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	<< back \| interviews/methedras Methedras 1. Greetings, Italian metalheads! As Methedras is a new name in the worldwide metal scene, please present your band to our readers. Hail to all of you metalheads!! Methedras is a thrash-death killing machine from the north of Italy (near Milan), it was born in 1996 from the sick minds of Andrea B. and Massi D., respectively the bass player (who is writing) and the rhythm guitarist. The main idea on which all was founded can be expressed as the will of two musicians to build-up a band able to summarize the blind and wild rage proper of a certain type of death metal, with the melodic and smart energy related to the most direct and heavier thrash metal of the early 80's. We think that idea, today, is represented by Methedras. 2. You were formed in '96, but only after 8 years you succeded to release your debut album... Is there any reason for that? Yeah... a lot of time! During this period Methedras released a demo tape in 1999 and two promo-CD's in 2001 and 2002, but those productions were not so good, you understand, not so much money and first studio experiences. We decided anyway to wait until the right moment, when all the circumstances and conditions were favorable, and this happened in 2004. Only at that time we started considering the perspective to record and self-produce a whole debut album, and the last results are giving us reason. 3. Why chosing thrash metal? Is this your favorite metal style? Is there any chance that thrash will become once again what it was two decades ago? Why Thrash Metal? Because it is THE metal genre... we are all grown listening to Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Annihilator, etc. from dawn till dusk and for us it has been normal as breathing to start playing this kind of music... we love it, we like to play it over anything else and probably we would be playing nothing different in all our lives. We are absolutely sure thrash metal will come back in its whole grandeur, and important reunions of acts like Exodus, Testament, Anthrax, Destruction, Death Angel and others are confirming nowadays this expected come back. Furthermore, today the sound is more aggressive and tidy... just modern, raising in this way a big interest around it and the bands able to best play and support it, and we'll be one of them, for sure! 4. As I saw it, Italy has a very strong thrash metal scene, with lots of bands and lots of shows. Which other bands would you recommend us? How do you see your local scene? Italian thrash metal scene is growing quick and healthy... there are lots of good bands with good albums... production is improving as well so the results are not so far from the most famous American and North European acts.I think in few years Italy could export extreme music like U.S., England or Sweden, moreover with a fresher and more straight-in-your-face approach.Other Italian bands to recommend? Try to listen to "Aware" from the techno-thrasher Aneurysm, or find and buy "Target: Hate" of our friends Irreverence... great acts are also Warmonger, Brain Dead, Enemynside, Hatework, Hyades and obviously the more known Necrodeath. 5. Let's get back to Methedras and to its debut album. Please promote it inhere for our readers; how would you describe the music on it and why a metalhead should buy it? Recursive is a word that means something which through iterations turns back at the starting point. For us it means that the evil and the pervertion of this world will never finish and constantly come back continuing to move our actions and animate our thoughts.The album is a powerful mixture of an early bay-area thrash metal with some death metal lines in the veins of great bands from U.S. and Sweden.Think about Testament, Exodus or Nuclear Assault meeting Death (R.I.P.) or Entombed guys and gigging something all together... if you like these bands and their music, that's why you should buy our fucking CD! 6. Can you please present each track existent on it, both musically and lyrically? The album is opened by a short intro (a sort of rehearsal take mixed over sound fx and police radio speaking) that introduces L.R.S., the first song. L.R.S. is the last track created, I mean in a chronological way, and reflects the latest state of the band... technically it's not the album climax, but it is really direct and instinctive resounding quite soon in the listener mind. Lyrics are direct and tough as well, speaking about impositions over the youths perpetrated by those cynic mighty men who move the society as they more like. Drowning By Torment is the most structurally complex song of the whole album, showing the techno-side of the band... it has been re-arranged several times in order to correctly find the right pattern that could conjugate the power, thrash oriented side of our sound with the intricate, more death based aspect of Methedras music... lyrics speak about personal moods deriving from frustration and humiliation of being completely alone. Then Wreck 'N' Roll... this is a strange song, preferred by our lead guitarist, it's a sort of death 'n' roll with clenched vocals that remind something rap-core based, all forged into a gloomy and oppressive framework... vocals cry out a sort of desperate scream aiming to a physical and psychological freedom out of the cage of a routine life. My Iniquity Whirl is an old piece and shows Methedras thrash metal essentials, expressed with harmony and a lot of melody. Time To Die is a good break... it's pure rock 'n' roll with a catchy refrain that can shift also the mountains!! Lyrically another selfish thoughts around the final passage, when we leave our bodies and all the material things. Now begins the last part of the album, with faster rhythmics and infernal tempos. The first is The Denied God, a very old song speaking about that big lie represented by religions everywhere... thrasher mood for beautiful and unusual vocal lines. Then Under, a thrash-death attack with the unique goal to hurt your brain and smash you down... impact is imminent and you're the hero of the story, but watch your back! Finally, Darkness... the oldest piece of Recursive, its structure was built between 1996 and 1997... rocky and simple riffs for fantasy lyrics inspired by the worst nightmares, with a starlike solo that makes you fly like a stoned hippie!! 