– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with FORGOTTEN TOMB?

Hi, here’s Ferdinando (aka Herr Morbid) replying. We are about to release the new album “…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil” and planning the first leg of our european tour, scheduled for the end of November/first half of December 2012. Starting to reply to interviews and to promote the album in general.

– You have a new album coming out soon entitled «…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil». What are your expectations on this release?

We gave up on expectations. We don’t care that much. We just try to do our best and we think the new album is the best thing we’ve done in a long while. We like all of our albums, but this time we just outdid ourselves in terms of songwriting and atmosphere. I personally consider this album one of the best I ever wrote and I could die happily after its release. Nothing to regret about these new songs. 100% Forgotten Tomb fucked up shit. We just hope to play live and tour as much as possible to promote it and keep the ball rolling.

 

– If your previous «Under Saturn Retrograde» had really catchy moments and nice melodies, this record has a harsher feeling I could say, really disturbing, being even darker and more negative than some of your previous records. Does each album represent a certain moment in time? It seems like negativity and darkness are more present on each new record so, does this just comes out naturally or is it something you aim for?

Negativity is certainly a constant in all FT albums and the band could not exist without it. This said, being the main composer in the band, it certainly depends a lot also on my mood during the songwriting and on my life experiences. I usually just don’t write songs when I’m in a good mood (which happens seldomly, by the way). On this album in particular, the songwriting took place over a completely fucked up lapse of time spanning for the last year and half of my life, which saw me sinking into complete self-destruction and misery, and I’m plain honest here, no need to put up any promotional bullshit. Just had to deal with a shitload of extremely negative stuff and emotions coming from my private life, as well as getting sick with some disease, dealing with the abuse of various shit, getting through bad nervous breakdowns, depression, emotional disorders, absolute misery and generally getting really fucking near to my own demise, which certainly left more mental scars than ever before. I couldn’t believe I could get worse than in some of my past years, but somehow I managed to. No matter if I search for the darkness or not, it will always come to get me anyway. It’s like a curse I can’t escape.

 

– Anyway there’s no doubt you are an ever-evolving band. Is your musical evolution synonim to both artistical and personal growth?

Evolution is needed because we always want to keep up to date and to be way beyond the awful amount of clone-bands there are around nowadays. We started a whole sub-movement back in the days so we always have to lead, certainly not to step back. This said, it also comes natural because we became better musicians and my songwriting skills got more mature, probably also because of getting older and such. It’s mostly a constant research to reach the zenith of discomfort, which musically speaking is made possible also by an improved technique and by an attitude getting stronger and more focused album after album.

 

– I think for FORGOTTEN TOMB, without having changed abruptly, each record is a step forward on its music. Do you think «…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil» is the album which lays the closes to the actual FORGOTTEN TOMB’s identity?

Yeah, for the first time I must say this album completely represents how I feel at the moment. I’m usually already thinking to the next album by the time a new album gets released, but not this time. It was an incredibly stressful album to write, to record and to release, for a series of several different reasons including me being so fucked up that I almost didn’t manage to complete it, so now that it’s done I just need to take a break and only focus on the live shows and promotion, and possibly on straightening up my life a little before it’s too late. I must thank the guys in the band and some other close friends for helping me out like never before by giving the last touches to the mix of the album and by taking care of most of the graphic side of things, since I was completely unable to follow those steps due to my mental and physical conditions. Without them this album would have probably been released way later and would not have sounded/looked so good.

 

– When we interviewed you in support of «Under Saturn Retrograde» you said your aim has basically always been the same: improving on what you do, and I personally think you’ve always managed to do so but, is it easy to be objective with your own material?

It’s not easy at all, very often what you think it’s great for you does not suit the taste of the audience, or vice versa. Best thing is always to be true to yourself and do what you feel like. We always did it, we did more experimental albums which got very criticized and we did a little more “traditional” albums like this new one, but we always did what we wanted to in that particular moment and that’s what matters. There are fans for each of our albums, which is a good sign. We just want to keep the quality high and keep it fresh, and I think we always did. Then one might like it or not, but we’re not too much concerned about it.

