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file under prog / sympho metal
The self-titled debut album of Pathosray is highly recommended for everyone with a soft spot for progressive metal. These five Italian musicians worked cautiously at their first full-length and it resulted in a superior album that does not yield to the established names in the genre. Thus we contacted this enthusiastic guys and bass player Fabio D’Amore, a member of the band since 2006, answered the questions of Lords of Metal with Italian temperament.
Text: Vera
‘Pathosray’ is a very mature album with a top notch production, hats off for a debut one. But I think you guys have been playing together for a while now. Please tell us how it all began?
First of all, I would like to thank you very much for your words! The band was created in 2001, from the idea of Ivan and Marco, and also our old guitar player, Luca Luison. At the bass there was Romolo Del Franco and at the keys Vittorio Manzan. N.D.E. was the first band name, but after that, they decided to turn the name in Pathosray. So, with the old line up has been released the first demo, called ‘Strange Kind Of Energies’, just the year after.
Following every demo release you had the possibility to play live. Can you tell a bit more about those first live experiences?
Even if it wasn’t too easy for us to play live - because of our kind of music - I can say we have a very respectable live experience behind our shoulders. We played lots of festivals, and we also won some important competition! Gig after gig, we obtained always much fans around our area, and became a good live act. Unfortunately all line up changes damaged a bit our live continuity, but I think now we would be ready for every kind of concert!
What is the story behind naming the band Pathosray?
Well, the story behind this name is a sort of emotional stream, and I think it suites very much to our musical style! And of course, it sounded good at that time!!!
You play heavy symphonic metal with no boundaries. In the vein of Dream Theater, Symphony X and Eldritch, but I would say “rougher”. Do you agree on that?
Yeah I agree!!! I think you’ve found the right term to define our sound! The bands you’ve just told me influenced us during these years, but also Evergrey, Death, Opeth and others! But I cannot forget also Italian progressive rock bands from the seventies, such as PFM, Le Orme, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and artists such as Mike Oldfield. Then, I can say each Pathosray member has his own background and, melting together these influences, the result is right our typical sound.
I think it was a good idea to send the disc to Danish Intromental Management. With good results! Tell me what they did achieve for you…
Of course, we were lucky to find them! They’re working really well for the band, with great professionalism and we’re proud to have signed a deal with them. Thanks to Intromental, we also found our label, the American Sensory Records, so we will be able to plan gigs around the world and spread our music everywhere!
What are the pros and cons of having a label in the United States?
I think the only con I could say is the distance between us and the USA, but it hasn’t been a problem at all. In 2007, with the help of technology, we’re able to do everything!! Hehe… So, about pros I can say much visibility in such a huge country, new live opportunities and of course, good promotion in a sector which is not so appreciated in Italy.
The record got a final mix in Denmark by Tommy Hansen. Did you go there to assist this mixing process or was it long distance cooperation?
It was long distance cooperation. It has been simpler and faster of course, but it was a budget and time choice, because the album had to be out in a very short period, so we had not the time to manage all stuffs and go to Jailhouse studios in Denmark…but no regrets anyway, Tommy worked in the right way!!
What were your thoughts when you heard the finished product?
Oh!! We were so satisfied!! We had an incredible positive reaction! Finally the album was done and ready!! I think is not so simple to describe how our eyes looked like!!!
Which things inspired you concerning the lyrics?
Almost all lyrics are inspired by the concept of the relationship between nature and man, and how much he’s inert in front of its strenght. But of course, the album is not a real concept at all!
You have a new guitarist. Why did Luca Luison leave and can you tell a bit more about Alessio Velliscig, the new guitar player?
Luca left the band after his recordings, due to personal problems, not so clear…Then after some trials, we found Alessio, who also was a great friend of us, and also playing in an ethnic-prog metal band, called Akhtamar. I think he will surely add some own influences in the new compositions, cause he’s not just a great guitar player. He’s a great composer and musician. He can also play ethnic instruments, like mandolin and mandola and he’s also a great acoustic and classic guitar player!!
Another famous name we meet for the artwork, which is very beautiful. Any great stories/details about this?
Yeah! Mattias Norén is the one who could have made the best cover for this album! I think the artwork cover has a little dark taste. It could be explained as the man close to the river, Pathosray of course, the emotional stream, who’s trying to refresh himself to leave problems, maybe a bad old story, or anything else, behind his shoulders, and that’s why there’s the dead body. I think it’s an interesting picture representing the meaning of our band name, the main theme of the lyrics and our style!
Are some of you classical trained musicians or all autodidact?
Yes, some of us are classical trained musicians, like me, Gianpaolo and Alessio, but also Ivan and Marco learnt music in musical schools.
I think now is the time to set the sights for success abroad. Any good prospects about this (ProgPower USA for instance)?
We can’t wait to play at next ProgPower festival in Atlanta! It would be a great opportunity for the band to increase some new fans and we hope in this period to reach good responses in all USA. But our prospects do not stop in USA. We would like to get some good responses also in all countries we’re distributed, and we also hope to reach something else with the second release, but for the moment I think, we have to be happy about the results! We’ve got great reviews up to now, and we’re very happy! We couldn’t imagine so!! Media’s reactions have been the best we would have asked for…
Are there other tour plans in the making?
We’re studying with Intromental some tour plans, but nothing decided yet. It would be cool to play in the other ProgPower festivals for example and maybe in other important festivals around the world, but a tour supporting the album would be great…soon more news!
As we said you added some rougher touches from time to time. Tell me about the growling vocals of Sandro Seravalle…
Alessandro Seravalle is the mastermind of one of the most important progressive metal bands in Italy and Europe, called Garden Wall. Garden Wall is also one of our most influences, during this year, and we’re great friends! So, it has been cool to have Sandro in the studio recording his crazy vocals on ‘The Sad Game’!!! It was properly what we were looking for that refrain and as a matter of fact we didn’t have any doubt on the final result, as you can hear!!
One of my favourite tracks is ‘Emerald City’. Can you tell a bit more about this one?
Great tastes! It’s one of our favourite tracks too, of course! ‘Emerald City’ is the very first track the band wrote in 2001-2002. In fact you can find the first version also on our first demo ‘Strange Kind Of Energies’. Maybe it’s the song which melts together all our styles in a best way: progressive, melody, heavy metal, rock, symphony…and we thought it would have been the perfect track to close our album, as closing an era, the first period of the band…
Where do you live in Italy and can you tell something about the metal scene over there?
We’re living in Northern Italy, one hundred km far from Venice and here the metal scene is great! We have bands as Raintime, Slowmotion Apocalypse, Elvenking, Tystnaden and others, and we’re all good friends. The problem here, as in the rest of Italy, is that it’s very hard to play somewhere and maybe we’re worst in that, because of our kind of music, labelled only as “progressive”…
What are the plans for the near future?
As I said before, we’re finishing last details to our new live dates, and when all would be ready, we can start promoting the album as well…then we’re also finishing writing the new album and we will enter the studio for the pre production very soon!! These are the main purposes of Pathosray at the moment…promote the album live and work on new material!
Let us occlude with you’re your final last words…
Thank you very much for this interview, and thanks to all Lords of Metal readers, we hope you will enjoy our music, and to see you guys live around our next gigs!!! Thanx again!
http://www.pathosray.com
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