Bretus are one of Italy’s well known and long-standing Doom Metal bands. As they’ve been going since 2000 and are still rocking within their 3rd decade of existence. The band have just released their 5th album with Magharia and it’s a record all toe top sounds and ideas that we’ve come to expect from the band. 70’s based Doom Metal with Occult Rock Swagger with the welcome additional sounds of Psychedelic Rock and modern based Stoner Metal.
The album starts very strongly with the creepy and hard-hitting opening song – Celebration Of Gloom – and there’s a lot to celebrate especially if you like your Doom Metal overflowing with cool ideas from the last 50 years of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Bretus cover a lot of ground on this song with their eerie lyrics and gloomy sounds bringing a thrilling style of Doom/Stoner Metal that old-school fans of Saint Vitus and Candlemass will no doubt admire.
Second song – Cursed Island – carries on the twisted and gloomy “DOOM METAL” imagery from the opening song but brings a more modern Stoner Metal flavour to the mix. The vocals are OTT but they add a cool “Occult” atmosphere to the song with Bretus finding the time to play a wild and varied style of different guitar solos along the way.
Third song – Moonchild’s Scream – is a more classic offering from Bretus with slightly OTT vocals and lyrics allowing the band to focus more playing heavier and sinister grooves. The song starts very slow and is quite cautious at the beginning but soon builds up to become one of the most creatively interesting songs on the album. The Psychedelic vibes remind myself of Uncle Acid earlier studio output but Bretus perhaps bringing a more mature and violent style of music.
The first 3 songs allow the listener to see how Bretus will play out the rest of this superbly entertaining record but the band have more than enough tricks up their sleeve to keep the everything interesting and more varied on the later stages of the record.
Bretus bring more a more “Experimental” attitude on this record with excellent Psychedelic Sounds being some of the best ideas I’ve heard from the band recently. Magharia allows Bretus the opportunity to go slightly off-script for a Doom Metal Band and play things that you shouldn’t really expect to work so well.
Other great songs on the album include: Nuraghe, Headless Ghost, The Bridge Of Damnation and the fantastic instrumental title track – Magharia.
Magharia is an album with Bretus showing their fans that Doom Metal can be “FRESH, EXCITING and FUN”.
If you’re looking for a Doom Metal album that isn’t afraid to rewrite genre conventions from time-to-time, well BRETUS would like you to join their Demonic and Groovy Doomed Out Congregation.
SuuM
is a new name in Italian doom underground: they gathered in Rome in
2017, and the debut “Buried Into The Grave” appeared in February
2018 on Russian label Endless Winter.
Probably
I could skip it but there are two familiar persons in the lineup,
they are Mark Wolf who also sings in great doom band Bretus and
mister Painkiller who plays guitars in Fangtooth.
It’s
hard to tell if it’s a kind of “star lineup”, but at least we
have guarantees, that men know well how to provide proper traditional
doom. I’ve got in touch with Mark to uncover few facts about SuuM.
Hi
Mark! How are you? What's going on in SuuM camp?
Hi
Aleksey! In SuuM camp everything is going well, “Buried Into The
Grave” came out a few weeks ago. The perfect soundtrack for a
nocturnal walk in cemetery. The reviews have
been full of praise and reactions have been mostly very positive,
we have received a lot of appreciation from zines, web zines and
doom maniacs. Totally unexpected. We are
preparing for some Doomed Rituals and the promotion of the album goes
on.
Okay,
SuuM is pretty fresh outfit, we know you from Bretus and Painkiller
is from Fangtooth, but what about the other guys? How did you gather
under the Doom Cult tattered banner?
The
line up is completed by Rick and Marcas. Rick (Drums) was the drummer
of an historical Hardcore band, Bloody Riot (Italy), Marcas (Bass)
has other experiences in some rock / heavy metal bands.
What
made you take part in one more doom band? What's your motivation? Do
you feel you have something new to say in this genre?
Everything
was born spontaneously, I've known Painkiller for a long time, he was
born in Sicily, I'm from Calabria, we have
shared the stage many times in the past.
For various reasons we both live in Rome, we met Rick and Marcas and
from the first rehearsal the right alchemy was created. There is no
particular reason behind this choice. I think Doom needs to stay in
the depths of the rock/metal scene, it's not a
mainstream music and it never will be.
What drives me and the other guys in the band is the desire to
continue to play this music with the right attitude. Basically we
just play music we want to listen to ourselves.
By
the way, how do you feel an essence of doom metal? Bretus deals with
horror stories, and it seems that SuuM isn't faraway from this topic.
I
think Bretus and SuuM are different both musically and in lyrics,
surely it would not make sense for me to play in two similar
projects.
