SIGN OF THE JACKAL: SIGN OF THE JACKAL: Survivors roar: Unstoppable. Uncompromising. Unbreakable.

In this interview, Laura, the fierce vocalist of the Italian heavy metal band Sign of the Jackal, opens up about the challenges faced during the creation of their upcoming album Heavy Metal Survivors. She reflects on the struggles of lineup changes, her personal experiences as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and how horror cinema has profoundly influenced their music. Laura also discusses themes of female empowerment, their dedication to authentic heavy metal, and the band’s resilience in navigating a post-pandemic world. Passionate, determined, and unapologetically metal, Laura offers an inspiring look into the heart of the band as they prepare to roar back onto the scene.

-Hi, first off thanks for answering to our questions. How’s everything doing in the Concrete Sign of the Jackal’s lair right before the release of your new album?

Ciao Tania! Thank you so much for your interest in our band, it’s a pleasure for me answering this interview. We are… good. Great to be honest. It took a while for us to be in this place since last year two members departed from the band shortly before entering the studio. Both of them are close friends and we didn’t know if and how to go on, we also thought to call it a day.. but in the end the love for what we make and the complete faith in the new tunes gave us the strength to find someone else to enter the band. And now we have a semi-brand new line-up and are ready to crash the world again! So, instead on Max on the guitars, Davide joined us, and on the bass guitar we now have Federico. Both are young and talented lads, and brought a wind of new strength and determination. We are proud of our new record and think this is a very good one, so can’t wait to hit the stage again!

-Influence of Personal Experiences: How have your personal experiences as a woman in the music industry influenced your songwriting and the themes present in Heavy Metal Survivors? Are there specific moments that shaped the narratives you explore in your music?

Being a woman is never easy. I don’t say anything new to your readers, I am sure I can talk for the most of us. We are always the last in line when it comes to decisions, and very few people want to know what we think. Even if times have changed a lot if compared to 15 years ago when we started, those things are very hard to abolish. I see many efforts done in the right direction of equality, respect and freedom, and I always try to support this ways of thinking, speaking, addressing to the other. But it is a struggle, and music industry makes no difference. I try to separate my battles from the band, because it’s about me to fight them and even because I don’t like to be labeled, so I don’t’ like it for Sign of the Jackal. I could say we like to stay above politics and parties, and concentrate our songwriting on different thematic, addressed much more on heavy metal world (like the horror/occult theme for example). But sometimes I like to wink on that direction (we made it with Queens of Hell in our first record, and Heavy Rocker in the second one), this time on Pedal To The Metal. The lyrics say “Live wild and free, those who passed by and never left, and still I am here, reckless to the core it’s how I grown and feel” – it’s a clear statement I won’t never bow, and will never change myself.

–Female Empowerment: In previous interviews, you’ve spoken about the challenges of being a female-fronted band in a male-dominated genre. How does your new album confront these challenges, and what message do you hope to convey to women in the metal community through songs like “You Better Run for Tomorrow” with its powerful themes?

I still go on. As usual, I don’t care much about what other people think about women in Heavy Metal, for us is simply Heavy Metal without many labels on it. I am this way and I am proud and lucky to carry on my personal battle. I don’t want to be seen as an object, or rare diamond, I just want to people appreciate my way of singing and being on stage simply because it’s their taste. I think this new album underlines, once again, the same point of view. Sign of the Jackal are this way, wherever you like it or not, and it’s the full package. I don’t feel less nor more than my male colleagues. I hope we can deliver this message loud and clear: music has no gender, and so should be in our personal lives, when it comes to work or family – you can be good in what you do and your birth sex shouldn’t confine yourself. I do, obviously, love to see how women in Heavy Metal prosper nowadays, but I love more when they are talented and outstand for what they do more as for what they look like.

We choose to cover (You Better) Run For Tomorrow by Childhood’s End because if checks all the boxes of our proposal (since the very beginning): it’s rare, obscure, rock and deserved a second life. Hope we honored the original tune. As for the lyrics, it speaks direct to my teenage self, those toxic relations where you don’t know if you run away or If you are obsessed, and then you realize you have the power on it and you can lead the way it goes. If someone could have told me before! I could have saved so many tears!

