Perhaps unheard of outside some of the more cluttered European scenes, Heimdall are making some waves with their strong power/heavy metal tracks. "The Almighty" is album number three from these 6 Italian stalwarts. I, myself am not a big power fan, but I really have to give these guys credit for coming out with such a credible and infectious record. Band founder and guitarist Fabio Callurio was good enough to have a glance at my questions and jot down a few answers.

Jack 'Odel'


First off, thanks for answering these questions for myself and the power metal fans around the world. Congratulations on "The Almighty," it is one of the most satisfying power albums of last year. You guys ought to be proud.

Thank you very much. I'm very, very happy that you like our last album. "The Almighty" is very important for us because it represents our return after three years of absence from our previous CD "The Temple of Theil" because of some problems such as the change of the vocalist and the change of the label. It's like a new start and we are happy about how the songs have come out.

Heimdall started in 1994 with you and your brother who wanted to make a heavy metal band. Did you guys have power metal in mind from the very start, or did you want to be a death metal band or what?

Heimdall started as a heavy metal band from the beginning, we just wanted to play the music that we love. However my brother and I had already experience in an 'epic-black' metal band with whom we recorded a CD.

One thing that struck me first about Heimdall and "The Almighty" is that you seem to be striving to be making a name for yourselves based on your unique attributes, instead of being another Rhapsody clone for example. I think it is all too easy to become another 'nameless band' in the power metal scene.

Many people have told me that Heimdall have their own personality and I'm happy that you think that, too. For us it's a great compliment and with our music we don't want to be similar to this or that band, but just to express our way to play music. When I compose a track, I try to follow only my ideas and my feelings and not to copy the other bands. Of course we like many bands that obviously influences our way to write music.

Do you truly feel that "The Almighty" is your strongest album? I haven't listened to your other two records; could you tell me how "The Almighty" differs from those?

"The Almighty" is our third album after "Lord of the Sky" and "The Temple of Theil." I think that they are different to each other because each of them catches the sensations and the emotions of the time when it was composed and recorded. "Lord of the Sky" can be considered as the result of our first 4 years of life... in this album you can hear the best things that we composed from the birth of the band. Some of its tracks were written between 1994 and 1995. The CD is a storm of metal; rich of emotions, anger, power... that album has all the spontaneity that has always characterised our sound. It's a true storm of energy! In "The Temple of Theil" you can hear more attention towards the arrangements in comparison to our first album and a more symphonic aspect due to a major presence of orchestral parts. In spite of this, it preserves energy and spontaneity. "The Almighty" is more direct than "The Temple of Theil," and the guitar sound is more present. Someone told me that it can be considered a natural continuation of the previous albums, someone else said that it's something a bit different... however the people that have listened to the new album have defined it as a personal and involving piece of work. For me "The Almighty" is a fist in your face, a mix of energy, melody and anger pervaded by a sense of melancholy, probably due to the particular and difficult period – characterised by many changes - both for the band and for me when it was composed! This album is also rich of force, pride and braveness... it's Heavy Metal!

Does the Italian music scene provide a good fan base? There seem to be quite a number of metal bands coming out from Italy.

In Italy metal is followed by a solid number of people, but our scene cannot be compared with the German or Scandinavian ones where there is more attention and more possibilities for the heavy metal bands. In Italy these last years the scene has increased and many new bands, new labels, many web sites have started. I think that the situation will be better in the next years, even if there are still many things to do if we want reach the levels of the German metal scene, I'm not speaking about the passion of the metal fans but above all of the organizations that are around the metal bands.

Anything particular you wanted to achieve lyrically with "The Almighty?" Is there a theme to what you write, something that binds each song from "The Almighty" together in such a way that you can tell a song from your new album from one of your previous albums?