And
essence of doom? What is it for you?
It's
a state of mind, the doom must be breathed and must be lived, it's
not just a musical genre. It is the mirror
of soul. Soul is the most important thing
when playing this music.
SuuM
– Tower Of The Oblivion
The
latest Bretus album “…From The Twilight Zone” is vintage
sounding tribute to old thrillers, and its sound suits well this
concept. What did influence on SuuM heavily overloaded sound? Why did
you stop on it?
Well,
as I said Bretus and SuuM are two different bands with different
approaches and sounds.
In
Bretus you can find also 70's Rock, Psychedelia, Blues. SuuM play old
school Doom Metal in an instinctive way
, there is some death metal influence in the riffing. Painkiller,
Rick and Marcas have their own background.
SuuM and Bretus play doom music in two
different ways, this allows me to try different vocal solutions, this
is what I need.
But
in the same time your manner of singing is pretty recognizable. Do
you mean what you put different efforts or energy in singing for each
band?
The
energy I use is the same for both bands but the lyrical themes are
different.
What
kind of lyrics did you record for SuuM? How is it important for you?
With
the use of the metaphors we describe the horror that surrounds us
every day. I have always been interested in the dark side of the
things. Some of the lyrics are introspective and many of these have
been influenced by some things happening in my life.
Did
you record “Buried Into The Grave” in the same studio as Bretus'
“…From The Twilight Zone”?
No,
“Buried Into The Grave” was recorded at the Devil's Mark studio
in Rome by Marco MT from Demonomancy (Black Metal band).
“…From
The Twilight Zone” was recorder at Black Horse Studio in Catanzaro.
How
did you spend the record session at the Devil’s Mark Studio? How
many days did you have there?
The
recording sessions were very fast (two days), it was a full
immersion, we wanted to get a sound very close to what we are in our
live shows. What you can hear today is exactly the sound of SuuM.
Every single riff, arrangement or vocal line took 100% of our time
and devotion.
After
being so long in Italian underground, how do you see it now? Does the
life of bands become easier?
Well
Aleksey, as you know there are many excellent bands in Italy, no need
to mention them, they are almost all present in your doom
encyclopedia (compliments again for Doom Metal Lexicanum).
There
is a lot of support among many bands, there is a great scene but
there are few places to play live shows compared to the rest of
Europe.
Both
Bretus and SuuM new album were released by Russian label Endless
Winter, don't you feel disappointed that the albums don't appear on
Italian labels? I guess that Bretus “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”
was released by BloodRock Records, right?
We
are not disappointed, is not necessary to have a release by an
Italian label,
we
are comfortable with Endless Winter and Hellas Records, they are
serious people who do their job with passion. However in the future
anything can happen.
For
the moment we are satisfied with this solution, this is the most
important thing.
Bretus
– Danza Macabra
What
are your ambitions towards SuuM? How do you see the band’s
prospects?
Doom
is known as the genre that kind of celebrates itself, generally
you don’t choose to play this music to make it big.
We are not innovators, we don't invent anything, we want to play only
Doom metal in a primordial way.
“Buried
Into The Grave” was released just a pair of months ago, but what's
about new material? Do you already have an inspiration for the next
record? Or maybe you are focused on the nextBretus album?
We
have already some new stuff, I want to clarify that SuuM do not
depend only on my inspirations, I would like to specify something,
SuuM is not “my” project, SuuM is “our” band (Painkiller,
Rick, Marcas, Mark Wolf). In the band we are all 100% involved in the
creation of songs.
At
the moment the priority goes to live shows, surely we will perform as
many live shows as we can, we will publish soon the details about the
new next Doomed Rituals.
With
Bretus we are working on the new album, we’re halfway through
writing our fourth record right now, we hope to enter the recording
studio next year.
Anyway
the two bands will not be hindered, each band
follows its own path.
The
second Bretus album was whole based on Lovecraft’s story, the third
one is collection of old thrillers and horror movies. What’s your
plan for the fourth one? Do you already have a general idea?
We
have some ideas but it's too early to reveal
it,it will
certainly be something different, probably it will be a concept
album, we will see...stay tuned and Doomed.
Mark,
thank you for the interview. How would you like to sum up our
interview?
Thank
you for the interesting interview Aleksey, follow the Sabbath...Doom
for the Doomed!
Bretus
is an Italian doom metal band with a long story. It was formed in
2000 but for long eight years guys didn’t produce any worth
material for real record. Slowly they elaborated their own style,
gather right people in the band and their debut full-length “In
Onrica” (2012) shown that Bretus has some potential to create gloom
trad doom music.
