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FROSTMOON ECLIPSE "Death is coming" CD (IS15)
Here is their second album. 8 hymns of disgust
and hatred for mankind. Skilled and fast old
school Black-Metal influenced by acoustic
and melodic parts. A perfect soundtrack
for your sleepless and endless night.
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FROSTMOON ECLIPSE "Gathering the dark" CD (IS07)
Itally's killer black metal in the vein of old Satyricon and Dissection. This version incudes their sold out ep as bonus tracks. Limited and numbered to 999 copies.
SOLD OUT
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BIOGRAPHY
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FROSTMOON ECLIPSE was born in 1994 e.v. by the hands of Claudio (acoustic and electric guitar), the first demo "Cold Silvery Eye", a tape of furious and blasphemous Black-Metal, was unleashed on 1995. After this demotape, the line-up changed and the new one recorded on 1997, the second tape called "...To Exalt My Triumph", surely better than the first work and characterised by more technical, aggressive and faster parts. Violent Black-Metal... melodic and obscure. "...To Exalt My Triumph" received good reviews by mags and underground fanzines and 'till now has sold more than 600 copies.
After the recording session of the second tape, the line-up changed once again. The Italian label Black Tears Productions offered the band the opportunity to debut with a MCD. On December '99 the band entered the Big Wave studio once again for the recording of their first 7"-EP "Revenge In Scorn" for Italian label Maggot Records. The piece of Vinyl, recorded in only two days, contains an acoustic intermezzo plus two new songs, both characterised by a more violent, aggressive, speed and technical approach that in past releases and it displays a new face of the band is coming…
With new line-up FROSTMOON ECLIPSE played for the first time live in December 2000. The gig received a good responce from the audience and also good reviews on some web-zine and magazine. Unfortunately, after this successful live-show, the vocalist decided to leave the band. FROSTMOON ECLIPSE entered once again Big Wave Studio in May 2001 and recorded the first album "Gathering The Dark" in only 3 day of hard work. This new recording come out with a very powerful and clean sound and it's caracterized by a more violent and technical approach. "Gathering The Dark" contains 5 new tracks and a remake of the classic "Dusk To Exalt My Triumph" from the second demo, plus 2 acoustics intros for a 35 minutes of total blackness and mayhem
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INTERVIEW |
Interview taken from VIBRATION OF DOOM WEB’ZINE
Answered by Claudio Alcara (Guitars) and Gionata Potenti
(Drums/Vocals).
1. It's quite unusual to hear a band that plays such vicious and fast
paced black metal mix in some melodic acoustic instrumentation and
beautiful melodies. The closest comparison that comes to mind is
Opeth, and I am willing to bet that people wish THIS is how Opeth
sounded with their latest release, though I for one really do like
even the newer Opeth stuff.
(Claudio) Thank you very much! Yeah, Opeth are one of the best bands
today, even if, I must admit, I have began to listen to their works
quite recently... In fact, in my youth, I was much more into Black-
Metal stuff, and I just thought that they were too soft. But I was
wrong, they have amazing guitar melodies and one of the best vocalist
around. I am definitely glad if one compares Frostmoon Eclipse to
Opeth. Still, we are more violent.
(Gionata) I think it’s good for a band have a personal sound to be
quickly recognised for. Of course bands like DarkThrone or Judas
Iscariot are a few of our biggest influences but there are too many
bands playing that way nowadays. I don’t think they’re right or wrong,
everyone should play what he wants but Frostmoon Eclipse have chosen a
different path and they have, and so it will always be, their personal
sound. We simply like playing this way, nothing more, nothing less.
2. It's good to see a cutting edge black metal band come out of Italy,
as all I really know that came from Italy is the power metal bands
like Rhapsody, Labyrinth and of course the gods Bulldozer. Any other
good black metal bands in Italy, or any cult black metal scenes that
might have done some rather infamous deeds, like the Norweigan cults
that burned churches and set up an elite black metal scene?
