Claudio Ravinale

AM : “Fragments of D-Generation” got very good press results, but how about the sales, did you manage to sell it well, as this scene is quite crowded with many great bands… In Flames and Soilwork are becoming very big…

Claudio : I don’t have a clue about that… We’ve been told that Fragments sold quite well, but being on an indie label and not a touring band of course our sales cannot be compared to Soilwork or In Flames ones.

AM : Did you compose the new album alone once again ?

Claudio : As usual Ettore composed everything alone while I wrote all the lyrics by myself as well... You know, we have a very fast, tyrannic and instinctive process of makin’ music ahahah, Ettore simply sits in the studio with his guitar and starts creating riffs, then he adds drums, keyboards and so on and as soon as he finishes one song asks me to write the lyrics while he is already working on a new one… Working this way is damn fast ‘coz we don’t have to discuss our ideas with no other band members , and in fact we composed without problems the new record in three weeks.

AM : How would you describe your evolution since last album ? The songs are overall more melodic, and I think the main improvement is the quality of the refrains, did you especially work that point ?

Claudio : Our style has not changed that much from the previous release, we simply developed and refined it in a better way. The heavy parts are heavier and the melodies are catchier then ever, there’s not much to say about it, we simply tried to write better songs and we achieved the score. Fragments was a good album but this new one is far better for sure and yeah I completely agree with u when u say that the refrains now sound much better, I don’t like a lot of refrains from Fragments, exp the ones composed by our former singer, they sound so goddamn childish and the lyrics were terrible…

AM : When Bjorn “Speed” Strid from Soilwork made the singing on “Fragments of D-Generation”, we thought it was a one-shot for him, but he’s still there on “Mind Tricks”, so is he part of the band (also for gigs ?) ? Hearing the quality of the songs, I think it wasn’t that hard to convince him to do it again ;) ?

Claudio : Na, things are a little different than that, but this is not the right place to discuss it, as you noticed in this record he does less then half of the vocals , all the rest is done by myself and some clean vocals by Ettore as well, but of course our record label prefers to spread bullshit like “the band fronted by Speed is back” to sell more copies… Anyway u should think about the whole stuff as a “one and a half shot from him” ahahah ‘coz I don’t really think that will happen again.

AM : Ettore, the sound of the new album is even better than previously, did you do the production in your home studio again ? Would you be interested to produce other bands than yours ? Which bands ?

Claudio : Glad u like our new sound, ‘coz we’re not completely satisfied about it to be honest… Anyway, yeah , he produced the whole stuff in his home studio and he’s also working on other bands besides Disarmonia Mundi, for example he produces my other band, Ground Zero and some other small local bands as well…

AM : You don’t have a full line-up, so are you going to tour to support the new album, have you found guest musicians ? In our previous interview, you still weren’t sure if you would feel better behind drums, guitars, have you decided now what suits you the best ? :)

Claudio : In a live situation I will take care of all the aggressive vocals and Ettore of the clean ones plus playin’ guitar… All the rest of the band is still to be found, so don’t expect a live show in the near future, for I’m pretty sure it won’t happen.

AM : Why the choice of “Mouth for war” from Pantera, a tribute to Dimebag ?

Claudio : As you said it’s simply a tribute to Dimebag’s memory.

AM : You have done a clip of Celestial Furnace, was it important to you do do a clip, is it an important step forward, what do you expect of it ?

Claudio : Yeah we already did a clip for the song “Red Clouds” but it completely sucked so we finally have something decent to show to the fans… The new video is not that bad, still a low budget one, but acceptable after all… Of course I’d like to do a video like Dimmu Borgir’s “Progenies of the Great Apokalipse” but we simply don’t have enough money to do something like that right now ahahah.

AM : Now our last ritual question : ask yourself a question and give the answer :)

Claudio : “Who’d u like to see as the next president of the United States of America?”

“Blackie Lawless”.