–Cultural Influences: Italy has a rich history in horror cinema and art that often explores darker themes. How do these influences shape your music and the horror narratives present in Heavy Metal Survivors? Do you find inspiration from Italian horror films or literature in your songwriting?

We always do. This time we pay our tribute to Hellraiser with Slaves Of Hell, with Shocker (on the same titled song), Phantasm, and then a very Italian tribute with songs Nightmare City taken by the movie entitled “Incubo sulla città contaminata” by Umberto Lenzi, and Buio Omega, same titled movie by Joe d’Amato (which was filmed in the nearby where we live, for the record!)

In those examples all the lyrics are inspired by the movies and most of the times even a small part of the melody or guitar solos recall the original soundtracks. Horror is such a huge pot to fish in, how could you not when you like Heavy Metal?

–Songwriting Process: You’ve mentioned in the past that the band started with covers of underground metal songs. How has your songwriting process changed as you’ve developed your original material, particularly with the rich storytelling found in tracks like “Slaves of Hell” and “Nightmare City”?

Obviously a bit. We now have material to build our set with our original proposal, so this is the way we work. Our songwriting process takes a lot of time. As always, Bob is the main composer and we are just paws until he finds out what shape the song will sound like. Then we add our touches. Inspiring ourselves with horror movies gives us a very wide plate of influences and ideas regarding the lyrics, then we change slightly and slightly until we are content with the results. Then, we usually change again until the ultimate studio version and most of the times we are thrilled with the songs. Our goal is never to have a “filler” song but every tune should be convincing and accurate. This is why we don’t rush to release an album every couple of years. I strongly believe that our music will survive our personas, so it’s worth the job of doing it the right way.

–Thematic Continuity: Heavy Metal Survivors has a post apocalyptic theme. Can you elaborate on how these themes resonate with current societal issues, and do you believe your music serves as a commentary on our modern world?

Everybody of us has a personal soundtrack, that accompanies you through your life. I’d like it so much if someone would put Sign of the Jackal songs as a soundtrack for this specific moment. Isn’t meant to be a commentary, though.

Heavy Metal Survivors, both the title and the theme, is a reflection coming from our guts. We are grown-ups now (at least, so our ID cards say) and most of the times feel like a dinosaur: all people know you existed, but you no longer exist. Metal scene developed in ways I still can’t catch up with, some of them are obvious if compared to how society developed, other ones give me the impression something went lost throughout the journey. We saw many people coming and going in our scene, many bands coming up ad fade away in less than 5-6 years, many trends fading away too, and at the end if we look back at 15 years ago and the HM scene so like it was, we could proudly say that we’re still playing what we like in the way we like, so.. we are Survivors like few other young bands. When it comes to me, there’s no other way to live. I always try to keep my demons on the leash, but they are always there and I managed to rule them in order to fit in this world, but I am proud I won’t ever change. I see many people now taking different paths, finding their own expression in something else than Heavy Metal (both music and way of living), and then there are a few, die-hards, long-lasting ones you don’t even need to explain yourself with. Those are the ones this record is addressed to. Star-system, music business and now social media personalities are another apocalypse we are going through and then there are … the survivors.   

–Challenges and Resilience: After six years since your last album, what challenges did you face during the composition and recording process of Heavy Metal Survivors, and how have those challenges shaped the final outcome?

The biggest challenge for us was, like for many bands, the mandatory stop of Covid pandemic. This made us fall apart as a group, we no longer were able to cross the town’s border, so we simply didn’t meet for a very long time. Then, when you walk into the rehearsal room again, it all feels strange and you need time to get used again. In our particular case, as I told in the intro, this strange experience also contributed to change the mind of some members of the Jackal’s family (it’s not the pandemic per sé but most of all the distance kept in those moments from our frenetic world as we used to know) and all led to the epitaph on the old line up. Finding someone worthy to step in while composing new material hasn’t been easy at all. You need to meet someone who cares and believes in the project, which is not simple at all. Now we are older, and nothing gets better when you are, and busier. I have a daughter, together with Bob, everybody of us is busy with family and work, so I feel these 15 years more on my shoulders. I no longer waste time and need to focus on just what matters… I don’t say I mind, at all. Maybe should have been like this since the beginning, but now we are determined to catch what we deserve and want to do our best.

