Featured Artist
Stormlord:
In the Studio (And Around Rome) With Stormlord
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Previously Featured Artists
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This time, our featured artist selection is done by staff writer
Michael De Los Muertos. Instead of a historical rundown on what the band
has done, we get to see the band from the inside. If you are interested in
an historical account of Stormlord, then please read
their biography. The below article represents a much more
personalized look at this fine up and coming band.
Be sure to also check out our interview
with Francesco Bucci.
Stormlord Feature Written By Michael De Los Muertos July/August 2000.
By Michael De Los Muertos
To be honest, you don’t think of Rome and metal really
going together - at least, not the same way that Sweden and metal,
or even Tampa and metal, go together - but it’s sometimes
very interesting to see what metal you can find in traditionally non-metal
places. But if you had to name the metal kings of Rome, you would speak
only one majestic word: Stormlord. For a few wonderful days in July 2000 I
had the good fortune to experience Rome - and Stormlord - first hand. What
followed was an experience which makes you thankful that the world of
metal is very small, and very cozy.
Stormlord is a fast-rising quintet of blood- and beer-thirsty Italians
who specialize in what they call “extreme epic metal.” Before you
bemoan the spontaneous genesis of yet another classification of
metal, you should know this term fits them perfectly. The sweeping
grandeur and classical musical feel of power metal is mixed with the dark,
evil artistry of black metal, and it is never more evident than on the
band’s first full-length album, The Supreme Art of War, released
in 1999 on the German label Last Episode. Trust me, you’ll be hearing
more of Stormlord. The moment you begin listening to Supreme Art of War,
you’ll wonder why you haven’t heard of them up until now. With
technical musical talent that easily tops many of today’s bands, and a
large amount of prowess at the song-writing and song-planning level -
something fairly rare in metal today - Stormlord have nowhere to go but
up.
I arrived in Rome on the last muggy Thursday in July, ostensibly on
vacation, and certainly on my somewhat leisurely way to a little town in
Germany called Wacken. That, of course, is another story! Suffice to say,
my first impression of Rome was, it’s hot! As I worked through
the airport and Italian customs I had no idea what to expect, either from
Rome or from my host, native guide and Internet pen-pal, Francesco Bucci,
who happens by fortuitous chance to be Stormlord’s bassist. I find him
to be a stocky, cheerful Italian guy in an ancient Twisted Sister shirt
and wraparound sunglasses. “Welcome to Rome!” he bids me, in very
thickly-accented but uncommonly understandable English. When we get to his
car - a black VW - he says, “Would you like a hat of Luca Turilli?” He
thrusts it into my hands - a black Luca Turilli baseball cap. Hmm, my
first souvenir from Rome? “Thanks,” I say, eager to get inside the car
where (I hope) it’s air-conditioned.
On the way into Rome from the airport, Francesco’s cellular phone
buzzes. It’s Pierangelo, the band’s guitarist, with a studio report:
they’re laying down the drum tracks as we speak. Time enough for
Francesco to browse around Rome for a bit during the afternoon, but then
it’s straight into the studio for the evening. You see, Stormlord happen
- by total chance, this very weekend - to be recording a new mini-CD
called The Curse of Medusa, due out in March 2001. For a few
precious days at the end of this month, the band is booked in Rome’s
Outher Sound Studios. Time is short and every minute counts, but Francesco
tells me they’re ready. “We have been writing songs for a while,” he
says. “They’re really good! You will see, tonight.” How can I pass
this up? Pasta and ruins by day, epic black metal by night. It occurs to
me that, aside from the band itself, I may be one of the very first people
in the world to hear Stormlord’s new material, and being a big fan, of
course I jump at the chance!
An afternoon of sightseeing around Rome - with native guide Francesco,
who knows everything about everything - leaves me weary but very sated,
and with a couple of rolls of amazing pictures. Statues! Ruins! Broken
columns! The Temple of Vesta! The balcony from which Mussolini gave his
speeches! Francesco’s urge for a cigarette catches him just as we walk
up to the massive Colosseum, one of the greatest and most magnificent
structures ever built by the hand of man, and subject of the Stormlord
song “Where My Spirit Forever Shall Be.” “You know, I have that
stupid Limp Bizkit song ‘Nookie’ in my head,” Francesco laments
between puffs. “I fucking hate Limp Bizkit, but I can’t forget that
fucking song!”
The studio turns out to be a small place nestled in a little block of
shops and businesses near a tree-lined residential area on the outskirts
of Rome. It’s a little stuffy inside, but right after walking through
the door I know I’m in a metal recording studio. My only frame of
reference is watching videos like Megadeth’s Evolver, but this
one looks very much like I expect: wood paneling, two old couches in the
lobby on opposite walls, and window-lined rooms filled with electronics,
drums and other equipment.
Francesco introduces me as “a big fan of Stormlord from Portland.”
I meet a dizzying array of Italian metalheads, including Pierangelo - a
tall, thin guy with long dark hair - and Simone, the keyboard player,
another tall, thin guy with long dark hair. There are also guests in the
studio. Piero, the drummer for a band called Savers, and Giuseppe Orlando,
who played for the band Novembre and is involved in the production of the
new material. Cristiano is lounging on one of the sofas in the lobby.
There is an intense clattering coming from another room. “That must be
your drummer!” A vicious, double-bass blast beat is the answer. It’s a
while before I see David, the drummer. He does not look very epic metal,
but he can play a hell of a drum line!!
