Cadaveria ‘the singer’ first came to my attention on hearing the mystical and haunting black symphony that was Opera IX 1995 album ‘The Call Of The Wood.’ The somewhat pagan delights of that album fair sent a chill down my spine and it was the compelling witchy chant of the vocals that really have haunted and taken me back for repeated listens over the years. Having been present in Opera IX up until ‘The Black Opera’ in 2000 the singer with long term cohort and drummer Marcelo Santos upped sticks to form Cadaveria the band. So far they have released four albums and it is on the eve of their newest release ‘Horror Metal’ that Ave Noctum caught up with the singer to chat about her career, the new disc and Italy’s horror legacy.
Ave Noctum: Firstly congratulations on the new album. I would very much like to delve into the past before we get to it. How long have you been singing and are you self taught, when did you discover you had the talent for it?
Cadaveria: I started with a Punk Rock band, called Marciume, in 1990. We were just three, me, Flegias (drums) and Andrea (guitarist). No bass, but tons of nonsense lyrics! I went down in the cellar, I took a microphone and I started screaming on it. The guys told me it was good… I never stopped screaming since then.
Ave Noctum: You have a very distinctive voice and one that for me is instantly identifiable. If you had to, how would you describe it to someone who has never heard you?
Cadaveria: Well I think my voice was subject to a development during these twenty years. Actually I could say I’m a “death-witchy melodic growler”.
Ave Noctum: Was Opera IX your first musical foray and how did the formation of this band come about?
Cadaveria: I went to a concert and met the guys from Opera IX. I was with Flegias. The band was searching for a drummer and a singer. And we where there, ready to start.
Ave Noctum: I think it is fair to say that the band around the time of ‘Call Of The Woods’ had a bit of a cult reputation outside Italy and word quickly spread about you in the underground black metal scene. Would you agree and did this surprise you?
Cadaveria: I agree. No, it was quite easy. We immediately started working hard on some new tracks and in a few months, after the release of Demo ’92, we already had caught the attention of some underground labels. It was the era of paper correspondence, of recycled stamps and of black and white photocopied fanzines. I was a rara avis in the scene and the news ran fast…
Ave Noctum: This particular album does fascinate me, what were your ideas behind it and follow up Sacro Culto? What input did you have into the music and lyrics and what are your memories of the time?
Cadaveria: Well, we were attracted by occultism, nature and paganism. These were the main sources of inspiration for “The Call of the Wood”. With “Sacro Culto” we started dealing with witchcraft. I have very good memories of that period.
Ave Noctum: Final dwelling on the past question, what was it that led to you leaving the group and setting up your own band. It’s pretty obvious that with ‘The Shadow’s Madame’ you didn’t stray too far from the material on ‘The Black Opera’ but Opera IX did start to change their style.
Cadaveria: After ten years spent with Opera IX I had grown up as a person and artist and I felt the need to experiment with something alternative from paganism, witchcraft and stuff like that. I didn’t want to embrace only one musical path. Flegias was in the same mental phase and joined my departure from the band and the birth of Cadaveria, founded in order to create a new entity where to freely express ourselves. To underline continuity with the past but also to celebrate a rebirth I maintained my nickname, while Flegias chose Marcelo Santos that is the name of a character from the movie “Wild at Heart”. All Cadaveria members, but me, have names coming from David Lynch’s filmography.
Ave Noctum: How easy did you and Marcelo find it to find new people to work with?
Cadaveria: Well John (aka Killer Bob) was already playing with Flegias in Necrodeath and was glad to join the band. Frank Booth was the owner of the recording studio where I had recorded “Sacro Culto”. He was playing with a hard rock band in that period and was looking for something ‘harder’. Baron Harkonnen was introduced to us by John. So they were all people who were gravitating around us.
Ave Noctum: ‘The Shadow’s Madame’ was released in the UK on Nigel Wingrove of Redemption Films ‘Triple Silence’ music label. Eileen Daly’s Jezebel album was also out on it around the same time. This obviously strongly identifies the worlds of music and horror in the same realm. How did this all come about?
Of course there was a striking video done as well!
Cadaveria: The link between Cadaveria and the horror imaginary comes from the cinema and my love for it. Our 4th full length album “Horror Metal”, in stores now, marks the return to this topic, while with the other two albums “Far Away From Conformity” and “In Your Blood” we partially embraced other traditions and experimented a more modern sound.
Ave Noctum: I have to admit I completely missed the follow up ‘Far Away From Conformity’ so am not sure where that fits into things musically but fast forward to ‘In Your Blood’ 2007 and we have a very different sound, one that at times borders on nu-metal. Was this an urge to do something a bit different? Was it more experimental or were you just looking for a change of style rather than wanting to be typecast so to speak?