Regarding the lyrics, like "Lord of the Sky" and "The Temple of Theil;" "The Almighty" is a concept but it's very different from them. While "Lord of the Sky" was a concept about the Nordic myth and the god Heimdall, from his birth to the twilight of the gods and his death, and "The Temple of Theil" was a mythological and fantastic story – created by us - based on the deeds of two warriors, Sidgar and Iselin, in the new album each song has an own story even if the lyrics are linked by some common subjects. They are all about the search, the journey, often towards something difficult or impossible to reach and seen through different experiences such as dream, death, art, love, war, glory and/or immortality. The protagonists of the lyrics roam in search of something - often unexplainable or unreachable. It could be a divinity, the wish for being immortal, a woman, the absolute knowledge, the eternal glory, the mystery that lies beyond our existence... with the word "The Almighty" I summarize these elements that they miss and that they manage to reach often with all their strengths. In the opener 'The Calling,' the epic melodies follow a lyric that talks about the journey towards the glory and freedom in battle. It is inspired by those men who, during the history, have been able to lead their armies to fight in the name of what they believe in, even in the darkest times. In 'Wanderer' the protagonist finds himself to roam in a dark and unknown world where words have lost their meaning and where the gods also have died in search of something or someone that appears always distant. In 'Return to the Fatherland' a warrior goes back to his land after many journeys and many battles, but he discovers that it has been destroyed... in spite of this, he can still feel the power and the ancient grandeur of these places that will never die. In the lyrics for 'Eternal Race' the human existence is compared to a frenetic and melancholic race towards someone or something probably unreachable, a race where we often feel alone. What we do, what we create arises from a lack and from the wish to fill this gap. Art can be the only way to feel nearer in what we search for. The main character of 'Symit' creates to live again a very single and deep moment, even if he realizes that the words cannot give back what he previously lived. Sometimes the impossibility to reach what we want transforms this frenetic race in immobility or wait for something. In 'Godhall,' an old pilgrim remembers his life; spent travelling and roaming in search of a noble and magic land. But only now that his power is fading away and his dreams and his hopes left him, he feels this land nearer... In 'Beyond,' the main character is a semi-god. He has the power to make his creations live but, at the same time, he is a man and so destined to die. He would like to reach the world of the gods but he cannot so he feels immobile, imprisoned in this condition of suspension, condemned to roam in the "land of no one." This time also there are some links with legends or mythologies. 'Last Journey' is inspired by the story of the god Baldr, one of the most tragic figures of the Nordic Myth, who sees in his dreams his sad destiny of death. 'The Search' is inspired by the myth of the Grail. It talks about a knight who is destined to search for it. His life has only one aim: find the holy object and find his mystery. When he discovers it, he dies.

The album cover for "The Almighty" is pretty wicked. That dude with the chunky sword and almost cybernetic eye looks like he means business. What is the relationship of the cover with the lyrics and/or music of Heimdall?

The cover was realised by an artist from Milan. We gave him the title of the album and the lyrics and he made it! I think that it's the perfect way to express the concept behind the lyrics. I don't know what the artist wanted to express though it but one of my personal interpretation is this: the warrior that presents both past – the sword - and future - the cybernetic eye - elements can be seen as the symbol of man of all eras, also of those that will come. The divine image that you can see behind can be seen as a metaphor of the things we lack, the things that give life to our search. The places as the paths – often dark and solitary – that we have to cross in our life to reach what we need.

The production is fantastic for this record; a big part of the overall feel of "The Almighty" must be attributed to the production. You guys must be rapt with how it turned out.

Thank you! I agree with you that the production of "The Almighty" is very good. The recording sessions lasted about 40 days between January and March. As regards the choice of the studio, while the first two records were recorded in Rome for "The Almighty," we decided to work near the place where we live, in the Zappingsound Studio in Salerno. This allowed us to work in a calm state of mind and so the atmosphere during the recording sessions were more relaxing than before and I think that you can hear this in the new songs.

Speaking of production, it always amazes me that most power metal bands; whether they are big acts or small acts seem to have above average production for their records. In comparison to the average black metal band, power metal albums are usually miles ahead in production values. Why do you think this is?

I think that in black metal there is the will from many bands to remain in an underground situation or to have a very essential, direct and 'rude' sound to create a violent and silk atmosphere similar to the first albums of bands like Venom, Bathory or Mayhem. In heavy and power metal the situation is different. The arrangements are often complex; it's very important that everything sounds in an even way to appreciate all the passages and all the atmosphere of a band. So the production is very important for the bands here.