(Gionata) Italian scene sucks! There are a lot of idiots here and the
good bands are just a few. No cults but Metal exists in my heart and I
hope people get themselves up finally. I know the bands you mentioned
and I really love Bulldozer’s music: they did record great music when
others could just imagine at that period in time! Frostmoon Eclipse
ain’t an elitarian band, we’re wide open to everyone who ask for our
music, but please, write intelligent letters! We surely will avoid to
answer back to all the new childish bands living in our country.
(Claudio) Yeah!!! Bulldozer is my all-time Italian favourite band!
We’re going to record their song “Fallen Angel” for a tribute 7”.
Italy hasn’t a very good Black Metal name around the world, but anyway
we are trying to do our best. We are much known for such Power-Metal
bands, but I’m not into that kind of music, even if I totally respect
their work, and I am somehow happy for their results... and, yes,
there were some “Black-Metal troubles” in my hometown back in 1996...
3. I must admit, the track 'Let The World Burn' was pretty killer, and
kinda funny that a track with that name starts off with some mellow
acoustics.
(Claudio) When composing a riff I don’t really think about which song-
title it is going to have. Usually I just hang about with my guitar,
and when I find the right melody, I simply keep it. It may be an
acoustic line or a Black Metal blast, but as far as it sounds “killer”
to my ears... well, I don’t care about the rest. By the way, for that
song I had this strange 6/4 tune a bit “Andy La Rocque sounding”, and
I liked it very much.
(Gionata) Music always born first, lyrics are written and arranged in
a second time so it could happen that a song with an aggressive lyric,
gets a strange start or something. I think it’s normal. Please, don’t
listen to a single part of the track but the whole mood, you’ll feel
the real essence of the Frostmoon Eclipse this way.
4. You re-released the 7 inch from Maggot Records, why wasn't another
full length released on that label? Also, seeing as I'm not familiar
with Maggot Records, did they do anything else noteworthy? Why weren't
some of your earlier demo recordings used as bonus tracks?
(Claudio) There were plans to see the LP version of “Gathering The
Dark” on Maggot rec., but then they did something else. Maggot rec. is
a great label, with a true underground philosophy, and most of all...
they do support vinyl! I am very proud to have a 7” out on Maggot. We
preferred to have the 7” re-released instead of older material because
it was just limited to 300 copies, and we thought that it was too good
to be already sold-out. Moreover many guys haven’t a record player...
(Gionata) We prefer recording again the demo tracks instead of re-
print the old ones. We used to do that for every release we’ve done
until now. Our MCD and our album both contain one track each coming
from our second demo and the 7” then, contains a track coming from our
first one! The whole sound would be too different, so we thought that
the best way to give them a new life was to record them again! The
final result was more than appreciated by ourselves so we decided to
repeat this experiment again in the future releases.
5. I have to ask, what is that thing on the cover of your album? Looks
like maybe a troll or orc riding on a broom, but that shape is a bit
too odd looking to be a mere broom!
(Claudio) Ah!ah! No man, it’s a raven... I will be dead the day you
see a broom on a Frostmoon Eclipse cover!
(Gionata) Ha! Ha! No man, it’s simply a black raven flying. It’s an
obscure cover but when I chose it I couldn’t believe it could be
mistaken with a broom! Ha! Ha!
6. How has your sound changed or stayed the same from your earlier
demo days? I noticed you had two demos out prior to the full length on
Iso666 Releases, so I'm curious as to what they sound like. Can the
demo material still be obtained?
(Claudio) We have always been a Black Metal band, and so the demo are.
I must say that they had a good spreading, and reached almost all the
corners of the world. Anyway things found their way with the
MCD “Supreme Triumph In Black” (1999), when we developed our style.
But the old days are still a part of us. Of course they can still be
obtained: just contact me (ordog@libero.it).
(Gionata) The early recordings were a bit primitive and more raw than
what are playing at the moment. Unfortunately the band has got a lot
of line-up problems in the past and that fact has surely contributed
to make slower and harder the shaping of our style. Things are doing
quite good right now and so we decided to remake some classics of
those times because of their good feelings, giving them new life and
ideas. By the way if in the future anyone could be interested in
reprinting our demos.. well, we will for sure!
