interview: Axevyper (Italy)

Axevyper (Italy)

Recently this publication reported about the new album “Into the Serpent’s Den” by traditional heavy metal warriors Axevyper. The band formed in 2009 and they have three albums, including the new one. Nevertheless, this is a new band to this publication. For that reason, let’s find out who they are. Here’s an interview with Axevyper. Read it and then go bang your head to their music. Luca, the voice of the band and Guido (guitars) provide the answers. Thanks, Luca and Guido!

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Greetings from the USA, friends! Where in Italy do you live and is there a good metal scene for your band there?

Luca: Thanks for giving us the chance of spreading our name across the States! It’s a real pleasure and a true honor for us! Well, the life for Axevyper isn’t too easy: we live very far from each other, except for me, Damiano (the guitarist) and Andrea (the bass player) and often rehearsing is very difficult, but, anyways, we use every moment of our spare time for our band. We’re strictly concentrated on our group, because we’ve got a sort of mission: feeling fine, having fun and getting satisfaction while we play and make people happy and proud of us. I think that if you love what you’re doing, the audience will feel and like that love! We all live in central Italy and well, this place was a great driving force of the Italian Heavy Metal scene during the golden age: Sabotage, D**** **, Strana Officina, Raff, Fingernails, Rollerball, Way out, Astaroth where among the greatest Italian metal bands during the Eighties! Right now, we have a strong scene with great bands like Rosae Crucis, Battle Ram or Centurion and many nice newcomers as Lady Reaper, Messerschmitt, Forces, Centurion, Battle Ram, Sleazer, Burning Church and Kurnalcool.

I had never heard of your band, unfortunately. What can you tell us about your band?

Luca: Me and Guido (the guitarist) played together in another band during the last decade. After the split up of our previous band we decided to keep on playing the metal music we’ve always loved and worshipped, so we got in touch with our long time friends Damiano and Andrea and formed Axevyper. We couldn’t stop playing. It was always the best thing we managed to make in our lives. After a home-made demo (who was later released on tape by the Bolivian label Maxima Destruccion) we released our debut album and a very special EP totally sung in Italian, entitled “Angeli d’acciaio” (Angels of steel or Steel Angels, quite like the French band’s monicker ahahaha) with the Italian label My Graveyard Productions. Due to musical reasons we had our first line-up change and we welcomed aboard the drummer Andrea “Burzum” Torrini with whom we recorded the second full length album “Metal Crossfire”, then we changed drummer again recruiting Niccolò Vanni. With this lineup, after four years of hard work, we have finally released our third full length “Into the serpent’s den” under the Berlin-based label Iron Shield Records. Hope someday to set the US stage on fire with our burning metal!

Who are the members of the band and what instruments do they play?

Luca: The only new member is the drummer Niccolò who was recruited a year and a half ago. He also plays in another band, called Profanal, the best death metal band from Italy so far without any doubt. I recommend listening to them, they kick ass and they’re a very well known reality in the Underground Death Metal scene. They’re from our same region and they have played several shows abroad. About the other members, they have been in the band since the beginning of our activity. It was a mutual union based on a common passion, but, most of all, on a great friendship among us: we’re not just a band, we’re family! Andrea, our bass player, has just started an instrumental Progressive Rock band to jam with during his spare time, but apart from him and Niccolò we only give our metallic contribution to Axevyper. Everyone in the band play since his youth: there’s no good music without knowledge, competence, but, above everything, passion, heart and willpower.

Here in the U.S. we read that the economy is not good in Italy. Do you agree? How does the economic situation affect the metal scenes where you live?

Guido: These were hard times in Italy, no doubt about it! Many troubles getting (or keeping) a job for many people, expenses getting higher and income getting lower... the TV's been telling us that the bad times are over for last 5 years or so, but honestly it's very hard to see a bright future ahead of us! I am not gonna talk about politics or economy, but I'm gonna tell you this: the metal scene suffered the crisis too. Concert tickets have doubled their price in five years or so, many places shut down and the greatest underground Metal festival we had (Play It Loud) has not fared so well in its latest editions... there's this bad combination of people having no money for shows and people following trends that makes playing in Italy a very tricky situation. A lot of bands, big and small, usually avoid our country when they tour Europe, and I cannot blame them! About the bands and people, well, it's been the same since I can remember: people come and go, bands come and go, trends come and go. Sometimes I think about our early concerts (six years ago, not exactly a lifetime) and the bands we played it... and I usually realize they are disbanded or disappeared. It's a small scene, and people can get tired quickly of playing in front of small crowds. That's not our case: we are all in our 30s or late 20s now, and if we are still here it just means we don’t give a fuck about anything but our passion for Heavy Metal… and no crisis or trend can take that away from a man!

What are the topics of the lyrics of your band?

Guido: There's a whole lot of fantasy material on this album. We have a song about Elric of Melnibone, two about some of the most obscure works by HP Lovecraft and many songs about ancient myths and legends (‘Solar Warrior’ is a fine example of that) and some rather obscure/mystical/personal songs (‘The Adventurer’). Of course we also like to write a lot of in-your-face metal hymns like ‘Soldiers of the Underground’ or ‘Metal Tyrant’ (which is also a tribute to Harry ‘The Tyrant’ Conklin of Jag Panzer / Titan Force / Satan’s Host fame, a US metal champion and a real hero for me!). It was not that different in the past, we had a couple unusual songs ('Victims Of Tomorrow' was about the Berlin Wall and ‘Faster Than The Law’ was meant to be a giant “FUCK YOU” to speed cameras, for example), but in general we love steel, swords, blood, human sacrifices and that kind of things. Fantasy was always a huge source of inspiration for our songs!

Your previous album is from 2012. What happened in four years to make the new album?

Guido: I believe the first songs for the new album were written exactly while ‘Metal Crossfire’ was being released so, yes, it was quite a long time, but we certainly weren’t idly waiting for things to come! We played a lot of shows all around Italy and Southern Europe between 2012 and 2014 (while still working on new songs, arrangements, etc.), but then, as Luca said, we changed drummer. We played three shows to introduce Niccolò to the fans in the end of 2014, then we took the whole of 2015 to finish ‘Into The Serpent’s Den’. The album was finished by June, but then there was the long search for a label… we teamed up with Iron Shield in the fall of 2015, we released ‘Into The Serpent’s Den’ in February and we’re ready to get going again! The best thing about this was that this album is for sure the best thing we have made as a band; every detail is chiseled to the maximum and we gave the best performance possible. I hope our old and new fans will feel the passion we have put in this work!

Do you have other news about your band?

Guido: Well, there are no immediate news. We are FINALLY starting booking concerts once again, in April we’ll head for Spain for the third time to kick some ass at Metalmeria Festival, then we’ll open for Manilla Road at an awesome festival here in Italy. We are arranging shows here and there… since we all have our daily jobs to keep it’s kinda hard to foresee a tour coming ahead, but who can tell? I vowed to myself I have to play in the US before I die, I am a huge fan of US metal so it would be very special for me. Hope to make it real someday! Meanwhile enjoy our music if you like it, we love you guys!!! Keep the fire of metal alive brothers, see ya!

Axevyper - Brothers Of The Black Sword

Soldiers of the Underground

www.facebook.com/Axevyper