Albums of Purgatory interview Kiss of Death's Max Serafino

Albums of Purgatory: Firstly, what’s the band up to right now?

 Max Serafino: All is gone ok!!! Finally we’ve released our new Promo cd called PROMO 2K2 and we hope to find a good deal with a label! In the meanwhile, we’ve played at the SALENTO SUMMER FESTIVAL with SEPULTURA and many great other bands so for us it was been a great satisfaction! We’ve played in front of 3200 guys and for the first time in our life!! We’ll never forget this festival!!

AoP: How would you describe the Kiss of Death sound?

 MS: Powerful and aggressive!! We play Power Thrash Metal with many influences of other genres like Melodic Death Metal and Hard-Core! When we compose our songs, we like to play every thing that flow through our heart in that moment, without any fixed scheme! For this reason our music is such varied and full of influences!

AoP: How did the band begin in 94?

 MS: We begun to play just for game!! I and the old guitarist, played together in my garage some covers of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera! After some months, we decided to found a band and we contacted a drummer and a bass player! We started soon to compose our songs but the continuos change of line up gave us many problems so we recorded our first demo tape ‘LIES’ only in the 1997!!

AoP: Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

 MS: Yes, a real disaster! We played with two other bands in the neighbour of my home town and we open the concert! We played four our songs and two covers, Hangar 18 and Skin of my Teeth of Megadeth but I wasn’t able to play my guitar ‘cause I was deeply stirred. I made many mistakes too!

AoP: The band has had a lot of line-up changes.  Has that been difficult to get through?

 MS: Yes, it has been very difficult to find guys available to make many sacrifices to support Kiss of death through this years!! Now, after eight years, I hope to have find the right members for my band! We wanna go ahead, supporting our music ‘till the end and ‘till now, all is gone ok so we’re convinced to carry on!!

AoP: What are your favourite Kiss of Death tracks?

 MS: I love all Kiss of Death’s songs ‘cause each of them represent a moment of my life and Kiss of Death’s life! However, my favourite songs are HOUSE OF PAIN, UNCONTROLLED REACTION and  BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH!

AoP: What are your favourite all time songs?

 MS: I haven’t a favourite all time songs but I’ve a favourite all time bands, they are GUNS’N’ROSES and SLAYER!

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

 MS: Appetite of destruction of Guns’n’Roses! I’ve always loved this band! It was been the first band that played ‘Hard Music’ that I’ve listened to in my life!!

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

 MS: Tom Araya, Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo, in practice SLAYER! Th best Metal band from time immemorial!!

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

 MS: I think that Metal music have reached a good popularity all over the world, especially thanks to internet and all the new technologies, but it must grow more!! For example, here in Italy, Metal is still an underground faction!! Here in Italy you’ll never hear a Metal song on the air in a radio during the day, except late at night, and you’ll never see a metal video or a metal band in a TV programme.

AoP: Which bands stick out in the underground scene for you at the moment?

 MS: Sincerely, I don’t know what answer! I hope that Kiss of Death will stick out from the Underground soon!! This my first target at the moment!!

AoP: Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us?

 MS: Unfortunately, we haven’t funny stories to share with you!