7. You switch from acoustic to electric riffs so quickly in songs, is
that difficult to pull off live? What sort of equipment is necessary
to get this sound exactly right live?
(Claudio) When playing live we are far more raw, and don’t forget that
I am the only guitar player in the band. I should use an acoustic
guitar on stage, but I really prefer having an old-fashioned feeling,
so many acoustics are played the same, just electric.
(Gionata) We could switch on and off guitar during our shows but
unfortunately we have only one guitarist so we inevitably would lost
the rhythmic parts and the whole impact that way... So, on stage we
use to change some part in a more raw direction just to fit everything
well.
8. So what other bands on Iso666 Releases do you recommend? I didn't
really care much for the Barbatos, that was kind of a wierd project. I
have to admit I'm not familiar with much else they have released
unfortunately.
(Claudio) They released great bands ad Gotmoor, Nocternity or Cut-
Throat (to say nothing about Barbatos, of course...). They soon will
spawn Blackdeath and Goetia from Poland... I have their demo: it
fucking kills. Check their website out at www.info-black.com.
(Gionata) Nocternity are one of the best band ever heard from the
Hellenic lands. Their stuff released by Iso666 Releases really kicks
ass. They play a sort of Melodic-Symphonic Black-Metal the first
Emperor vein, ice-cold and grim atmospheres with an excellent
musicians back-ground. Azaghal is one of the other good bands they
spawned together with the new Mournblade (Gre) and Griffar (Fra)
releases. Iso666 it’s a good label and they work with passion and a
true attitude. Long life to these Hellenic warriors of metal!
9. Did you ever see the Italian band Bulldozer live? I am trying to
line up an interview with Bulldozer, but cannot locate an e-mail
address or anything. Any stories about them you'd like to share with
me would be cool, as I am sure they must have gotten some press
coverage in Italy back in the 80's. Their "Day Of Wrath" is still one
of my favorite albums of alltime.
(Claudio) As I said before, I like Bulldozer too... I had an old tape
of “The Day Of Wrath” LP that a friend dubbed me, and I have always
been crazy for their Venom/Motorhead style... I had the chance to buy
the re-issues of their 4 albums some years ago, and they’re fucking
great. Well, I don’t really know about their deeds (I was 7 in 1985),
and I have never seen them live. Rumours said that they would have
done one single show when their re-issues were out, but as far as I
know it didn’t happened.
(Gionata) Unfortunately Bulldozer have never had a good feedback from
the 80’s, except from the underground of course. Bands like Venom,
Celtic Frost and Necrodeath were some kind of ugly freak here back
then. Yes, of course, they sold a lot of albums all around the world
but you know, people seems to appreciate a band most after its split-
up instead of its living. The main thing though is that Bulldozer
fucking kick ass and their living cult is still alive here. If you
need a contact with the band, you should try to write an e-mail to a
label from Milan called Warlord Records. They are very close to them
and they constantly give an help to all those asking for unobtainable
Bulldozer stuff. They recently reprinted their “IX” and “Neurodeliri”
albums on Picture Disks and they reprinted also their
wonderful “Fallen Angel/Another Beer” 7”-ep out on ‘84! Warlord
Records fucking rules and our Bulldozer cover song will be featured on
a Tribute 7”-ep printed by this label. Their e-mail is:
alexvici@iol.it and you can check out the website at:
http://www.warlordrecords.com. Keep alive the Bulldozer Cult!!!
10. I'd also like to ask about Black Tears, I don't know much about
what they put out but I know you had a record with them. How did you
come to settle with Iso666 Releases? Also, what kind of record deal
did they offer you?
(Claudio) Black Tears is a label owned by a close friend of the three
of us... He released our MCD, in a great digi-pack edition (ltd.500),
and it had a good selling, and reached high rates in reviews. Many
years ago I got in touch with Alex, on of the guys hiding behind the
Iso666 name, as I was (and still am) a great fan of his band, Macabre
Omen. Then got in touch with the other guy, Leonidas: he did a very
good work with the promotion of “Gathering”... we are really
satisfied, and our 2nd CD will be released on Iso666 once again.
