Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Since the 1996 one of the leading names in Ligurian underground HC scenes is DATAKILL. Their sound is hard and melodic with lyrics in Italian, a band with great future prospects. The other day I had a long chat with Lorenzo Armanetti, band’s guitarist and vocalist… some topics made him speak up…

Hi Lorenzo, welcome to Metal Shock Finland!

Hi Tarja, and thanks for giving us the opportunity to be on one of the most important magazine in Italy’s rock scene!

If you don’t mind, let’s talk first about the past … in 1996 you have formed DATAKILL. Tell me the reasons why the band was born?

Well … the story is a bit ‘longish’ but I can tell you that we were guys who had started to discover heavy music (it was more or less in ’88/’89) from there on the idea to emulate our idols came naturally, I think it was around ’91 … that period it was just me and Davide, then in ’93 Stefano joined the band and we began our journey together.
Among line-up changes and various monickers, we recorded our first demo in ’96/’97, as the 4th member of the band we had Tune in vox.  … then for various misunderstandings, the project was suspended until 2000, and when we then reformed the band, we decided to stay in 3 …. The rest is history ….

Your personal influences, where do they come from? how and when you got into metal?

The encounter with the rock I had at 13 years or so, but only a year after a friend made me listen to Metallica’s Ride the Lightning … from there began the infection of this virus … hihhi

After the first years and several lineup changes, as you already mentioned, the band was suspended for 2 years. Why?

Because we were too different musically at that time, and no longer able to understand each other … we really needed to find out what we wanted!

But in 2000 you returned stronger than ever, please present us the band members …

Yes, we realized we could make our small contribution, so we got back together … We are:  Stefano (vocals & bass), me Lorenzo (guitar & vocals) and Davide (drums and backing vocals)

How would you define your genre?

I have no idea … let’s say it has many influences from hardcore to metal passing through punk, crossover, and much more … .. let’s call it Rock n’ Core … ahahahahah

You sing in Italian, why this choice?

Because it feels just so right! … we are not English or American, we don’t have full confidence with english, we would never be able to express ourselves as we would like to, the natural mother tongue is the right path for us, which we wanted to take from the very beginning …

And what’bout the lyrics and songs, how they see the daylight?

They come out spontaneously, talking about certain topics depending on the song, for example, many times when we make up the skeleton of the song, we talk among ourselves and say: “hey, I feel this song wants to talk about …” …and we begin to discuss about our feelings and sensations, and from there the lyrics are coming out automatically, but it’s far from “easy”, we’re satisfied only when the lyrics are fluent, never forced! this stage, together with the final arrangements, requires more care.

What is your message to your audience? I mean, what do you want to convey through your songs?

What we want to say with our music is that, whatever are the topics: personal experiences, current events or social issues, we must always react with a positive energy, letting the evil behind it and start all over better than before … .. it is essential !

In 2001, came out your self-produced EP “L’ODIO” (The Hatred), which marked an important turning point in your popularity. And L’Odio is still widely felt among your fans. According to you, you can define it your anthem?

Yes I think so, that song has something special, it has been for us and for our fans a very important foothold in dark times … you know , the song tells about the relationship that ends with real bitterness, the stuff of which you will carry the scars for the rest of your life, and I believe that many of us have been identified in this song, and that is why it feels “ours”… but as I said before, this song has in it the spirit of moral renewal, an invitation to give a nice clean slate and to start all over again … !

In 2006 you released your first full-length album “Fino all’Ultimo Respiro” (Until the Last Breath) on Built To Last Records, tell me about this album …

What can I say … it was a fantastic and bitter experience at the same time, great one for the album-production in the studio.  We worked like crazies for about a month, filling in many gaps on professional level… first, to understand our limits, and second, to be able to unleash in practice many ideas that we couldn’t do before, because of the reduced number of components (3), thus a series of really rewarding arrangements, while maintaining a very hard spirit at the same time for entire album, it is thanks to our producer, Giovanni Nebbia (as also for our latest single “22”), you know, when he is in the studio with us, he becomes the fourth member of the band, he’s always able to understand the spirit and intentions of the band at that particular moment, he always encourages us to dare and to do better … he’s absolutelly great!
The bitter part of history, well, I do not want to reveal you, the past is past and we decided to put a lid on it ….

So far, you have shared the stage with eg. the Oceans of Sandness, Raw Power, Extreme, and Necrodeath. What are your memories of those concerts?

We are proud to have been able to share the stage with artists like this, 3 out of 4 bands you mentioned are part of the “extreme-music” history in our country, there are some indelible memories in my mind that I guard jealously, as eg. the experience in Atri, when we opened for Extrema, a journey that is also documented by a video, and still time to time we’re watching it, bulging with laughter!!