The
sophomore concept album “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” crystallized
few features to Bretus sound: recognizable deranged vocals of
Zagarus, dirty retro sound Ghenes extracted from his guitar and
creepy, “hollow” effect of rhythm section performed by Azog and
Striges. Few months ago guys returned with new full-length work
“…From The Twilight Zone”, and if you missed their previous
records then you should check this one, it deserves attention of
every doom fan. We had a talk with Ghenes, here it is.
Ciao
Ghenes! How are you? Bretus latest album “…From The Twilight
Zone” was released in June. What does the band do now?
Cheers
Aleksey is a pleasure to hear you again. After the recording we were
invited to play at the Doom over Summer in Lecco (Italy) and in
October at the Doom over Karalis in Cagliari (Italy). As you can
understand, we do not play live very often. We live in the southern
part of Italy and we are forced to travel for long time, not easy for
us, so for the moment we decided not to do long tours, we only play
in festivals, possibly DOOOOOM ...
Bretus debut “In
Onrica” was released on Ukrainian label ARX Productions, “The
Shadow Over Innsmouth” seen the light of day through Blood Rock
Records and now you’re returned on post-USSR territory with Russian
label Endless Winter. How did they find you?
Zagarus
sending the master around to understand who was interested in the
press of the album. Among those who replied, Gennady (Endless Winter)
was the one that gave us more guarantees. The fact that there is an
interest in our music in that part of the world is a great pride for
us. Latest new is that an Indonesian label called Hellas Records will
make also a tape version of the album.
I’m wondering why
didn’t you get an offer from any local labels, because the album
has something of that famous “dark Italian sound”… So how do
you work with Endless Winter? Do you provide the band enough
promotion or you already used to do everything by yourselves?
After
the release of “The Shadow Over
Innsmouth” the relationship with Bloodrock
was at a dead point for some reasons, including the lack of release
in the vinyl version of the album. We did not receive any good
replies from other Italian labels. In any case, the relationship with
the Endless Winter is solid, Gennady the owner, he is a honesty and
straightforward person. Regard to the promotion, each of us has its
own channels and manages them at best. It is a small but combative
label, it was what we wanted.
Two years ago Bretus
took part in split album with Black Capricorn, you offered the new
song “The Haunter Of The Dark”. Can we suppose that it was a
bridge from Lovecraftian horror (“The Shadow Over Innsmouth”) to
horror cinematographic (“…From The Twilight Zone”)?
Sure.
Old Horror movies and mystery stories are a source of great
inspiration for us. Sometimes the two ways of making art have met
together in a great way, but honestly, no one Lovecraft's stories
never had a worthy representation on screen.
Bretus
– The Oath Of Dagon
But Spanish “Dagon”
movie is really creepy, didn’t you watch it?
I
saw the movie and I must say that I really liked the first part. The
setting brought to my mind the loose scenarios of Lovecraft’s
novel. Until the Amphibian creatures appeared and entered the free
imagination of the screenwriter... in my personal opinion some scenes
are a little kitsch, butthe real problem of
Lovecraft's movies is that you should never enter any love story
inside.
Ha-ha-ha!
Bull’s eye! Love stories in Lovecraft’s writings are forbidden!
However that I like the most in new album is your following in the
same direction you took with the first album, you know – there’s
nothing unnecessary and all Bretus features are on their places. More
by token, how would you distinct these features?
It's a difficult
answer. There is nothing studied in our way of writing. What we do is
the result of our listening and sensations, for example today's music
does not fit in our tastes. We chose from the beginning not to record
drums with “click”, maybe this may be one of our features.
Actually I can only say that we do not like sounds too clean and the
metronome aha ha ah ...
I guess that these
songs surpass your previous works in both production and song writing
that turns to be murderously effective. I like “Innsmouth”, but
you know – it has a bit of slime and dirty as everything that
connected with those amphibian bastards. So… how do you value
“…From The Twilight Zone” from your position?
Thank you very much.
About the sound, what we really think is that "In onirica"
compared to our last record, was more produced, if you understand
what I mean. The sound you hear on the final mix of ...from the
Twiligt Zone is the same that came from our amps, there was not a big
mixing / mastering. On the other hand, about the writing, I do not
think it changed a lot, certainly playing with the same line up for
long time helped us, and a bit of more experience.
But
I believe that you agree – “…Twilight Zone” is your strongest
release up to date. Did you already feel it through feedback? By the
way, how do local fans support you or do you get it mostly from your
friends and relatives? How often do you feel recognition?
Feedback
for this record was great. Both the reviews and the guys who wrote us
showed themselves very excited about the new album. I do not say a
lie if I say that for us this is the greatest recognition. In our
area there are some guys who follow us, but I cannot say that we are
part of a real scene. We do not really feel sorry for that, we are a
bit misanthrope ah aha. A few years ago, we also managed the first
Doom festival in our city, and the turnout was quite well. We like to
think that we have planted some seed.
