photo by Cristina Ferrero
(Through the good graces of Season of Mist, the distinctive Italian black/doom metal band Ponte del Diavolo released their debut album last month (reviewed here by our own Andy Synn), and that provided the impetus for Comrade Aleks to reach out for the interview we now present.)
Even though black metal in its pure, true, and evil form isn’t associated with Italy, there are a few interesting bands there with their own authentic view of this genre. Sometimes their uniqueness is rooted in a mix of black metal with other genres, sometimes it’s their native aesthetic or cultural references, and sometimes it’s both.
Ponte del Diavolo was founded in 2020 by Abro (bass), Laurus (bass), Segale Cornuta (drums), Nerium (guitars), and Erba del Diavolo (vocals). Only Abro and Laurus previously played in different death, black, and doom metal bands; as for the other members, Ponte del Diavolo was a new outfit.
Season of Mist released Ponte del Diavolo‘s debut album Fire Blades from the Tomb on the 16th of February. These six stories of authentic and passionate romantic black metal with doom influences and female vocals are complimented with a cover of Nick Cave’s “Weeping Song”, another good reason to pay attetion to this album.
We had a talk with several of the band’s members about the new album and other things.
******
Hi Ponte del Diavolo! How are you? What’s happening in Ponte del Diavolo?
Krhura Abro: Hi, everything’s fine here! We are very excited about the release of the new record and we are writing the second one.
Really? How much can you already tell about it?
Krhura Abro: Not much really, we’re writing demos of 3/4 songs at the moment but we have riffs and ideas for at least two records. At the moment I would say there might be more post-punk on the new record but it’s too early to tell. Definitely a new feature will be the contribution of the new second bass player Kratom both in the arrangement and compositional phase.
photo by Cristina Ferrero
The band was started in 2020, and I see that Abro and Laurus already had a rich experience performing black and doom metal with different bands. What about the musical background of Segale, Nerium, and Erba?
Krhura Abro: Segale comes from rock/alternative and stoner; Nerium from post metal, doom with ’70s influences; Erba del Diavolo has a post-punk/darkwave background.
Both Abro and Laurus perform bass — why did you choose to leave things this way? Didn’t you think to play two basses without any guitars like Necromantia did?
Krhura Abro: No, because the guitar is very important in our musical economy; the riffs of Nerium are load-bearing and original.
Do I get it right: that you started with two bass guitars, but now you have the standard set with a guitar?
Krhura Abro: we started from the beginning with two basses and a guitar.
I think that I asked The Magus this question two months ago. Italy and Greece are very close in any sense – cultural, geographic, and in mentality as well probably. Why was a solid black metal scene formed only in Greece, as Italian soil gave birth only to such distinctive genres like Italian progressive rock and the Dark Italian Sound?
Krhura Abro: If we want to dig into the roots, I believe that the Italian people, compared to other European peoples, have less identity and are more contaminated than others. A band from northern Italy sounds very different from a band from southern Italy, for example; perhaps it is also for this reason that a common scene has not been created in our country, as was the case in Greece or Norway. Add the fact that in the 1980s metal in Italy had everyone against it.
Why didn’t it happen in the ’90s? The scene, for example, has Death SS who are very influential due to its image and approach.
Krhura Abro: In the ’90s I think something was about to happen; a scene was not established but some Italian metal bands started to become mainstream abroad. Unfortunately, many bands sounded very influenced by international acts.
What about the local influences in your case? Did any Italian bands influence Ponte del Diavolo?
Krhura Abro: We go to a lot of concerts and appreciate a lot of national bands but I don’t think there is anyone in particular who has influenced us — a little bit of everyone and no one.
From the very beginning Ponte del Diavolo was very active. You released three EPs since 2020 to 2022. So it looks like you were well-prepared and had a number of good ideas to fulfill in the songs. Was your vision of Ponte del Diavolo formed precisely from the very beginning or did you complete it along the way?
Krhura Abro: It all came together very naturally and quickly actually, without much thought.
Do you have a mastermind in the band? Or is your new album Fire Blades from the Tomb a result of common efforts?
Krhura Abro: No, no mastermind. Me and Nerium mainly bring ideas to our practice room and then develop them together; the lyrics and vocal lines are the work of Erba del Diavolo.
We recently changed one of the two bass players. The new bass player Kratom, who took over from Laurus, has already proven to be very proactive in terms of songwriting, so on the second record we would definitely have something new musically.
How do you define the album’s concept? Is there a central motive that connects all your releases with one theme?
Erba del Diavolo: What we play and write comes from the heart. The only thing we want to pursue is the freedom of expression, contact with nature and the most creative and living part of man, his “daimon”.
Okay, let’s put it straight: what are your songs about?
Erba del Diavolo: Human being, nature, love and death.
How did this mix of old-school black and doom metal help you to support this concept? Does this combination prove itself an efficient one?
Krhura Abro: There’s nothing studied here really. Everyone brings their own influence and the pieces come out like that; by the way, we don’t like to spend too much time on the pieces and the details, we want to capture that slightly punk and raw freshness both in the composition phase but also as an approach during the recording. This is a very spontaneous project and we want to treat it as such.
There are four guest musicians in Fire Blades from the Tomb who recorded for you synths, theremin, clarinet, and vocals for the last song. Did you plan it from the start or was it a spontaneous decision?
Krhura Abro: We contacted the guests to add colour to the work:
Vittorio Sabelli on bass clarinet. All his projects are quite original and evocative: Incantvm, Amen, Dawn of a Dark Age, Notturno, etc. He played on three tracks on the album;
Lucynine ‘one man black metal band’ on theremin on “Covenant”;
Andrea L’Abbate (who has since become our new second bass player) on synths on “Covenant”. Previously he was the singer in the death metal band Fierce and other extreme bands with whom he toured extensively.
Davide Straccione of Shores of Null, on the other hand, sang and performed on the cover of Nick Cave‘s “The Weeping Song”.
Nick Cave has a lot of killer songs, but you picked up “The Weeping Song”. Why did you think it fits better to Fire Blades from the Tomb?
Nerium: Nick Cave is an artist that all of us in the band listen to and respect. When the question of choosing a cover came up, his name came naturally (after all, Blixa, singer of Einstürzende Neubauten, another band we admire, also sings in that song).
What are your plans regarding live shows in 2024? With what kind of bands do you usually share the stage?
Nerium: We have defined upcoming concerts roughly until next summer; they are mainly in Italy with only one live in Switzerland. The rest is in the making and we hope to be able to announce many more. We tend to share the stage with local bands musically related to us.
Krhura Abro: I would add that the bands we play with are never chosen at random. A scene in Italy exists, so we decided to involve bands that we esteem musically and almost in all cases personally, in the sense that there is a real relationship with many of them, not just a musical and artistic exchange. We really like the idea that all the tour dates have a high artistic quality index.
With which bands do you prefer to share the stage?
Krhura Abro: We prefer to share the stage with those bands that are not full of themselves.
Thank you for the interview. Did we skip something? What are your last words to our readers?
Thank you for this opportunity and your interest! Support Ponte del Diavolo.
https://www.facebook.com/PontedelDiavolo/
https://pontedeldiavolo666.bandcamp.com/album/fire-blades-from-the-tomb