Quite some time has passed since the initial release date of "The Almighty" (September 9) and we are now in April. What has Heimdall been up to as a band since then?

In this period we have supported our new album doing many interviews both with magazines and radios. In August 2002 – before the publication of the album - we started our live activity taking part to some festivals with bands like Destruction and Vicious Rumors and after the publication of the CD in autumn we were on an Italian tour. We played some gigs as headliner and others with important bands like Shaman. Perhaps European tour will be a possibility but nothing completely sure... we'll see. However in these last two months we are concentrating on the composition of the new songs; we would like to publish the new record for the beginning of the new year.

With that being said and the 7 months that have elapsed since the record came out, has there been much work on a new forthcoming album for Heimdall? Heimdall album #4; will it be a great departure from "The Almighty?"

We are writing the songs for the fourth album. It will be published at the beginning of the next year with Scarlet Records. So far we have five tracks and I have to say that they are real killer! They are more heavy and aggressive, but at the same time very epic! We are very satisfied about these and I'm sure that our next album will be the best in our discography. You'll see!

Scarlet Records is well known as a label that produces some high quality power metal acts. Is it awkward being on a label where you have so much musical competition? Do the other bands provide you guys with support? Do you have much contact with them? Live gigs, touring etc, etc...

Yes, Scarlet is a very good label full of good bands. We are in good relations with many bands of the label and we don't feel in competition with them. We are following a way of our own without thinking about the other bands, we want only try to improve writing our music to be always better.

Thanks for answering these questions for me and the Metalbite readers! The floor is yours if you wanna say anything...

First of all thank you for the interview! Of course I would like to thank all the Metalbite readers that have always supported our music... (go on doing it) and listened to "The Almighty," an album which we believe in because it has 9 very good, powerful and involving metal songs.
Follow us also through our web-site: www.heimdall.it. Glory and Honor to you ALL!

A sunny Saturday afternoon, the best time to go to soccer match (Borussia Dortmund) but right before to ask Rob (git.) from Dead Head some questions about the great new album "Slave Driver" the Dutch guys have recently released with a new (who is also a former member of the band) vocalist. (read review here) So I disturbed him during some garden work to have a Skype chat with him. Dank je wel, Rob!

Michael

Hey Rob, how are you doing?

Pretty good. We had one bad review so far, it was in a Norwegian magazine and the guy wrote about five lines with some Google info. About how long the band existed, how many albums and that we changed the singer and that we're from Holland and one line about that the new album is not so special. But all the other ones have been great! I don't know how to put it, but maybe if you keep working on an underground level and keep continuing and doing it in the margins, then one day people will start to appreciate that. And I have the idea that maybe that's happening now, that people think: "Okay, they have been continuing for so long… there must be something good about that". But I hear something good about the music, about the new singer, about the songs and the production and also because we have such a great distribution this time, thanks to Napalm Records. Hammerheart is now working with them. We reach Australia and other countries far away, which is good because some people there have never heard of us before. So I really hope it's best this way. And there are a lot of comparisons with older bands which were thrash influences. And usually they write like "THAT band died in 2005, but Dead Head is still doing it the old way". So there are a lot of compliments and positive things and of course it's nice to read. I mean, we do it for ourselves, but if other people appreciate it, of course it helps and makes you happy in a way.

The album cover is pretty cool – what does this person (or at least the remains of it) shall represent?

