Metallus interview (translated from Italian)
Ettore (Hector) Bezzi
Finally another ‘new’ but great band from Sweden, Grand Magus. Your music is something great old but renewed in its style. How did you reach and choose it? Did it come naturally?
"Yes, it came naturally, you know we’ve always listened to the seventies kind of bands like Deep Purple and stuff, but also eighties heavy metal like Judas Priest and stuff like that, you know, Dio…so I think we are a sort of combination between seventies rock and more modern metal sound but still you know, not really modern but the eighties, the early eighties metal sound"
It´s a mix between the great classics!
"Yeah"
In your lyrics, in particular, you talk about the relationship between man and nature and the elements that surround us. These subjects are why you come from a place that´s full of nature, maybe?
"Yes! It probably has a great effect on your own person, I mean I try to spend as much time as I can in the nature, you know we go fishing and we go walking in the woods and stuff like that. I guess it has an effect, sure!"
You´re lucky! Here in Milan we don´t have so much nature!
"Yes I guess not, but we all have, for those cool things, we have a price to pay, all of us, you know…"
Yes, surely! Well, you play a Gibson Fly V guitar and a Marshall Valvestate and Foxen uses a Rickenbacker bass (like Lemmy´s and Cliff Burton´s one). Are you passionate for the seventies instruments?
"Yeah, sure…but, who told you I play a Valvestate Marshall?"
Well, I read it on your web site…but I think I´m wrong, maybe I confuse myself…
"Oh yeah, no, it is wrong ´cause I play a Marshall but it´s a 70 Marshall, it´s a Tube amplifier, not a Valvestate…"
Ah, ok, sorry…
"…yeah, so, I mean, there are many kinds of guitars, you can play Fender or Gibson, everything else is base-rock instruments, and I mean, these are very good instruments and so why play anything else?!"
Yes, I see…when you were looking for a drummer like John Bonham and Bill Ward, did you choose Trisse by an audition or he was an old friend of yours?
"Oh, no , we did not know him at all…we put up an ad ´cause we wanted that kind of a drummer, you know, and we put it up outside. We were outside an anniversary show of Deep Purple´s California Jamming, a concert. So we thought that…you know the concert they did 74, named California Jamming, it was filmed, you know? They had like a jubileum!! It was 25 years ago…"
If I know? Yes I do! (I have it on vinyl and on CD…how could I miss that? - N.f.A.)
"…and so we thought that anyone that´s gone to see them playing, must be someone who likes this kind of music. And then next day he called us and we had an audition and, you know, it was like ´This is the one!´ you know? It was strange, a strange coincidence and maybe some kind of magic involved…"
So, you named Deep Purple many times…I´m young, I´m 26 years old, but I know them very well and I like them very very much (I grew up with my father listening to them!), but…I mean, many bands are playing some kind of rock only because Deep Purple just made it before but for you is different? Do you think to link to a particular scene, only seventies and only rock?
"Ehmm….I think I understand what you mean with…I would say that we not linked to a particular scene, I think we are a band that combines traditional heavy rock and classic heavy metal, and doom, really and so we are more a hard rock or heavy metal band than a stoner band, or whatever else you want to call it…"
Ah, ok…maybe I explained it too bad! I wanted to know if you are bringing in the modern times the "old" school of rock, like Deep Purple and others…but you answered me yet!
"Ah, OK!"
So, what did you think when mister Lee Dorrian said that he wanted you to play for Rise Above Records?
"Oh yeah! You can imagine this stuff, I mean, I bought the first Cathedral album when it came out and Lee Dorrian, you know, is a really cool guy, I couldn´t believe it really ´cause for us Rise Above is the ultimate record label and when they said us they liked our music so much so they wanted to sign us, you can imagine the stuff was like, cool! You know?"
Yeah!
"It was a very good feeling, really, really great!"
Rise Above is now supporting the stoner doom and classic rock scene, so, what do you think about this particular new interest about stoner rock and hard blues. There are many bands and all of them are very good at that!
"Well, I think, I can´t speak for any other band, you know.... Well, I think one of the reasons behind the interest is that we care a lot about doing good songs. We´re not into a special kind of production or a special kind of sound…we try to make good songs like they used to do them, and when you make a song that you can naturally remember and that contains a cool riff, a good melody, you know…a good song! We don´t wanna make the fastest album ever made or the heaviest album ever made. No one is longer interested in the fastest albums…you know…"
Are there particular causes why many of the bands in this scene come from Sweden or Finland?
"He he…I have no idea!! Maybe we are good at that…many people in Sweden listen to a lot of music. All my friends, we always get together and listen to records and have a few drinks while talking about music, ´Hey listen to this vocalist´, ´…and listen to this drummer´ and ´Listen to this guitar player…´ it´s always been that way and if you listen to a lot of music then you get a bigger…ehmmm…what should I call…a bigger ball to choose from, you know. So, if you listen only to one band or often to only one, where do you gonna get your inspiration? So listen to more music, and not only hard rock, but all music!"
Yes, in fact in Sweden you have very good band in punk hardcore, like Hardcore Superstar, and also in stoner, doom or death wave, like Amorphis and Dark Tranquillity…ok, very good! I will come to Sweden!
"Oh yeah! Really?"
Yes I hope it will be soon…I like that country so much!
Do you have any ideas for the future? Any tour with other bands?
"Yeah, we´ll probably do some touring with maybe another band on Rise Above. We do not have any specific date, but, they´re working at the moment on it and probably we´ll do something maybe December, January, February, March or something
(yeah! Very long planning…N.f.A.)"
The last, a particular note, curiosity. Who is the man in the front cover that holds your booklet?
"Ha ha…(surprise and satisfaction, N.f.A.) you saw he holds our booklet?! You´re the first one to notice that!!"
Well, I watch in particular mode the booklets, you can find very interesting things in that…
"Yeah, good for you! I´ll send you a medal! He he he…!"
What?
"A gift, ha ha, for being the first one to see that! No, just kidding…Well, the guy on the cover…who do you think he is?"
Ehmmm….There is a priest, here in Italy, that plays heavy metal, and he looks just like that man…but it´s not him, isn´t it?!
"No, it´s not him…I can´t tell you the whole truth, I can tell you this: the Grand Magus, the name of our band, the Grand Magus is like the Grand Master of a magical order. And he is a Grand Magus…I won´t tell you what order he represents but he symbolises what a Grand Magus is…so he´s like the symbol of the band!
About Grand Magus and magic legends, did you ever read something of Laurence Gardner? He wrote a book not long time ago about northern legends, the Graal and the kings who descended from it and the all old gods and divinities…
"So, what´s his name?"
Laurence Gardner…I think he could be linked to your music and themes very similar…
"Yeah, surely…It´s very interesting and I read a lot about that kind of stuff and growing up in Sweden you, well you don´t hear much about Sigfried and that kind of stuff, but from the first day you´re born you listen to the stories about Odin and Thor…"
Yeah…well, my name derives from Thor. In fact it is Hec-Thor, that is "from Thor"…
"Yeah that´s right! I´m really interested in that kind of stuff!
All right! So thank you very much for this interview…
"Yeah, my pleasure! When we come to play in Italy I´ll play for you!"
Yeah, thank you very much! Keep on goin´ on!
www.metallus.it
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