Azog on bass, Ghenes
on guitars and bass, Striges on drums and Zagarus as vocalist. What
make you keep to work together for almost 17 years?
It’s not easy,
because you have to confront with the others personalities, opinions
was not the same ever. To play is a way of expressing yourself, not a
business affair. It's also important to stay well together, to travel
the world if is possible, and to know so many interesting and
stimulating people.
How did you work out
that retro-styled sound for the album? It fits absolutely to the
album’s concept, so I don’t even ask why did you choose it.
Aside from some
keyboard parts, we always try to get the most realistic sound
possible. Our first Ep was recorded on a 7/tracks recorder. We always
thought about how the songs could play live, so we can eliminate the
unnecessary stuff.
You have that old
school vibe and nowadays a lot of bands try to copy “retro sound”,
though Italian bands tend to avoid this trend. How do you like this
trend in wider sense?
Personally
I do not like trends. I think it's just that historic moment in which
the great record labels decide when and what we have to listen to.
That said, in the last few years many guys have joined the great
train of heavy and acid sounds, so not all is bad. Better Doomers
than Nothing!!! Who will survive?
The new album is
based on horror movies’ plots and you chosen really ancient films.
Why didn’t you take some more recognizable movies like those which
inspired Electric Wizard and Reverend Bizarre?
No
reason. It's just our way of rediscovering and at the same time to
pay homage to small jewels that time could make you forget. We never
look at what others do, maybe in some cases we could be influenced
without knowing (I’m laughing...), but it's better to think with
your head.
Bretus
– Danza Macabra
By the way, do you
know your country mates Arcana 13? I’m asking because their debut
record “Danza Macabra” is also based on eight different horror
movies…
We know the band, but
the idea has not come to them. As you know, we had already made a
concept album for Lovecraft, this time it was the turn of some of our
favorite movies. If you looking to our biography, you will find that
we have chosen from the very beginning to following a certain way of
making movies, music etc etc
Didn’t you try to
get in contact with them and organize common horror tour?
It
would be great, but as I told you about organizing a tour (long or
short) it is not very simple, the costs would be excessive for us.
Never say never, but for the moment I do not think it's possible.
How do you see
general peculiarity of Italian horror and giallo movies?
I also
appreciate a lot of other non-Italian directors, but I think the
Italian ones particularly (Fulci, Margheriti, Bava, Deodato, etc ...)
know better how to showing the madness and perversion that lies
within us. Although in Italy we have the headquarter of the Catholic
Church, I must admit that we are a strange and unusual people.
How did you choose
movies for the album? And why did you stop only on seven ? I would be
happy to know that there are song or two left and you have plans to
release something else soon.
The choice was made, as
I have already said, according to our tastes, and by the year.
Nothing about modern movies but we prefer old scripts. Aside from
this , we find that the acting, actors and settings of old movies are
very fascinating and of great inspiration. We first selected the
movies for the record, and then we composed the music. I'm sorry
Aleksey, but the seven tracks included were the only ones we
composed. We are already working on some new ideas, news will coming
soon.
Okay, what can you
already reveal about your future plans?
There
are no clear plans at the moment. We are waiting for the
inspiration... We are still looking for a label that is interested in
printing the vinyl version of ... from the “…Twilight Zone”.
There are new ideas for songs. Of course we would like to get another
7"/ split with some other band we appreciate. We'll see!!!
Do you remember your
first horror movie? What did catch you back then into it?
Someone said that in
order to respect something you must first be intimidated. Maybe me…
Now I'm too old and I do not remember well. My first horror movie may
have been a nightmare as I slept ... as a kid I was really scared by
the darkness and the noises aha ha ah ...
There
are six songs on “…Twilight Zone”
and one track without lyrics. Why is
"Lizard Woman" instrumental track?
Certainly,
“A Lizard in a woman’s skin” (English movie’s name) is most
psychedelic than the other movies, so we decided better to make it as
an instrumental track. Inside the song there is also an homage, which
wants to be a tribute to one of the greatest Italian soundtracks
composer. But I do not mean to say anything else, I leave you the
taste of finding it.
Thanks for the
answers Ghenes! How would you like to finish the interview?
We
would like to thank all the guys who follow us for so many years and
are always pushing us to do the best. See you around for a beer guys!
Thank you so much Aleksey for your interest in our music and support.
We also wanted to wish you good luck for the great initiative you had
for Doom metal Lexicanum. Honored to be part of it. Take care!!!