Well, Dead Head was never a conceptual band. I mean I like "Operation: Mindcrime" and stuff like that. I like King Diamond, but first of all it takes a singer that likes to do such stories. And it's best when you are a native speaker in English, of course because that really helps you a lot. I've seen some concept albums from Holland like Ayreon and it worked well, but it was never my thing. On OUR first albums the lyrics were pretty stupid: hell, Devil, kill, Satan, Belial…but I mean, if you grow up with Possessed and Slayer, that's just okay. But after a while we started doing a little bit more conscious lyrics, but we have never been a conceptual band. There has really not been a connection between the album cover, the title and the songs. But when I look at it, it really fits very well together this time. Because the guy is a really nasty-looking character. If you have a slave driver, somebody who is making people work really hard and don't pay that much – he could look like this. It's a next-level album cover, because we were really into the pop-art, kind of simple images on the cover which worked well. Like the cover of our album "Kill Division" is just a page from a book from the library, but it works well. And, as I told you before, "Swine Plague" was even made in MS Paint!. But this time Hammerheart said that they wanted a good cover and we agreed. Then we were looking for something and found this. It worked well together with the title and I think it's some kind of international thing. Of course we always wanted a cover like this, but it's also a matter of inspiration and budget.

Who is the Slave Driver? Is it referring to quite everyday things like religion ('Alcolyte'), personal desires ('Grooves Of Envy') or fear ('Fear Scraper') or is there a more special meaning behind the title?

Well, that was an interesting thing. WHEN we got the new singer, the first thing that happened was that he said that he doesn't want to hear any of the vocal recordings we did with our old singer Tom. Because Ralph wanted to do his own thing. But of course some lyrics were already written and eventually some of the singing is in the same style, but he put a lot of his own things into it and there are a lot of meanings this time in the songs. He even made a little paper for me (laughs) with which song is about what. A lot of the songs are about the dark side of people in general – 'Acolyte' is about the perversions of the Catholic church, 'Grim Side Valley' is about the dark side of human beings. 'Frequency Illusion' is a very interesting thing because it's a phenomenon if I tell you about it you will recognize it. If you buy a new car and you drive with it, you will suddenly notice a lot of those cars. You never saw them before, but as soon as you or your parents have a new car you certainly see that car everywhere. That is the frequency illusion phenomenon. So if you look it up at Wikipedia, you will find that it means that if you start noticing something or learn something new, then you will see it everywhere. It's new, but it's really not. It has always been there, but you never noticed. I told you last time about our other guitar player who works in a psychiatric asylum and he has a lot of night shifts. So he comes up with all that stuff you never knew about. 'Polar Vortex' is about a natural phenomenon that is currently happening, the jet stream moving and the climate change – so it is really worth looking into the lyrics this time. I could not always explain them so well, but this time it just has more different subjects. And Ralph, our new singer, put a lot of styles into that. I mentioned King Diamond before, he also does these different voices, not schizophrenic but maybe a guy being angry first and then it changes during the song or like Rob Halford – he really likes to do stuff like that. That's very inspiring, of course.

Can you tell a little bit more why Tom left? The last time we chatted, you told me that you are going to record the album and it would be all pretty fine…

Well, Tom didn't want to sing any more like he used to sing. I always thought that we are not a big band, but a band with a certain number of followers who love what we do- aggressive thrash, not like Exodus or Testament but quite different. I think that the vocals are very much related to that. So he wanted to sing differently, something like Pro-Pain. At first we did some demos at home, so it was not like an album, but more like an idea. When we came to the recording of the real thing, he still did that new style. I tried to find some kind of middle way for both of us, but he was really not going to do the old style any more. So we thought: what will happen now? People buy our new record with certain anticipation, put it into the CD player and it sounds like a different band….what the hell? So we were very hesitant about the new singing style and thought about it a lot. Tom was really focused on the new thing and refused to discuss it, because we didn't like it. He became totally frustrated with us and one day he said that we should call Ralph because he would quit. So he suggested calling Ralph, because he knew what we wanted. If I listen back to Tom's vocal recordings now, they sound less motivated than Ralph's vocals, but also a little bit like he is searching for what he wants and that was not Dead Head from the past. So it is a good thing that he quit, also for himself. Because he got totally frustrated with us and then we found Ralph again and we called him the next day. He was totally into it from the beginning. He started doing everything again, but quite differently and it took like 6 or 7 weeks until all things were done just like we wanted them to be. It's cool that he already did an album with us, of course. He really grew as a vocalist, also because he has been in Bodyfarm which is a death metal band from Holland so he also developed the deeper voices. It really works and he is very creative, all rehearsals he is doing with us and we're already doing new songs with him.

