Italian orchestral-death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse are set to return to Australia very soon in support of their brand new album “Veleno” which was released earlier in the year. Over a clutch of consistent, ever more intricate and dissonant recordings, this Roman outfit has impacted the global metal scene profoundly with its sculpted compositions and unrelenting attack, heard first on 2009’s Oracles. We talk to vocalist Francesco Paoli about the upcoming tour and the new changes within the band.
Andrew: So how are things with you and the band at the moment?
Francesco: Well we are working on some stuff for videos and promotion stuff and also practicing and rehearsing for the next tour. Having some time off from the festivals this summer and we are looking forward to start the Veleno campaign, the tour which includes Australia so we are really looking forward to coming to Australia and play. So we are right now promoting the shows and it’s great.
Andrew: Yeah it’s good to see you coming back to Australia, I guess the last time you were here was I guess about 2 years ago right?
Francesco: Yeah something like that. We like the opportunity to come back every couple of years or something like that, depending on when we release a new album. We have a solid fanbase there, it started with Sceptic Flesh introducing the band to the Australian fans and after that we did a little tour to check and see and the turn out was great. So we were like, ‘Ok let’s wait until after the new album’ and then after that and after we released “Veleno”, we were already planning to do an Australian tour. We have several gigs and it’s looking very good, we are expecting a good draw every night so it’s going to be super cool. We are lucky we have some dedicated fans, loyal fans in Australia who push the promoters and the bookers to call us every two years, it’s great!
Andrew: Yeah it’s good to have you back, we love your brand of music which to me as a fan is a very unique style, combining extreme metal with all these different various influences and stuff. I know you have a new album that came out “Veleno”, what’s the response been like so far?
Francesco: It’s great, probably the best response we have had for an album. It’s great because it’s the result of a big change in the band, big lineup change and at the time everybody was afraid. When you have this big lineup change, things can go wrong. Most of the time for most of the bands unfortunately things can go wrong but for us it’s been like a new life, it’s different maybe because I was going back to vocals and so everybody knew that the people that were there from the very beginning are still there. Maybe, I don’t know. But things are weird for real because the response is huge and outstanding, we sold twice as many copies in the same time frame for “King” and people’s reaction live is unbelievable. As I said in many interviews we were playing some new stuff before the album came out and the people are going crazy for the new songs, even before we released these songs. So even before knowing the songs people were all ready for new material so it’s probably been the best album and the best response so far for the band and it’s the fifth album so it’s a good thing. Also the new lineup is very solid and very consistent so we are ready to promote and play live these songs so we really can’t wait.
Andrew: It’s going to be some fantastic shows in Australia and obviously you have been touring for the new album so how many songs have you been playing from the album so far?
Francesco: We gave the songs a little bit of a turn over, we never played the same songs over and over. So we started playing “Fury” and “Sugar” and then we added some other songs, some fast ones like “Worship and Forget” and “”Monnalisa”. We are about to play some slower ones like “The Day We’ll Be Gone” and also the other single “Carnivorous Lamb” so we are playing many songs from the new album, we are trying to include as many songs as possible in the setlist because we do believe that these new songs have a special live vibe. They sound very good live, somehow some songs sound even better than on the album. So we were like, Ok let’s focus on building a setlist so that all the songs have something to say live, it’s not just, Ok this song is famous but live this song sounds a little bit muddy or it’s too complex to play or too complex to mix or for some reason we don’t like to play it live. So we moved to another strategy, moved to another point of view where we have to give 100 percent so we have to find the setlist that allows us to give 100 percent live.
Fortunately most of the songs we are including live are the classics but still we have 4 or 5 songs from the album “Veleno” in the setlist that we are going to present in Australia, so there is a huge component of the new material in the setlist as well. So for those who are going to be coming and it’s going to be the first time for them, it’s going to be cool because we’re still going to play most of the famous songs that we have like most of the videos and the classics but at the same time for people that have already come to our shows and know us – well first of all it’s going to be a new lineup and second, it’s going to be cool to listen to the new songs for the first time live.
Andrew: Yeah it should be good for everyone involved. Now you mentioned that these new songs sound even better live, when you were writing and recording them were you thinking how they would translate to the live stage?
Francesco: Not in the past, now it’s a little different for us with song writing so yes. We are not minding it, we are not thinking too much. But of course the way we write had an evolution and this evolution was mostly looking for some kind of balance between the components, like the sounds and the elements of our sound. This led to some songs having more breathing [space], it’s not as oppressive as before which is a good thing live especially for the mix and so it’s way more enjoyable. This gives us the opportunity to expand our audience because a lot of people were kind of skeptical because when you have to play these super fast songs all the time live, sometimes it can be noisy or you are out of shape or whatever. So it’s a little more complicated to have an average performance, sound wise, performing wise, whatever.
Right now there’s a lot of dynamics going on in the show and a lot of dynamics going on in a single song so it’s a lot easier to attend the show and participate, to be part of the show and it’s important. For us it’s more motivating and gives us more room to express ourselves in other aspects of the show which are the entertainment part, the acting part, the theatrical part which is another important part of a Fleshgod Apocalypse show. So things are moving in that direction and the results of the turnout is great so it’s a sign that we took the right path I would say.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and I’ve heard the new album and it sounds fantastic but as you say, it does have different elements like a lot of dynamics. But I do wonder though when you play some of the older stuff which has a lot of the quick, fast paced stuff, is that difficult to play live? How do you keep that consistency going at a live show like that?
Francesco: Well it’s hard and I’m very thankful to David especially, our drummer for this. It’s not just a physical problem but it’s also a concentration problem, you have to be very focused on what you’re doing every night and keep that type of concentration going for 100 shows a year, trust me it’s a big deal! I’ve been there and most of the time I sucked for this reason because maybe you can physically play a song or physically do something but the problem is to keep your mind in the perfect balance, keep your head free of every kind of thoughts and paranoia. So you have to be very trained mind-wise to be in Fleshgod Apocalypse and it’s super demanding technicality wise because yes we do have super fast parts but we also have super slow parts. Two worlds that have to co-exist – Sound wise and technical wise and sometimes it’s very hard to find people with the ability of playing groovy slow stuff and still deliver when the song is super fast. It’s a very tricky thing but it’s part of this, as I said before, dynamic approach that we have with the music so it’s part of our sound, it’s what we expect from our music and what people expect from our music. So you have to deal with these reality, both the atmospheric ones and the super fast, brutal ones and it’s hard to find the right people that can do both of these elements.
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to seeing it all come to the live stage, it’s good to see you coming back to Australia. Before I let you go, do you have any final message for the Aussie fans before you come to Australia?
Francesco: I want to thank everybody for supporting us, we owe you much because as I said all this interest in the band and the opportunity to come there every time is because you are creating this demand. So it’s great and thank you very much for the support and buying the album and also coming to the shows every time. I want to thank you for the interview and for spending the time to promote the band and promote the tour, thank you very much and we are looking forward to coming there and have fun. It’s going to be a nice night every night so we can’t wait to go back on stage especially in Australia and again, thank you very much everybody.
FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE performing at:
October 30th – Brisbane, Woolly Mammoth
November 1st – Melbourne, Max Watts
November 2nd – Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory (The New Dead Festival)
November 3rd – Sydney, Crowbar
November 4th – Canberra, The Basement
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
BRISBANE – http://soundworksdirect.eventbrite.com / www.moshtix.com.au
MELBOURNE, SYDNEY & CANBERRA – http://soundworksdirect.eventbrite.com / www.oztix.com.au
ADELAIDE – www.moshtix.com.au