7. The recording, mixing, mastering and release of the whole thing took you more than a year. Why so much? Recursive is the result of years of work and it represents what Methedras have been until 2004... it could be seen as the answer to who has never trusted in us. We are very proud of it because it’s a part of our soul. The project started at the beginning of 2003, when we put on DAT some new stuff in order to understand how music sounded and which feeling it produced. We realized to have very interesting material with high potentiality... in April 2003 we entered the studio to pre-produce the first three tracks of the new album and we used the resulting stuff as advance-CD for promotional purposes. Feedback went over expectations and this made us consider the possibility to self-produce the whole album. So all took the right way, and Methedras closed themselves into the studio at the beginning of July 2003 to record the eigth songs which actually represent Recursive... the mixing process took very long time to carry out, we started it in September 2003 and finished in March 2004, then mastering and printing and finally Recursive was born at the end of May 2004. Mixing process, most of all, took such a long time becouse we tried to fix several recording troubles and also to find the right sound of each instruments. We wanted all sounded perfect giving the whole impression of a huge wall ruining on you, but where the single musical parts were clearly listenable. In the end, we think to have successfully reached our purposes... the album is not perfect (I.E. guitar sound could be better and drums clearer), but anyway it can be assumed as a good album, considering it's a self-produced debut. 8. There's another year now since its release. How was it received by the press and how much did it sold? Press reviews have been most of all enthusiastic and fine... they all underlined the peculiarities of the album: aggression, power control, riffing accuracy, rhythmics excellence.... sometimes vocals and mainly production have been disapproved, but in the end we can say the press approval has been almost everywhere. Now the worst part... selling! If you mean we recovered the produciotn costs, ok we can say: yes, now we're peer. If you mean we can survive with Recursive profits, no... we're very far from it! Anyway, a huge distro-campaign is going to be launched by our new management agency, the Belgian Hardebaran, in order to supply American and European markets with new copies of the album through TFM/Century Media channels... for this occasion we decided to re-print an extra version of Recursive adding two mpeg videos taken from our experience at Wacken Open Air in 2004... great show and a sound that kicks your ass! You have to watch at them!! 9. Another curious thing, "Recursive" is released by you and a recording studio... Why isn't it released by a real label? How were and are your relations with the labels worldwide? Still no offer that would reach at your demands' standard? Recursive is mainly a self-production... when we entered the recording studio we met a special guy, Yonatan Rukhman, able to first believe in the band and its music and to support us during the whole production process.He took such a great part in it, that we decided to put his little indie label as co-production partner. Unfortunately the promo-campaign regarding Recursive was not planned in the right way by our promo-agencies, so that the album is still not completely known rather everywhere as it would deserve.Moreover, we firmly decided to avoid label contacts at the moment because we're persuaded it's better to wait until the band is ready to make this step... we prefer to gain more visibility/popularity by ourselves and thanking our strengths before being exposed by a label whatever which, in some cases, could cause more damages than profits... obviously this is only a point of view, and in future, when circumstances will run properly, we'll be very happy to evaluate any possible label offer. 10. Last year you played at the famous Waken Open Air Festival. How was it? And please tell us more about the contest on the W.E.T. stage. Great! Simply incredible.... we caught such an opportunity thanking the winning of a national contest among metal bands declared by a famous Italian magazine and the most visited Italian webzine.We played on the W.E.T. stage, the smallest stage at Wacken, but the joy and satisfaction were so high to feel like the headliner of the whole festival.Our performance was good, sounds as well, we made bunch of people mosh a lot and also organizers seemed to appreciate, in fact we set at the second place within the international contest on W.E.T. stage, behind a very good Finnish act. None of us had ever heard about it, until the jury (organizers crew and staff) told us its polling... then happened we were the second act most voted. But the really important thing, I wish to outline, was that we were always treated like a professional band, without distinction, obtaining the same privileges as renowned signed acts (same VIP area, same catering, same PA, etc.)... this is the greatness and nobility of the worldwide famous German fest! 11. The band is a five-men union. Are you close friends or do you meet only for practicing? What can you tell us about each of you and your musical backgrounds? Now the band is only a four-men union, as per desertion of our historic drummer. We are actually helped by a couple of close friends which support us during the live performances and the recording sessions of new stuff.First of all we are very close friends, similar to brothers... we're like a family where honesty and respect are the basis. Try to imagine a people group where everyone fucks the other... it wouldn't work! As said above, Andrea B. (bass - me) and Massi D. (rhythm guitar) are the founders, we have never played in other bands and our backgrounds are pretty (thrash) metal oriented... Eros M. (rhythm & lead guitar) is the real mastermind of Methedras, he played in fucking lots of bands, from rock, hard rock to dark and metal, his technical preparation is sublime and at the moment the 80% of our music originates from his mind... then Claudio F. (vocals) is a real stage animal, his experience in front of people constantly helps the whole band to acquire even more certainty and self-consciousness, he's incredibly able to make metalheads mosh each others! 12. You say your thrash metal has some Swedish death spiced all over, but I would say there's more techno death a la Death/Atheist in it... Yeah... I'm agree with you, in Recursive the techno-death side present is more U.S. oriented, simply because during the years in which Recursive songs were built we used to hear thousands of times the whole Death discography. But it's a couple of years that we're appreciating a lot the Swedish thrash/death scene, and I think you could find out a more European approach in the newest compositions... a la The Haunted/Entombed, just to say a pair of names. 13. For how long are you musicians and what instruments do you use? Was it hard to have a steady professional gear at your rehearsal place? Are the instruments cheap in Italy? I play the bass guitar since 1996, when I built up Methedras. Instruments here in Italy are not so cheap, unfortunately! We did huge sacrifices and debts in order to properly set up our rehearsal place and buy personal instruments. We believe we have to be the first investors in ourselves and in our music to become credible and gain the reliance of others, I.E. labels. 14. Ok, that would be all for now. Thanks for your time and hope you'll keep us updated with your band's news and we'll have the chance to talk again when the new album will be out. All the best! Thank you very much... it will be a pleasure for Methedras to keep Tempest Music updated and send it new stuff! Hail to all of you and keep the metal faith alive!