The studio is stuffy, and the air hangs with cigarette smoke; the pace
is slow, but it’s clear Stormlord is making progress. Today they’re
recording drum tracks, and David is working himself to the bone. I hear
furious blasts of drums, and then occasionally he comes out into the
lobby, drenched in sweat, mopping himself with a towel. It’s very clear
that these guys work hard. If something isn’t right, he’s back
in the drum room doing it over again. “We always want to be sure to do
it right,” says Francesco. “My bass tracks took a long time.”
The guys come in and out of the control room and the lobby, conversing in
flowery Italian. Most of them know English. Piero asks me what the metal
scene is like in the USA. “It sucks,” I tell him, and he seems to
understand pretty well. Cristiano - who is frequently in the control room
giving advice - is pretty quiet. At one point Simone does an ersatz King
Diamond impression. The guys are cheerful and laid-back, but it’s clear
there’s serious business going on.
After a while I begin to hear snatches of the completed tracks from the
control room speakers. It’s pretty heady stuff. More powerful and more
confident than their previous material. Indeed, what’s coming from the
control room speakers sounds like metal you’d hear coming from a
long-experienced European band with half a dozen albums under their belt.
“It sounds good,” Pierangelo agrees, nodding. I don’t think any of
these guys have a clue, at the moment, exactly how good it is. They’re
too close to it. After all, it’s hot off the mold! I wisely keep my
mouth shut. Eventually, it’ll hit them that they’re recording their
best stuff yet, and the material that might launch them into the career
they have come to deserve.
It’s a long evening in the studio. Francesco has brought me
there midway through - Pierangelo and the others have been there for ten
hours. But finally the drum tracks are nearing completion. “Want some
Italian pizza with real mozzarella?” Francesco taunts, knowing I haven’t
eaten a thing since I got off the plane. Hell yeah! It’s still a
while getting out, but at last we leave the studio and move out into the
warm Rome evening. All of us - minus Piero, who went home earlier - wind
up at a charming little restaurant somewhere in Rome, the kind of place
you only see in movies in the U.S. It’s got stucco walls and ceiling
fans and a big tiled wood oven behind the counter. “What do you want?”
Pierangelo asks me. Francesco says to him, “No, no, we will tell him
what to get!” I’d look like an idiotic American trying to order my own
stuff anyway. I get a thin, crispy-crusted pizza loaded with cheese - very
different than American pizza. With our mugs of beer, we toast - to the
international brotherhood of metal!
I spent two more days in Rome, and Stormlord remained in the studio for
the whole time. On the final day, Francesco - still my native Rome guide -
was to meet me in the evening after the band had finished their recording
for the day. It wasn’t the absolute last day of recording, but the lion’s
share of it would be done. After dinner, I wait at my hotel for Francesco
to call. Nine o’clock…ten…eleven. Finally the phone rings. He’s on
his way. “We are going to Tivoli,” he warns me. “We’ll pick you up
in front of your hotel.”
After a bit more of a wait, a car full of Italian metalheads pulls up.
Pierangelo is driving. Francesco and Simone accompany us, with only
Cristiano and David missing from the line-up. Francesco tells me we’re
going to Tivoli - traditionally the summer resort of Roman emperors - to
go to a sandwich shop. It’s almost an hour away. “It’s worth it!”
he gushes. “When you eat this sandwich, you will die!” After about
thirty seconds in the car, as Pierangelo floors the pedal and we race past
the Colosseum and the Temple of Vesta into the deep summer night, it
becomes evident that the guys are wired. “We are almost finished
recording,” Francesco says. “And it’s the best stuff we have
ever done!” Simone’s head is about to go off, he’s so excited about
it. Pierangelo, who is low-key by nature, is even visibly excited. They
spontaneously break into song, all three of them, bellowing the chorus
from their latest epic metal opus. These guys are amazingly hyped. “It
turned out perfectly!” “It is true epic metal!” It occurs to
me that what I was waiting for in the studio - for them to realize exactly
how good they are - seems to have happened.
When we get to Tivoli - which is indeed an hour away, and looks like
the set of some cheap 1950s movie about World War II - the energy is
loosened. Simone goes nuts, leaping across mine and Francesco’s
shoulders, flashing the devil horns symbol. “Metal rules!”
Francesco keeps telling me how much I’ll love The Curse of Medusa
when I hear it. We wait an hour for a sandwich (which is indeed very good)
and eat it in the car, in the parking lot with the doors open. Nearby, a
river flows by under an aqueduct built by the Romans thousands of years
before any of us were born. It’s a pretty amazing thing. Here I am, on
the other side of the planet from my home, in an ancient place I’ve only
read about in books, and I have a kinship with these guys I probably would
never have known under any other circumstances. What we toasted at the
restaurant the other evening was something really meaningful. Brotherhood
of metal. The chance to share with them the enthusiasm over their new
material and the rewarding satisfaction of working hard to do what they
wanted to do - play metal - was, far and away, the greatest thing
about my trip across the sea.
Now, when I hear Stormlord, in addition to hearing some great epic
black metal, I will always think of my weekend in Rome and the friends I
made there. As I’ve always maintained, the best thing about metal is the
people you meet along the way. Stormlord is metal which comes from these
guys’ hearts. If the most important ingredients of good heavy metal are
sincerity and conviction, rest assured Stormlord has both in spades. You
can take it from me - I watched them pour it in.
Stormlord is:
Cristiano Borchi ~ Lead Vocals
Pierangelo Giglioni ~ Lead Guitar
Francesco Bucci ~ Bass
Simone Scazzocchio ~ Keyboards
David Folchitto ~ Drums