- Tekst av Vegar Myrstad, 10. februar 2012 -

Født til å spille Melodiøs Death Metal

DISEASE ILLUSION ble opprinnelig dannet som et heavy/thrash metal band i 2006 under navnet 'The Reapers', men skiftet raskt beite til Melodiøs Death. Etter et par utbyttinger i bandet og en selvutgitt EP i 2008 er Disease Illusion akutuelle med deres debut 'Backworld'. Pirret av nysgjerrighet sendte jeg noen spørsmål over til Italia for å høre hvordan tingene sto til i kjølevannet etter utgivelsen.

Hello, and congratulations on your debut album ’Backworld’, a nice piece of metal you have there! I suppose by now some review have been posted, how is the overall feedback on the album coming out?

Michele: The overall feedback has been positive. We've had some critics about the personality of our work, that certainly we're gonna manage to improve. We're satisfied about how it's going, anyway.

About the recording, where was the album recorded and how did it work out?

Federico: “Backworld” was recorded in different studios:  first we recorded drums, guitars and bass at Regrexion Studios with Michele Trasforini in Bologna (Italy) in September 2010, then vocals were recorded at Domination Studios with Simone Mularoni  in the San Marino Republic in the following month. Mixing and mastering were also done by Simone Mularoni at Domination Studios.

I guess you are bound to answer positively on this next question *Laughs* but anyways, are you satisfied with the final product? Are there things you retrospectively would have done different?

Federico: We have been working on “Backworld” for more than two years, everything in this album has been checked by all of us, every choice reflects our conjoint will, so of course we can’t be unsatisfied by this work. I am not saying that this album is the best or what else, but only that this is just what we wanted to obtain and we are all proud of it in every single part.

Your first EP was an independent release, but this time you are signed to Ultimhate Records. Are there any more records in the Ultimhate contract?

Federico: “Reality Behind the Illusions of Life” was entirely self produced and self distributed, on the other hand now we are co-operating with Ultimhate do to all this work and we feel well about this; at the moment we don’t know which label will release our next work, but we would be glad to continue working with Ultimhate.

Who is Disease Illusion, and what musical backgrounds do you all come from?

Federico: Disease Illusion is a project which has no definite style constraints, but our musical background is almost the same as we are close friends and we share many things, including our passion for melodic death metal, which comes out from the sound of our band.

I have to admit you took me by surprise, I would never have guessed that you were an Italian act when I was checking out your album. Your music is very influenced by the Gothenburg scene. Also you write in you bio that this scene has been a great inspiration for you. What is it about this scene that intrigues you?

Dario: Yes, we have strong influences from the Gothenburg Sound because we’ve listened to this kind of music since we were only 15-16 years old.

At that time we mainly listened old school death metal, and we were really surprised to hear that new type of extreme music: it was violent, but there were also melodies, atmospheres and we felt the serious approach of that bands. We immediately loved it.

I think we were also intrigued by the fact that those bands came from Sweden, a country that we felt really far and different from Italy for many points of view.

We can say that Disease Illusion was born to play melodic death metal because that's the most favourite metal-subgenre of everyone in the band.

I have to say I am quite a sucker for the Gothenburg scene myself and bands like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Soilwork and so forth, especially their early works. Do you have any favourite bands from the scene?

Michele: There's only one answer: Dark tranqullity! They're absolutely
our favourite band. We’ve listened to them since we were fifteen, but also other bands like Children Of Bodom, InFlames, Soilwork and so on, have been very important for us.

Who does the writing in Disease Illusion? What lyrical themes are used when writing your pieces?

Dario: The music is usually written by Dario (Guitarist) with a pc software. He writes all the instruments and after he sends the finished songs to the other members of the band. In our rehearsal room we arrange the song, making some changes in riffs and structures. After this phase, Fabio (Singer) writes the lyrics.

How did you end up with the album title, 'Backworld'?

Michele: We wanted the album title to be connected in some way to the topics of our lyrics. Our songs talk about feelings and weaknesses of the human soul, "BackWorld" is the worldwide hidden behind ourselves and from all that is real.

Do you have any material ready for a follow up album, or has it all been recording and promotion?

Dario: We are promoting «Backworld» on the Internet and with concerts, but we are also working on the next album: we will try to make our music more personal than before, and we will add more influences from different genres of metal.

You have posted an excellent video for ‘One Last Breath’. Can you tell us about the recording of this, where was it recorded, who did the recordings?

Fabio: Thank you! I have recorded the video for ‘One Last Breath’ with my reflex in our small town on the outskirts of Bologna (Italy), everything was recorded at night, the other guys have helped me with a spot light and reflector panels which I use when I do photo sessions. I’m not a professional videomaker, but we preferred to do everything ourselves, it was great fun!

Are there any more videos planned?

Fabio: Sure! We are working on a storyboard of a new video, the filming will start soon, so stay tuned!

The artwork for the album looks great by the way, who is the artist? 

Fabio: The artist is Daniel Hofer “Archetype Design” he worked also with Behemoth, The Faceless, Graveworm... We are very satisfied with the his work, he was able to achieve exactly what we had imagined for our album.

Are you booked on any tours/concerts in the near future?

Fabio: Besides the regular concerts that we organize here in Italy, we are trying to go on a small European tour with more famous bands. However, if you want to book us, please write to this address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."

Any last words to our readers as this interview takes “One last breath”?

Fabio: Ahah nice play on words! Thank you for this interview, and thanks to the readers!

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