<< back | interviews/methedras

Methedras

1. Greetings, Italian metalheads! As Methedras is a new name in the worldwide metal scene, please present your band to our readers.
Hail to all of you metalheads!! Methedras is a thrash-death killing machine from the north of Italy (near Milan), it was born in 1996 from the sick minds of Andrea B. and Massi D., respectively the bass player (who is writing) and the rhythm guitarist. The main idea on which all was founded can be expressed as the will of two musicians to build-up a band able to summarize the blind and wild rage proper of a certain type of death metal, with the melodic and smart energy related to the most direct and heavier thrash metal of the early 80's. We think that idea, today, is represented by Methedras.

2. You were formed in '96, but only after 8 years you succeded to release your debut album... Is there any reason for that?
Yeah... a lot of time! During this period Methedras released a demo tape in 1999 and two promo-CD's in 2001 and 2002, but those productions were not so good, you understand, not so much money and first studio experiences. We decided anyway to wait until the right moment, when all the circumstances and conditions were favorable, and this happened in 2004. Only at that time we started considering the perspective to record and self-produce a whole debut album, and the last results are giving us reason.

3. Why chosing thrash metal? Is this your favorite metal style? Is there any chance that thrash will become once again what it was two decades ago?
Why Thrash Metal? Because it is THE metal genre... we are all grown listening to Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Annihilator, etc. from dawn till dusk and for us it has been normal as breathing to start playing this kind of music... we love it, we like to play it over anything else and probably we would be playing nothing different in all our lives. We are absolutely sure thrash metal will come back in its whole grandeur, and important reunions of acts like Exodus, Testament, Anthrax, Destruction, Death Angel and others are confirming nowadays this expected come back. Furthermore, today the sound is more aggressive and tidy... just modern, raising in this way a big interest around it and the bands able to best play and support it, and we'll be one of them, for sure!

4. As I saw it, Italy has a very strong thrash metal scene, with lots of bands and lots of shows. Which other bands would you recommend us? How do you see your local scene?
Italian thrash metal scene is growing quick and healthy... there are lots of good bands with good albums... production is improving as well so the results are not so far from the most famous American and North European acts.I think in few years Italy could export extreme music like U.S., England or Sweden, moreover with a fresher and more straight-in-your-face approach.Other Italian bands to recommend? Try to listen to "Aware" from the techno-thrasher Aneurysm, or find and buy "Target: Hate" of our friends Irreverence... great acts are also Warmonger, Brain Dead, Enemynside, Hatework, Hyades and obviously the more known Necrodeath.