This time we also had troubles with the recording sessions (let’s say we are not the luckiest band in this), because they were led in a way that wasn’t comfortable for us, and in the end we had an argument with the sound engineer who no longer wanted to work with us again, and needed to find someone else to finish the job. But we couldn’t ask for a better man to step in and I think the result speaks for itself. In the unlucky prospective to delay even more our work, we managed to find someone enthusiastic and capable who worked hard and timeless to deliver the best job close to perfection. We are grateful and eventually everything worked out great.

–Influence of Other Bands: You have mentioned bands like Warlock and Dokken as influences in previous interviews. How do you balance these influences with your own identity to create a unique sound?

Of course you always try to do something unique but cannot underestimate the influences of the music you love, you find pleasant and you listen to the whole day.

I particularly like Warlock because of their anthems, and because of the song structure itself: it’s never predicted, even if very “classic” in its writing style. Dokken, for their US melodic addition, and choruses. Chastain, for the screaming guitars and harsh vocals with much reverb, and Judas Priest (how not to??), so as Mercyful Fate and Accept. I like to think we play a very European classic Heavy Metal with some US melodic influences. Then, of course, you try to sound like those voices you hear and like much (for example the above mentioned Leather Leone, but also Eric Adams, and Geoff Tate).

–Gender Roles in Performance: When you perform, how do you balance the traditional aesthetics of heavy metal with your own personal style and identity? Do you feel pressure to conform to certain gender roles, and how do you navigate that?

Somebody once told me, after a show, I was doing great because it was so clear that I don’t mind at all my aesthetics 😀 I like to think this was meant to pay a compliment (but was never sure about that, ahaha). Let’s say I like to be a woman, and I am very proud I can show it on stage. But, as many things, what is more important is fitting in properly with the band and the message we want to deliver. Heavy Metal with no compromises. I like to give the idea of someone “who rocks the stage” rather than an hot chick. I don’t think it’s the right place to show your sexy side, if it captures more gazes than what you are playing on stage. Sometimes is hard to balance, because everybody of us wants to feel flattered, and of course admired, but I never wanted it to be for the way I dress. I am no longer a teenager, I try to be conscious for the way I look, but don’t’ want to be objectified, neither to be remembered for the way I look. Luckily for me, the Heavy Metal aesthetics, when it comes to traditional heavy metal, is something I feel comfortable to wear and where I can look myself in the mirror and appreciate what I see. Studs, leather, chains, boots, I like them so much (on and off the stage).

–Legacy and Future Aspirations: As you prepare to release Heavy Metal Survivors, what legacy do you hope to leave within the metal genre? How do you envision your future contributions to the genre, especially in terms of addressing gender issues and evolving musical styles?

I hope our legacy is the demonstration you can play and old school, very traditional and with no compromises Heavy Metal even years after the golden decade. If people could listen to us and don’t feel the difference between a band of the 80s and ours, we made our job. Sometimes I listen to nowadays bands and found them very boring, repeating, even if the whole package is interesting and arousing (I mean, their image, and their sound, and their peculiarities). I see that many times there’s a kind of rush when it comes to release a record, and this is a shame because things could be done better. You sometimes listen to great and professional productions, but the songwriting is poor, and the few good ideas navigate in a sea of already heard and repeated. When it comes to us, we will go on making music until we won’t fill our records with “second choice” songs. Nobody needs a full shelf of records when you cannot remember one single tune out of them .The moment we’ll discover that we have nothing to say anymore, we’ll call it a day. But until then… I enjoy being Demons Queen. I like this side of myself where I can be cheeky and nasty, and powerful in our shows, and I hope some other girl will be inspired and set herself free. Life is full of boxes you need to be closed in, everybody labels everyone around them in some way or another, there are very few opportunities to show the real you and to enjoy what you do.

-That’s all from our side. Thanks again for answering to these questions. If you’d like to add some final words; it’s your turn.

Keep on supporting Heavy Metal, keep on supporting the new scene, because It’s our only chance to survive.

And keep on listening to Sign of the Jackal, of course. We are very proud of this Album and can’t wait to play it out loud!

Thanks for your interest,, and always fight for rock!

Laura