(Gionata) It could sound strange to the ears of everyone but we worked
without a record deal. Yes, you’re right, any paper signed. That to
show you what kind of people are hiding behind the Iso666 Releases’
name. They are fucking great guys and they believed in us when others
didn’t do that. When they asked for a Frostmoon Eclipse Release, we
decided to work together just with words by mouth, anything else. We
do fucking support their work and their label and we helped each
others a lot with our release so our next work will be surely out for
them. We’re actually working on it but just 3-4 tracks have been
written... we hope to hit the studio on Autumn 2002 and see the new
album out on Winter of the same year.
11. I'm a big fan of Paul Chain's as well, but I have to admit I
wasn't too crazy about his musical direction into Hawkwind styled
space rock, though it wasn't terrible. Death S.S. is cult!!
(Claudio) Well, I like Death S.S. too, but I just like their first LP
and of course the older/demo tracks. I have listened to the album of
Paul Chain with Lee Dorrian, and, as far as I can remember, it was
good. Now he released two 7” for a label called Beyond prod., ran by
another close friend of mine... but I didn’t have any of them.
(Gionata) I’m not the right person to talk about Paul Chain because I
really dislike his music. I don’t like his attitude too.
12. They did a pretty good job remastering the 7 inch material over to
CD, but you can tell it's still not perfect. Did they have to use any
special equipment to get the 7 inch tracks moved to CD? Also, was
there any other songs on that 7 inch or was there just the three?
(Claudio) To be extremely honest, I must say that I prefer the 7”
sound... so I really can’t complain. No special equipment was used,
the master was exactly the same. The 7” has been added in its entire
form.
(Gionata) When we recorded the 7’s stuff, the studio gave us the
master on CD format, so we just passed that master together with the
album one. No adding mastering nor effect has been used on the whole
recording and both parts of “Gathering The Dark” album (CD+7”) sound
like the original versions. It has been done a great job even if, I
have to say, the release on vinyl sounds a lot better! Vinyl
resolution gave the listener a lot more frequencies really important
for the final sound quality... the whole sounds more highly tuned,
hotter and the inexorable dust on the plate gives the final macabre
touch.
13. I take it from your band photo that you don't do the corpsepaint
thing, though you do have the old school and raw black metal sound.
Fortunately, the music isn't limited to this and is highly refreshing.
(Claudio) Of course, we are much more interested into the music than
on the image or the corpsepaint, and yeah, we are DEFINITELY old-
school... I think we have many moods inside our CD, but we feel that
all these tunes fits each other in a perfect way, creating a reliable
portrait of what we are in 2002.
(Gionata) I think it’s not important if we put corpsepaint on or not.
The main thing is the music and the feelings it can spread out through
people. Except for the corpsepaint we look like a Black-Metal band,
with leather and spikes. The way we chose to follow since the
beginning is: we won’t be limited about music! We stand proud of what
we’ve done in the past and we shall continue that way, having our
personal style first, but also trying to develop ourselves as far as
we can. Frostmoon Eclipse’s music is and forever will be refreshing
and interesting. This is what we are, we can’t change ourselves.
14. Since I didn't get any lyrics, I'm curious of course as to what
your lyric base is for songs. I'm assuming from song titles
like 'Worms On Mankind' and 'Let The World Burn' that you are somewhat
of a misanthropic band (IE, ones who pretty much hate all of mankind),
which is always a good thing since I myself am surrounded by idiots
even in my town... :>
(Claudio) Idiots make your life looks funny. Anyway, yes, we aren’t
that positive persons. Our hate for life itself is real, and this is
the main difference between us and many other thousands of so-called
Black Metal bands... We are simply bored by life.