5. Let's get back to Methedras and to its debut album. Please promote it inhere for our readers; how would you describe the music on it and why a metalhead should buy it?
Recursive is a word that means something which through iterations turns back at the starting point. For us it means that the evil and the pervertion of this world will never finish and constantly come back continuing to move our actions and animate our thoughts.The album is a powerful mixture of an early bay-area thrash metal with some death metal lines in the veins of great bands from U.S. and Sweden.Think about Testament, Exodus or Nuclear Assault meeting Death (R.I.P.) or Entombed guys and gigging something all together... if you like these bands and their music, that's why you should buy our fucking CD!

6. Can you please present each track existent on it, both musically and lyrically?
The album is opened by a short intro (a sort of rehearsal take mixed over sound fx and police radio speaking) that introduces L.R.S., the first song. L.R.S. is the last track created, I mean in a chronological way, and reflects the latest state of the band... technically it's not the album climax, but it is really direct and instinctive resounding quite soon in the listener mind.
Lyrics are direct and tough as well, speaking about impositions over the youths perpetrated by those cynic mighty men who move the society as they more like. Drowning By Torment is the most structurally complex song of the whole album, showing the techno-side of the band... it has been re-arranged several times in order to correctly find the right pattern that could conjugate the power, thrash oriented side of our sound with the intricate, more death based aspect of Methedras music... lyrics speak about personal moods deriving from frustration and humiliation of being completely alone. Then Wreck 'N' Roll... this is a strange song, preferred by our lead guitarist, it's a sort of death 'n' roll with clenched vocals that remind something rap-core based, all forged into a gloomy and oppressive framework... vocals cry out a sort of desperate scream aiming to a physical and psychological freedom out of the cage of a routine life.
My Iniquity Whirl is an old piece and shows Methedras thrash metal essentials, expressed with harmony and a lot of melody. Time To Die is a good break... it's pure rock 'n' roll with a catchy refrain that can shift also the mountains!! Lyrically another selfish thoughts around the final passage, when we leave our bodies and all the material things. Now begins the last part of the album, with faster rhythmics and infernal tempos. The first is The Denied God, a very old song speaking about that big lie represented by religions everywhere... thrasher mood for beautiful and unusual vocal lines. Then Under, a thrash-death attack with the unique goal to hurt your brain and smash you down... impact is imminent and you're the hero of the story, but watch your back! Finally, Darkness... the oldest piece of Recursive, its structure was built between 1996 and 1997... rocky and simple riffs for fantasy lyrics inspired by the worst nightmares, with a starlike solo that makes you fly like a stoned hippie!!

7. The recording, mixing, mastering and release of the whole thing took you more than a year. Why so much?
Recursive is the result of years of work and it represents what Methedras
have been until 2004... it could be seen as the answer to who has never trusted in us. We are very proud of it because it’s a part of our soul. The project started at the beginning of 2003, when we put on DAT some new stuff in order to understand how music sounded and which feeling it produced. We realized to have very interesting material with high potentiality... in April 2003 we entered the studio to pre-produce the first three tracks of the new album and we used the resulting stuff as advance-CD for promotional purposes. Feedback went over expectations and this made us consider the possibility to self-produce the whole album. So all took the right way, and Methedras closed themselves into the studio at the beginning of July 2003 to record the eigth songs which actually represent Recursive... the mixing process took very long time to carry
out, we started it in September 2003 and finished in March 2004, then mastering and printing and finally Recursive was born at the end of May 2004. Mixing process, most of all, took such a long time becouse we tried to fix several recording troubles and also to find the right sound of each instruments. We wanted all sounded perfect giving the whole impression of a huge wall ruining on you, but where the single musical parts were clearly listenable. In the end, we think to have successfully reached our purposes... the album is not perfect (I.E. guitar sound could be better and drums clearer), but anyway it can be assumed as a good album, considering it's a self-produced debut.