At this point I would like to talk about the venues and the Italian metal scene … What do you think about them? spill the beans Man…

If I’d really spilled the beans, nobody would make us play any more … ahahahaha
Seriously, I do not know why, but Italy is still struggling to keep pace with the development of live music, so, let’s say the managers of the premises do not help at all, indeed, making you play (and only because the band doesn’t play fucking covers!) it seems that you still do a favor, 70% of the premises are without the minimum equipments to get you to do a decent show, and I don’t want to talk now about the gig fees, I just prefer to drop this really pitiful veil ….
However, recently I see the Italian metal scenes has a great return to thrash and death of the ’90s … a lot of guys are competing on who is more technical and bad, losing so the true meaning of what  it really means to “write songs”. … oh, well … I do not know, anyway if you don’t find the identity, the future of many bands is inevitably short, whatever genre the band proposes!

In your opinion, why is it so hard for an underground band to get noticed by the big public, or by the record companies?

Because the so-called “insiders” do little for underground bands, no one believes in us, the record companies and management in Italy can not see it as a business so it remains subsoil, the independent labels can not give the full support because budgets are reduced, in some respects, at this point, the best way is the auto-production, at least you’re not bound by contracts with no future … you know, if only some record companies pulled out the balls and if they had the courage to believe in some RnR acts, you would see a revival any day now, because then it would be like a chain reaction, everybody would be sniffing the deal … but it is just fantasy, I must be crazy to even think so, but already for decades America and England dictate the law, in terms of Rock, and over the years they have approached a lot of reality even in Northern Europe given life to a large metal world, apart from us, only four or five bands, Italy is in arrears for decades. … For the Italian labels seem to count only the realities … … .. how sad!

If you could “change the rules” what would you change?

Let’s say that now the rules, little by little, are changing on their own, let me explain better, the Internet has managed to cut a lot of money to the music industry, over the years they have taken advantage outrageously by charging, first the vinyls and then the cd, with absurd prices, now that they find themselves in crisis, these people are collapsing miserably ….
The labels should focus much more on digital formats, which in my opinion are the future, the CD is now lagging behind (commercially speaking), even though I do not deny to be fond of buying CDs, I love them, I’m one of those who still look the CD-covers, interiors and lyrics … but I guess I belong to a minority. By the way, if I’d be, just for a month, an important record label, you’d see how fast metal and hardcore would rise up the scale ahahahahah … !

And now, back to Datakill … March 2010 came out your new EP, “22”, why this title?

Well … “22” in Neapolitan cabal (the grimaces so to speak) means “crazy” and this song tells about a person who is not quite alright!

The EP has two strong songs, but I hear there a “new” sound … would you like to tell me how it is different from your earlier songs?

Well it’s simple, as I said earlier, the other bands hit harder… Ok … the world is full of that kind of bands … we go in another direction, not that we’d have lightened our genre, but we wanted to sound more mature and less approved with what is fashionable today. … we are us, and that’s it!

And this is the direction that DATAKILL will follow in the future?

Our direction is always a constant evolution, we’ll never forget our roots though, but we’ll always try to be as personal as possible. The attitude and approach in songwriting is constantly analyzed and it’s very important for us and that is why we always go on ….

Last summer you released the video “22”. Tell me about it…

Ahhh … it’s cool! A great experience! The video was shot Di Gerlando Bros. (Sanremo Cinema), and they were excellent travel companions, very patient and prepared! the script was an idea of a dear friend (Luca Caloria), you know, when he heard the song, he gave freedom to his imagination … well, then some merit should also be given to the undersigned… I chose the actor (Francesco Distefano), and with him we’ve found a real talent,  who made the role of the borderline person in an exceptional way!

FreeSound Magazine recently chose “22” as “Video Del Momento”, commenting e.g.: “Datakill brings out a high-level video “22”, their sound is hard and melodic with lyrics in Italian, a band with great future prospects, the emerging Italian Hardocore continues to grow. “… indeed, the comments like this you’ve received from many others as well … what is the secret of this song?

First of all thanks for the compliments, it’s always nice to know that there’s someone who appreciate our work, it means we’ve been able to find the right key … Maybe the song is special because it’s what every human being could live in any day … because we all have a little bit madness within us!!

And now, you are preparing new songs for your next album. How it’s proceeding?

We are still on high seas, although I must say that many songs are already ready to be recorded, we are progressing well … and Stefano has made really badass lyrics!! 😉

Now the last question … What would you say to your fans and to our readers?

To our fans: I always thank you with all my heart, as I always say on stage: “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have any reason to exist”. You know Tarja, our fans know us by now, and they want to hear our music speak!
And I would like to say to MSFinland’s readers: Please, support the underground, do not dwell only to listen to the famous bands, if you’ll dig further you will find very interesting things out there … thanks to all of You!!

Interview by Tarja Virmakari – Black-and-white Photo by Roberta Veruggio

For more information, visit: www.datakill.it

Datakill – 22