 

– In fact you have never released the same album twice; have you ever thought about getting rid of the mood your songs have? Don’t you never run out of ideas? As moreover, your music seems to be strongly founded among life in general.

As said, my life is always pretty fucked up, and when it’s not I just don’t write any songs or I try to focus on stuff that it’s still obscure but sounds a bit more experimental. When I’m not inspired, I just don’t write stuff. Sometimes a single bad night/day in months is enough to come up with an incredibly good tune/lyric. I’m a very moody person so I can go from happiness to sudden depression over a day. When I’m too fucked up I can’t even write music, I really don’t play much guitar at home. I almost never pick up my guitar if not to write a song. You never know if and when there will be a new FT album. Getting rid of the mood? Well, sometimes over the years it happened that I wrote stuff that was very good but didn’t fit the band ‘style enough, so I just didn’t use it and I’ve been waiting for the right inspiration/mood to come back to me, and it always did.

 

– This being said; does the powerful and eerie FORGOTTEN TOMB’s sound have any limit?

There are no limits to evil and misery, so there are no limits for FT. The world is an ugly place, life sucks hard, so there’s plenty of inspiration for a band like us.

 

– As I said, all your albums have a strong emotion, but I’d eve dare say «»…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil» is your most personal/introspective piece so far, with a really well-cared and detailed songwriting. Does this band allow you to channel certain feelings you couldn’t in any other way?

Yeah, as said is a very personal album and it certainly includes a huge amount of concepts and life-stories that will drown the listener in my own eerie world. In a way, this album says a lot more about me than every thing I could say in interviews or such. It’s just all there, you listen to the songs, you read the lyrics, and you got it. These are actually the best lyrics I ever wrote. I don’t think I could have done better than this.

 

– And what feelings/aspect have you explored on this new CD?

It’s a very personal album lyric-wise. There a couple of songs about love and fucked up relationships, which is something I haven’t talked about in years, for instance. But it doesn’t get too specific, it’s mostly my vision of how I see and live this kind of things nowadays, and it’s incredibly negative stuff. Nothing fancy or “emo” like some people might suspect. It’s completely dark stuff. It’s about things that I experienced myself but it’s also about what I see around me. Then there are other songs dealing with pure despair and self-destruction, stuff about this will to die and disappear that caught my life over the last year and half. Things got incredibly dark at a certain point and I just came up with these lyrics. Haters gonna hate, though this is just how I felt when I wrote the lyrics and if you think I’m a poser or something, you can kiss my ass and go fuck yourself right away, ‘cause I lived and suffered every fucking line in these new lyrics. There are also many references to sickness/diseases, physical pain and abuse of substances. And again, it’s both stuff that I lived on my skin as well as the atmosphere of complete decadence I’ve been living in during the whole songwriting. Generally speaking, it’s an incredibly dark album lyrically-wise, it never got so dark since “Love’s Burial Ground”, but the difference is that now I’m an adult and I have the proper skills to write down this stuff without regretting it afterwards. This album to me sounds like a testament of someone who could die from a moment to the other. And if it would happen, I would have nothing to regret ‘cause I really said it all through these 7 songs. I just totally nailed it this time, which in a way makes me proud of what I accomplished with this album but at the same time it feels so incredibly miserable to listen to these songs. There are moments in these songs where I feel like breaking down when I listen to. It’s a tough album for me to listen to, and this wasn’t happening since a lot of time, so I think fans should feel all this pain is fucking real.

 

– Your arts have always seemed to be connected to the lyrics and whole idea of your albums so, would you mind to elaborate a bit on the artwork for «…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil»? How did you work on it and what did you want to express?

As said, I was so out of my mind that I could not work on the artwork on the album directly, just contributed with some ideas and pictures for the inside of the booklet and generally choosing the fonts for the lyrics and approving the final product. Alex (aka Algol), our bass-player, mostly came up with the idea for the front-artwork and I thought it was cool, so he just told our idea to the graphic designer and he came up with the cover. It looks kind of old fashioned but still different from most of the shit you see on Black Metal albums nowadays. It basically reflects the title and concept of the album pretty well, it’s about the death of innocence and about delivering your soul to evil, meaning submitting to the dark side of life. I strongly wanted children and young people to be featured in the artwork/booklet ‘cause I like the concept of innocence getting corrupted, so you can find a child on the cover of the CD as well as another child on the cover of the “Deprived” 7-inch, and pictures of young people hurting themselves in the booklet.