8. There's another year now since its release. How was it received by the press and how much did it sold?
Press reviews have been most of all enthusiastic and fine... they all underlined the peculiarities of the album: aggression, power control, riffing accuracy, rhythmics excellence.... sometimes vocals and mainly production have been disapproved, but in the end we can say the press approval has been almost everywhere. Now the worst part... selling! If you mean we recovered the produciotn costs, ok we can say: yes, now we're peer. If you mean we can survive with Recursive profits, no... we're very far from it! Anyway, a huge distro-campaign is going to be launched by our new management agency, the Belgian Hardebaran, in order to supply American and European markets with new copies of the album through TFM/Century Media channels... for this occasion we decided to re-print an extra version of Recursive adding two mpeg videos taken from our experience at Wacken Open Air in 2004... great show and a sound that kicks your ass! You have to watch at them!!

9. Another curious thing, "Recursive" is released by you and a recording studio... Why isn't it released by a real label? How were and are your relations with the labels worldwide? Still no offer that would reach at your demands' standard?
Recursive is mainly a self-production... when we entered the recording studio we met a special guy, Yonatan Rukhman, able to first believe in the band and its music and to support us during the whole production process.He took such a great part in it, that we decided to put his little indie label as co-production partner. Unfortunately the promo-campaign regarding Recursive was not planned in the right way by our promo-agencies, so that the album is still not completely known rather everywhere as it would deserve.Moreover, we firmly decided to avoid label contacts at the moment because we're persuaded it's better to wait until the band is ready to make this step... we prefer to gain more visibility/popularity by ourselves and thanking our strengths before being exposed by a label whatever which, in some cases, could cause more damages than profits... obviously this is only a point of view, and in future, when circumstances will run properly, we'll be very happy to evaluate any possible label offer.

10. Last year you played at the famous Waken Open Air Festival. How was it? And please tell us more about the contest on the W.E.T. stage.
Great! Simply incredible.... we caught such an opportunity thanking the winning of a national contest among metal bands declared by a famous Italian magazine and the most visited Italian webzine.We played on the W.E.T. stage, the smallest stage at Wacken, but the joy and satisfaction were so high to feel like the headliner of the whole festival.Our performance was good, sounds as well, we made bunch of people mosh a lot and also organizers seemed to appreciate, in fact we set at the second place within the international contest on W.E.T. stage, behind a very good Finnish act. None of us had ever heard about it, until the jury (organizers crew and staff) told us its polling... then happened we were the second act most voted.
But the really important thing, I wish to outline, was that we were always treated like a professional band, without distinction, obtaining the same privileges as renowned signed acts (same VIP area, same catering, same PA, etc.)... this is the greatness and nobility of the worldwide famous German fest!

11. The band is a five-men union. Are you close friends or do you meet only for practicing? What can you tell us about each of you and your musical backgrounds?
Now the band is only a four-men union, as per desertion of our historic drummer. We are actually helped by a couple of close friends which support us during the live performances and the recording sessions of new stuff.First of all we are very close friends, similar to brothers... we're like a family where honesty and respect are the basis. Try to imagine a people group where everyone fucks the other... it wouldn't work! As said above, Andrea B. (bass - me) and Massi D. (rhythm guitar) are the founders, we have never played in other bands and our backgrounds are pretty (thrash) metal oriented... Eros M. (rhythm & lead guitar) is the real mastermind of Methedras, he played in fucking lots of bands, from rock, hard rock to dark and metal, his technical preparation is sublime and at the moment the 80% of our music originates from his mind... then Claudio F. (vocals) is a real stage animal, his experience in front of people constantly helps the whole band to acquire even more certainty and self-consciousness, he's incredibly able to make metalheads mosh each others!

12. You say your thrash metal has some Swedish death spiced all over, but I would say there's more techno death a la Death/Atheist in it...
Yeah... I'm agree with you, in Recursive the techno-death side present is more U.S. oriented, simply because during the years in which Recursive songs were built we used to hear thousands of times the whole Death discography. But it's a couple of years that we're appreciating a lot the Swedish thrash/death scene, and I think you could find out a more European approach in the newest compositions... a la The Haunted/Entombed, just to say a pair of names.

13. For how long are you musicians and what instruments do you use? Was it hard to have a steady professional gear at your rehearsal place? Are the instruments cheap in Italy?
I play the bass guitar since 1996, when I built up Methedras. Instruments here in Italy are not so cheap, unfortunately! We did huge sacrifices and debts in order to properly set up our rehearsal place and buy personal instruments. We believe we have to be the first investors in ourselves and in our music to become credible and gain the reliance of others, I.E. labels.

14. Ok, that would be all for now. Thanks for your time and hope you'll keep us updated with your band's news and we'll have the chance to talk again when the new album will be out. All the best!
Thank you very much... it will be a pleasure for Methedras to keep Tempest Music updated and send it new stuff! Hail to all of you and keep the metal faith alive!