Cadaveria: In Your Blood can be considered the most minimalistic album of Cadaveria. In that period we felt the need to change our sound following a more immediate approach to music, by taking away instead of by adding.
We never cared about how people labelled our music, we just play what we feel and I can say that temporary ‘deviation’ was necessary. Without “In Your Blood” “Horror Metal” could not exist. The same can be said of our image that changed along these ten years, according to each album style.
Ave Noctum: This saw you on French label Season Of Mist but just for the one album? Why did the relationship not last longer, was the album not what they had anticipated perhaps?
Cadaveria: The agreement with SOM was just for one album, so it was natural to change the label after In Your Blood. Our actual label, Bakerteam Records, is a division of Scarlet Records, who released our first two albums, so it is like to come back home. In Bakerteam Cadaveria is considered a priority and the guys from the label have the right enthusiasm to manage “Horror Metal” promotion in the proper way, giving the band the visibility it deserves.
Ave Noctum: Before we move onto the new album I also noticed that you have another project Dynabyte with two albums released. One of which has the catching title ‘Extreme Metal Piercing.’ Tell us a bit about the band and what they sound like?
Cadaveria: Well, DyNAbyte is a band of the “circle”, a rib of Cadaveria, as the members are me, John and LJ Dusk (aka Baron Arkonnen, former keyboards player of CADAVERIA). LJ Dusk is the main person responsible of DyNAbyte compositions. He plays the guitar but he also programs the drums pattern and the keyboards, creating a strange kind of Industrial Metal, dealing with the Seventies Rock n’Roll transposed into the Matrix universe. We could say: post-industrial old school metal! We released two albums. The last one, named “2KX”, was out in October 2010 on a special USB format. It was released on CD by Worm Hole Death in February 2011. For more info please check out www.dynabyte.it
Ave Noctum: So bang up to date with ‘Horror Metal’ Firstly it has been almost 5 years between Cadaveria albums, why so long?
Cadaveria: We have been busy supporting In Your Blood with live gigs till 2010. In the meanwhile John and I were absorbed by DyNAbyte last production and Marcelo Santos with Necrodeath. Fortunately the new member Dick Laurent was totally focused on Cadaveria and was regularly sending us files with new riffs… Finally we entered the recording studios for a pre-production, and Horror Metal started taking shape. We have produced the entire album by ourselves and this took quite a long time.
Ave Noctum: It seems like you have gone to lengths to re-establish your position with the album title and photo shoot around it. Did you feel this necessary in case people had been put off by the last album?
Cadaveria: No, we don’t feel the need to justify anything to our fans. Each Cadaveria album is like a picture of the period in which it was composed. Now it was the time to let darkness shine again.
Ave Noctum: Describe what the relationship between horror and metal mean to you?
Cadaveria: Fans and critics always labelled Cadaveria music as Horror Metal. For me “Horror Metal” synthesizes the obscure and anguish atmospheres evoked by the eleven new songs featured in our new album. That’s why we chose this title. So Horror Metal is more a mood, a feeling, than a genre. It is well linked with our new look and with our imagination, that has always been inspired by horror movies and stuff like that.
Ave Noctum: Italyof course is synonymous with horror films in the 80s.’ Are you a fan of directors such as Argento, Fulci, Bava, Deodato, Mattei etc etc?
Cadaveria: Yes, I like very much Argento and Fulci’s first movies.
Ave Noctum: I also have to ask of you opinion in respect to the music of these films and what you think of Goblin, Fabio Frizzi, Ennio Morricone? Of course I caught you on stage inLondonwith Claudio Simonetti’s Daemonia.
Cadaveria: I think Goblin’s compositions are perfect for Argento’s movies. Nothing could emphasize a murder better than their music: cutting like a razor! Morricone’s soundtracks sound a bit boring to me. I prefer Angelo Badalamenti.
Ave Noctum: Perhaps from this there have been a certain amount of bands fromItalywho have embraced themes of horror as have you; Death SS, Mortuary Drape, Theatres Des Vampires & Ensoph, could all be mentioned in this respect. Do you agree that it could be due to the culture of these films and growing up amongst them? Do you consider you share any common affinity with any of these bands or others?
Cadaveria: Death SS and Mortuary Drape are milestones of Italian scene, but I cannot say there is a proper link between us and them, neither with Theatres Des Vampires, who are very far from our style. Our sources of inspiration are many and, speaking about horror, they must be sought in literature and cinema as well as in some gothic & macabre visual art. E.A. Poe, Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Goya’s paintings, just to mention some of them.
Ave Noctum: Musically on opener ‘Flowers In Fire’ it is quickly established that you have a more brutal and blackened feel about things than you have in a long time, would you agree and did you want to go for the throat more so to speak this time around?