Did you also write new songs for Slave Driver with him?

No, all songs were already written. Only the vocals had to be re-recorded.

I think you've changed more into a more brutal, almost death metal-like style. In the past you had more groovy, catchy elements in the songs…

The stuff is there.

Yes, of course it's there but in my opinion it isn't that much in the foreground than in the past…

We have one song without speed, but we didn't put it on the album. It's gonna be on the bonus CD for the next reissue. This is quite funny because now that Ralph is in the band, the next reissue from Hammerheart is "Depression Tank" where he also sang. Now, Hammerheart usually wants a bonus CD with the re-issues they do. But there are no demos for "Depression Tank". So we thought what we could do? We had two songs that we didn't put on "Slave Driver" and also an acoustic part. And in May of this year we recorded some extra songs for that bonus disc. That means that the re-issue of "Depression Tank" which will come out next year, has a second CD with seven songs – three that are left from "Slave Driver" with one really groovy song and four new songs. It will also be a separate vinyl release, something like "Flag Of Hate" or "Eyes Of Horror"- EP but of course less legendary (laughs).

Having a look at the titles of your albums – "Dream Deciver", "Kill Divison", "Haatland" etc – do you regret the long title of your debut?

(Laughs) We never thought about it. It was the first album and it was just a song we wrote. I don't know – we don't have any regrets anyway. We have some regrets regarding not waiting for a better record deal and stuff like that, maybe some regrets in terms of production choice, each album has one song that we don't like to play but that's it. It's A creative thing and you can judge choices afterwards but you can never change them.

You are also working at Dutch TV and I saw a few months ago that you had the honor to drive a new police car quite fast on your own – how did this happen?

Well, I wasn't actually allowed to drive. But working as a journalist, we usually have contact with the official press people from the police, fire department, the community and from the government. And sometimes you have connections to some guys who work on the streets or on the highway. This was a highway patrol, driving an Audi that can speed up to 280 km/h or so. I don't know exactly, but it was very fast and so I was allowed to sit in the car. I talked to some of the guys working on the road and they provided me some tips and told me some crime stories and so I got to this. So they showed me all the secret things they have in the trunk, it was really interesting.

Coming back to Dead Head, do you have some gigs planned outside the Netherlands and Belgium? You played with Suicidal Angels a release show in May I realized…

Well, I know people who still have like 15 tickets for some postponed shows and even bought tickets for the same show again, because they lost the overview about it. And all because of Corona. If all these shows are still going to happen and the festivals who already paid money to the bands and the bands don't want to give it back, this means that most of the shows are still booked for this year. We knew that in advance and our management in Hammerheart said: "Listen, we understand totally that this year is not a good year for you guys, because you have a new album but there are still bands out there that did an album two years ago and they still wanna promote it. So all the shows and festivals will be mostly booked". So there is an understanding from the label about this, which is good because so we don't have to feel sorry. What we do, is that we have an own network for clubs and we always have been pretty good at putting ourselves in a support spot for bigger bands – we played with Exodus, Slayer, Sadus, Candlemass and we always had support through the big bands and we still are able to connect to guys that do shows and they help us a bit and so we have one show in Denmark in October and there are a few more things will happen. But it's quite difficult, because you have all these bands that still want to play their shows that originally were scheduled in 2019 or something. There is this Stonehenge festival in Holland and they still have the same line-up they had two years ago. They had to replace two bands, because they no longer exist or had some fight in the band. But all the others are the same that were announced two years ago. This is also the reason we did the videos. To show that we're still alive after Tom left. And it is also an alternative way of exposure. A lot of people watch YouTube videos in the evening and we have 60.000 views now for 'Acolyte' and that's okay. I mean it's not Kreator who has a million views, but it cool.

Do you have some last words for our readers?

We're still alive and play some loud and aggressive music for the people. I hope that the people will take the time to listen to our new album and appreciate or hate it but at least invest some time into it. And check our three videos on YouTube!