(Gionata) I wrote the lyrics for “Gathering The Dark” album. Well,
they are all based on hate spread towards mankind without exceptions
to anyone and any kind of person. I hate to be in contact with so
called “normal people”. I hate all the interest they have as they hate
mine. I mean soccer, F1, TV, radios, religions, sports and everything
means “social life”. I usually live alone with a close circle of
friends and my life is based on simple things that have nothing to do
with the modern society: friendship, honour, pride and of course,
music. I’m proud to be like that but what I hate the most is when
people would like to change you. Every day world shows to everyone
like to be modern, fashioned, successful... I don’t care a fuck and I
never will! I like living my life following my own laws, passion and
will, so simply KEEP OUT!
15. Any shows you have played overseas? If you have any funny tour
stories, I'd always love to hear those. I'm also curious about
concerts that have been in and around close to your area.
(Claudio) Sadly, we have never played outside our country, and here in
Italy there isn’t a big interest in BM... concerts are often very
poor, I must say that I don’t like the audience. I have no tour
stories, but one night, during the “Gathering” recording sessions,
Gherardo got scared because he thought that a wildboar had sneaked
inside the studio, that was placed in a solitary countryside. It was
getting late in the night, and we were waiting for Gionata to end up
with the vocals. There were strange growls coming from the outside,
and he had came around screaming: “There’s a wildboar out there!!!” I
too got quite scared, because I myself heard that noises... and then I
and the studio owner went outside with a feeble light in search of
that wildboar... Of course, there was nothing to be found. But it was
pretty funny.
(Gionata) Any foreign gigs has been played until now. We’re actually
keeping in contact with some organisers from abroad (especially
Germany) who are really interested in seeing us live. We would like to
be a part of the next “Under The Black Sun” Black-Metal festival in
Berlin, but anything’s sure at the moment even if one of the organiser
are really interested in having us in the set. Cross your finger with
us waiting this dream fulfilled. Ha! Ha!
16. Anything else you want to talk about at length here, please feel
free to do so in this space, whatever it is. You can talk about some
of your other favourite bands in the musical realm. Thanks again, and
killer album!
(Claudio) Oh, I really like so many bands! King Diamond, Black
Sabbath, Candlemass (they’re back!), Dissection... But I would like to
state that the best Black Metal album I have listened for years is
Judas Iscariot “To Embrace The Corpse Bleeding”. We’ll soon record a
song to pay tribute to this band, and it will be “Spill The Blood Of
The Lamb”... Krieg did a killer album too... Thanx for this space, and
stay forever dark.
(Gionata) Well, too much good underground bands I would like to
mention to. Anyway I’ll choose once again the mighty Greeks
Nocternity, one of the best underground Black-Metal band coming
outside from the scene nowadays; Judas Iscariot in its whole
discography, for learning us and to everyone how to play colder and
merciless music without compromises and finally a big hello goes to
all the Metal Maniax all around the globe who still believe in Metal
without compromises. Everyone who is interested in Frostmoon Eclipse,
please contact us to the following address and check out our web-site!
Thanx for the Interview!
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DISCOGRAPHY |
"Cold Silvery Eye" Demo '95 -Self-Produced-
"…To Exalt My Triumph" Demo'97 -Self-Produced-
"Supreme Triumph In Black" digipack-MCD '99 -Black Tears Prod.-
Sacradis/Frostmoon Eclipse (Supreme Triumph In Black) Split Tape '00
"Revenge In Scorn" 7"-EP '00 -Maggot Records-
"Revenge In Scorn" T-Shirt '00 -Self-Produced-
"Gathering The Dark" + "Revenge In Scorn" CD '01 -ISO666 Releases -
"Death is coming" CD '03 -ISO666 Releases -
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CONTACT |
CLAUDIO ALCARA, Viale Fieschi 4, 19123 La Spezia, ITALY
e-mail: ordog@libero.it
tel.: +39 349 5561378
or
GIONATA POTENTI, Via E.Curiel 2, 57013 R. Solvay (LI), ITALY
e-mail: frostmooneclipse@libero.it
website
http://digilander.iol.it/frostmooneclipse
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