AND WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER IMPROVEMENT?
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Andrea: I think that our way to explain
so many emotions through a sound with a great violent impact is unique.
Surely, the opposition of death metal and acoustic parts, supported by
Sara’s clean vocals, gives a great help in bringing these feelings to the
ears of our listeners. So, my hope is to improve the intensity of our proposal
by all points of view, both musically and emotionally…
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Alberto: Maybe our best quality
is the variety and the originality of our sound, but on the other side,
the aim to put our influence in music makes the songs complicated and long...these
two aspects are not easy to conciliate....I think that it should be a good
step to evolve in that sense and this is what we are trying to do now...
9.WHICH WAS THE BEST AND WHICH WAS
THE WORST REVIEW YOU HAVE RECEIVED? I WAS VERY FLATTERED TO SEE MY REVIEW
ON YOUR FLYERS. IT MEANS THAT I MANAGED TO CATCH THE BAND'S PULSE AND UNDERSTAND
WHERE YOU ARE HEADING TO MUSICALLY. BY THE WAY, HOW DO YOU REACT WHEN YOU
READ A BAD REVIEW?
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Mat: You know Christine, there are
so many people in the world and so many different points of view that is
obvious having of the same product different opinions. Everyone has the
right to have an own and subjective idea so I generally respect all the
reviews, both negative and positive ones. But not all the reviewers write
an article in order to give constructive propositions but on the opposite
some of them (a minimum part) write just to give vent to their frustrations.
We've been reviewed for our first mcd "Entwined Emotions" by forty or fifty
webzines or fanzines from all over the world and we've had tons of positive
opinions, but I can't forget a Russian magazine that judged our musical
proposal (in my opinion even without listening to our cd!) according to
our geographical nationality!!! It started saying that being Lifend an
Italian creature and seen all that comes from Italy is shit (??!!!!), "Entwined
Emotions" was necessary a bad work...That is the only review I have not
digested yet. In my career I've known such stupid guys...
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Alberto: We mainly received great reviews
from south America and east of Europe but everywhere the words for our
music were good...obviously with some exceptions...anyway I think that
a negative review could be even more helpful for the band if it gives you
some ideas to work on and if it explains why the reviewer considered the
album not so good... We hate the people who write that you are shit just
because they don’t like the music you play.
10.YOU ARE GRANTED ONE WISH. WHAT WOULD
YOU LIKE TO DO?
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Only one?...I remember that the genius
give 3 wishes....so I try to ask 3..maybe I’m lucky!
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-Spread our music all over the world...I
mean to be able to reach many people with our music and with our gigs...and
a label would be a great help in doing it!
-
-take off this world all the false
and hypocrite and futile people that make it a bad place...
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-...just be serene...
11.IS THERE A HISTORICAL PERSONALITY
YOU'D LIKE TO MEET? WHO IS THIS AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
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Andrea: I’d like to meet the Pope and
ask him why he doesn’t smoke the dope!
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Alberto: ...maybe Hitler, to gently
ask him to fuck off!!
12.WHICH IS THE STRANGEST/FUNNIEST
QUESTION SOMEONE'S EVER ASKED YOU?
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Alberto: ..mmhh... now that you make
me think about that I think that people should do us more strange or absurd
questions! After some interviews you go on repeating the same things and
this is not funny for us neither for the readers...so make us mad questions!!
13.IS THERE AN ALBUM YOU WERE LOOKING
FORWARD TO HEARING AND IT DISAPPOINTED YOU? WHY?
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Alberto: I remember that when At the
Gates split up, I waited the first work of the Haunted with anxiety, hoping
in an ideal link with At the Gates, but I was a bit disappointed by the
sound of the band...the first work anyway was really good, but I was not
so enthusiastic of the other ones, in particular for the voice...On the
other side recently I was positively surprised by Nightrage (I’ve also
seen that you are in their thankslist! Great!)...a really good work, with
the unique voice of Tomas “tompa” Lindberg!!
14.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THE
BAND'S CAREER TILL NOW?
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Mat: I can give to you lots of adjectives,
multitudes of nicknames....To simplify, I can tell you that our first part
of career it was difficult and binding. Nowadays, we can tell that we've
quite found our musical dimension (even if it is continually evolving)
and so I could define it as settled and quite satisfactory. For the future,
I'd like to reach more audience and to have more musical gratifications,
but you know future is a big question mark...
15.THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D
LIKE TO ADD IN THE END?
-
Thank you very much for the support
you give us! Now we are working on our self-produced full length album...we
hope to be ready to spread it for in early 2004! That’s all! Get in touch
with us through our site www.lifend.org
...and remember: ...the only certain thing in Life...is the End.
Christine Parastatidou
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