RIVER OF CHANGE
A few
months ago I reviewed the fantastic CD of the Italian Progressive
Metal band RIVER OF CHANGE. This awesome band is playing very
impressive melodic prog metal a la VANDENPLAS, ARTENSION, BALANCE
OF POWER... They released this CD in 2000, and since then a lot
happened. This interview will inform you about it...
Please
introduce us your band, when did you form RIVER OF CHANGE and did
any of you played in bands before RIVER OF CHANGE?
River Of
Change were born in 1998 when we recorded our first and only demo
“On the seven seas” but the band played since 1994 with
an other name. “On the seven seas” was very important
for us because it was appreciated a lot by magazines but also by
some important labels as Noise Records or Transmission Records
for example. We realized the cd on summer of 1999 for the german
label B.O. Records because it didn’t give us any kind of
limit about music. And so on february 2000 “Where realty
cannot enter” appeared in musicstores and gained very good
reviews in Europe and in U.S.A. , but we never know how much it sold
(the only things we know is that for the first two months, our
album sold 3000 copies; but is this true?) because B.O. records
boss Karsten
Jakob disappeared leaving us and all the other bands (Graveworm,
Stormlord, Mystic Circle, Tarot’s Myst, Brainstorm, etc…)
in the shit. But problems were not finished. Claudio (the singer)
left the band for playing more commercial music, and also Andrea
did for personal reasons. Me, Fabio and Luca listened to a lot of
people for substitute them, but nobody was good and for this
Reason we began to write other songs that will be played by some
friends. However I only played in other bands (also non-metal)
but the really heavy was Enemynside (ex Scapegoat)
Can you tell us all about your debut CD 'Where reality...?
“Where
reality cannot enter” is the product of people who love all
kind of music. Heavy metal is obviously our common point, but as
you can understand listening cd, our music is very eterogeneous
and rich of different cues. You can find fast songs, acoustic
moments, progressive elements, also a ballad, thrash shots, etc…;
this is the reason because I am proud of this full-lenght album.
“Where reality …” was produced by Harald Spengler
and Uwe Hormann for B.O. Records at Sound Traxx Studios in
Tannheim (D)
Are there
any stories behind your songs?
If you
talk about lyrics, I can tell you that every song is a story.
Sometimes personal stories like “Memories”, “Gleams
in the dark”, or “Time you loose”, sometimes
stories inspired by great litterature artists like Poe or Barker;
I mean songs like “Midian”, or “The old boatswain”.
However I will put soon on internet our texts, so everyone will
be able to read them.
You're playing progressive rock/metal with a lot of excellent melodies, who influenced you?
Thank you
for the greetings. As I told you before the band has lots of
influences, but we are influenced by everyone who make good
music. I think that the real force and quality of this band
consists to make own all kind of musical experience; so I can say
that an influence can be Iron Maiden as Vangelis, Atheist as Tori
Amos, Fates Warning as Led Zeppelin and so go on. I believe that
not many bands can boast a so rich musical proposition.
There are many bands in Italy playing your musicstyle, are you popular in your area and do you also feel there's a lot of competition?
Unfortunately
it isn’t true. In Italy there are a lot of bands, but they
play (often copy) without any Scruples german power metal bands
as Gamma Ray or Helloween. This happens because of music “business”.
For example, when our cd was out, our label presented us like a
mixture between Gamma Ray and Rhapsody! It’s incredible!
About the second question I can tell you that there is not
competition but a real jackal behaviour. Bands like us should
help each other but it seems impossible. If you think that the
great part of these bands, after making cd, they don’t see
not even the shadow of money; if you consider that the average of
budget for make cd is about 4.000 or 5.000 Euro, you realize that
it’s a war between poor people.
What are the plans for the next coming months?
I’ve
got 3 killer tracks for a promo cd for labels and magazines only;
I hope to record soon this promo and afterwards make the second
full-lenght album (obviously with an other label) and play live.
Finally, do you have anything to add to our readers? (you can mention your website for example, touring plans etc.)
I salute all Strutter Magazine’s readers and I say that I’m really happy to make an interview for an English written magazine because it seems that in England nobody listen more heavy metal. I hope that You find my record and you like it.