 

– «…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil» has been your first CD with guitar player A, did the split album with WHISKEY RITUAL have something to do with this? And how has he fitted in? What has he brought to FORGOTTEN TOMB?

A. didn’t play on the album, I played all guitars for it. He’s our live lead guitar-player and he’s doing a pretty good job. We just didn’t have time enough to practice the new songs with him and we felt I could have done a better job by playing them myself on the album, since I wrote every single note on it. I think it was a wise choice. Yes, he also plays guitar for Whiskey Ritual, which is the band he comes from and we did the split 7-inch with.

 

– By the way, how did the idea of doing that covers split arise?

Both the bands are huge fans of GG Allin music and phylosophy so we came up with this idea of doing a whole split 7-inch to pay him a tribute, since no Black Metal bands ever did it in such a proper way. It was all very spontaneous and I think it turned out great. As simple as this.

 

– In fact since «Vol 5» you used to surprise your listeners with different covers on your albums, as the aforementioned GG Allin tribute split or the cover for «I Wanna be your Dog» you did on your previous release. Why did you think no cover had place on «»…And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil»?

In the beginning I wanted to play some other cover for this new album, and we actually did record two (“Transmission” by Joy Division and “Sore” by Buzzov*en). But after the album was completed we just thought it was so good that we wouldn’t want to compromise the whole atmoshere of it by including a cover. So we decided with the label to add the Joy Division cover in the end just for the limited edition of the album, and the Buzzov*en cover for the limited LP version. We also recorded an acoustic version of our song “Adrift” as a B-side to our 7-inch “Deprived”, which is being released a month before the album itself.

 

– All this about your new opus being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?

Negative. Evil. Hopeless.

 

– When we interviewed you in 2010 you told us before releasing «Under Saturn Retrograde» some people thought you will go new-KATATONIA, a band (as some others have also done) that has been through an obvious evolution, and they are now quite far from that Doom Death band they used to be. Do you something like this would ever happen to FORGOTTEN TOMB?

I have no idea, we would be certainly able to even write a whole Pop album if we just wanted to, but we don’t want to at the moment. It would also be a commercial suicide since most of our fans are not interested in this stuff. It makes no sense to release something that no one would ever buy. I’m all for evolution and experimentation, but if it gets too far then people are right when bashing you, ‘cause there are expectations towards us to keep a certain atmosphere, and I think we always did.

 

– In fact we can’t find that many bands palying your style in Italy so, honestly, do you think if you were hailing from Scandinavia you will get more attention from the Metal fans?

Yeah. I’m totally positive we would be bigger by now if we were coming from Scandinavia or from some other place where this genre is more popular. We’ve just been true to ourselves and never kissed any asses like many other bands did, so of course our path to notoriety has been a lot harder and we still haven’t got the recognition we deserve. Will see if we ever will, we follow our path against all odds like we always did, and that’s all. I’m pretty sure this album blows away lots of international Metal releases that are being released these days.

 

– You’ve been around for over a decade now so, what have been both the best and worst moments for/with FORGOTTEN TOMB to date?

Best moments: huge concerts in front of thousands during big festivals and playing in places we have never been before; having each new album released; travelling with the band and decadent moments on tour. Worst moments: most of the rest.

 

– I’ve read you are planning an European tour for this fall, is there anything booked yet?

Yes, but we can’t disclose any information at the moment, sorry. It will happen though.

 

– And beside this, what are some of your near-future plans?

Promoting the album, playing live as much as possible and possibly earning something to survive. And try to not end up in a hospital or a cemetery before the end of the year.

 

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

Damn, it was a long one. Give a chance to our last album. If you don’t like it, it means you haven’t been through enough shit in your life yet.

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

 

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