Cadaveria: Well, this is what we felt we must do for this album, but I cannot say what will happen with the following one. Surely the entrance of a second guitarist in the band brought new lymph into the group and, at the same time, after an experimental album like In Your Blood, a return to our roots was unavoidable. Horror Metal is old school Black Metal (and not only…) performed by five forty-year-old minds, loving the technologies of nowadays. This could be the direction to follow also with the next album, but you never can tell. Maybe, if the 2012 prophecies will become true, we will just play some noises with stones and bones (if we are still alive).
Ave Noctum: You also flawlessly flow vocally in different styles. Where many bands need male and female to play beauty and the beast you handle both parts perfectly. One thing I wondered is if you ever did a duet so to speak who would you like to do so with and why have you not taken that opportunity in the past (at least I don’t think you have)?
Cadaveria: This is the way I can express my variegated personality at 100%. If I sing just in one way I get bored. The music and the lyrics suggest me which timbre to use in a particular part. It is funny and difficult at the same time, but very satisfying. If I make a duet I must choose someone who can teach something to me. I think MJ Keenan could be the right one. Even Skin from Skunk Anansie.
Ave Noctum: The album has a very strong sound and good production. I guess you had a lot of time to formulate ideas but tell us a bit about the recording process?
Cadaveria: We have recorded Horror Metal in three different studios. The band members live far from each other, so everyone chose a studio near his home, in order to care his own instrument recordings in the best way. For example the voice and the bass were recorded in the same studio, (The Killing Studio) inGenoa, where we also do the mixing and the mastering. Working in your own studio with no time restrictions and being the producer yourself has some positive and negative aspects. You can take your time to do the best, revisiting songs many times, but you spend much energy as you must care about everything. By the way after a first mix we entered the Capt. Woofer studio again to add keyboards arrangements and to re-record some vocal parts I didn’t like.
Ave Noctum: Were the whole band involved in the song writing process. I am guessing Marcelo had a fair bit to do with it? A black thrash bombast that reminds me of Necrodeath and my favourite of their albums ‘Mater Of All Evil’ surfaces at times.
Cadaveria: Concerning the composition, the main part of the work was done by Dick Laurent, Marcelo Santos and I. Killer Bob made the mix and the mastering. Frank Booth the keyboards and the guitars harmonisations.
Ave Noctum: You chose ‘The Days Of After And Behind’ as a single and to me that was a no brainer as it is so catchy and memorable. What made you make this decision and what is the song about. The cover art reminds a lot of Night Of The Living Dead and The Beyond?
Cadaveria: The reason is exactly ‘because it is so catchy and memorable. The lyrics deal with a mental trip I had and about the land I live in. The cover is by Roberto Savino, who illustrated also the CD booklet. His drawings are based on some suggestions I gave him, taking some concepts from the lyrics. I think they are very dark and macabre.
Ave Noctum: Any plans for any video clips? I’m sure you have some directors out there capable of zombiefying you admirably. Michele Soavi could certainly do with a prod
Cadaveria: Sure! We already wrote the screenplay for “Flowers in Fire”. We are defining the location right now and we will start shooting next month.
Ave Noctum: I was surprised as hell at the Southern stoner rock licks on ‘Apocalypse’ but really liked it. Whose idea was that and what is the song about?
Cadaveria: The song is inspired to Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto and is about a monologue played in the movie, when a young girl predicts a future catastrophe for her enemies. Musically the song has echo coming from Black Sabbath and Black/Death Metal tradition. It is probably the song that mixes the different styles of the album.
Ave Noctum: Are there any plans to hit the road and tour the album outside of Italy?
Cadaveria: In Italy there are just few venues where to worthily make a gig. We are receiving some interesting offers to go and play abroad this Autumn and we are evaluating them.
Ave Noctum: Was that London date with Daemonia and Electric Wizard the only time you have played the UK? I really cannot remember any other dates, what are your memories of it and what are the chances of a return?
Cadaveria: Yes it was the only time. I have a very good memory of that show both for the audience and the club. I know that a video was shot by Redemption Films /Triple Silence, but unfortunately I never had the occasion to see it. We hope to come back to UK as soon as possible.
Ave Noctum: Finally a somewhat clichéd question perhaps but if you had to choose five songs from your career what would they be and why?
Cadaveria: Spell ‘cause is a masterpiece
Blood and Confusion ‘cause it represents me
Before the apes came ‘cause is a beautiful tale
Flowers in Fire ‘cause it talks about a personal experience
The Oracle (of the Fog) ‘cause is very strange. Probably the most complete song of this new album.
Ave Noctum: Anything you want to add?
Thanks for this interview. My best regards to you and to all the readers.
http://www.facebook.com/cadaveria?ref=ts&sk=app_2405167945
Interviewed by Pete Woods
1 Pingback