Interview: Paulo Rossi (Fleshgod Apocalypse)

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't giddy as a schoolgirl when I got the chance to interview our next guest. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one Paulo Rossi, bassist of Italy's greatest export, Fleshgod fucking Apocalypse!

Hey man what's up, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. You guys just recently got off your first U.S. tour, and with Suffocation no less, how did America treat you? What did you think of the crowd response for Fleshgod, and what was it like to tour with one of the most legendary death metal bands of all time? Can you tell we're jealous?

Hey! Thank you for your interest and support!
Yeah, our first tour in North America has been nuts! Crowds were absolutley amazing, we didn't expect such a great reaction from the fans, and man, Suffo are GREAT, great people, great musicians!  We toured with them in Europe as well and now we're good friends! It's been so good to hit North America for the first time in that package. We had the chance to work with such good bands and people!




Now that you've gotten your name out there, do you guys have any plans to come back to the States anytime soon?

We are about to announce our presence in the Summer Slaughter fest, scheduled for this summer, so definitely yes, we'll come back soon there!


As you may or may not know, the main purpose of this site is to weed out hardcore dancers and all their bullshit, and since that tour also included Through the Eyes of the Dead I'm sure you guys saw your fair share of them, what's your take on them? Did their presence affect your crowd response at all, or would you say they were smart enough to stay away for your set? In fact, what's your opinion on hardcore dancing period, if you have one?

I think TTEOTD are a good band. They are very good guys, nice and helpful people!
I think that the Decibel Defiance tour was not properly their kind of audience, but they managed things so good that I'm sure they made some new fans! The metalcore scene is much more melded with death metal in the U.S. so the crowd was not disappointed about seeing a metalcore band, they just didn't follow the live set of the band if they preferred that!



You guys are often lumped in with other Italian metal bands like Hour of Penance, is there a sort of tight-knit metal scene over in Italy, which is why a lot of the bands from that area tend to sound very similar to each other?

I think every band has its personal way to conceive stuff. In these last years many bands coming out from Italy play death, or brutal death metal, but every one has its mood. For sure the more you go on with that, the more you'll hear different bands coming from our country.


On the other hand, your focus on classical music definitely gives Fleshgod Apocalypse an edge over other bands, what inspired you guys to start putting classical elements into brutal death metal?

That was the basic idea when we started the band, we wanted to have some elements that could be associated immediately with us, so the idea of melding classical with death metal was the first, since everyone in the band loves the classical approach!




Since you guys use so many classical elements, it's pretty obvious that you guys listen to more than just metal, what would you say some of your biggest musical influences are, metal or otherwise?

Surely we have many metal influences as well as classical, rock and even pop music ones! I think a good musician has to know every aspect of music if he wants to be really focused on what he does. Our influences are really various, and on the classical side we're pretty much inspired by Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Listz, Verdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Wagner and so on! But in general we're greatly inspired from all the bands or composers which have given an idea to their music, or you could say, which have given a music to their idea.


The new Mafia EP, in many people's opinion, was a huge success; there's a reason why it was in one of our "Best of 2010" lists. Are you guys planning on using any of that material for the next full-length? And while we're on the subject, when do you think we can expect to hear a new album? Any plans to go into the studio anytime soon, or are you just going to ride on the EP for a while?

No, the EP is a closed chapter. We did it as a proper "small album", so it's impossible to take songs from it and using for another one, since every album we make lives for its own. We hope to have new stuff out before the end of this year. That's all I can say about it!


Now that you've done a full U.S. tour, what would you say the biggest difference is between the European and American metal scenes? It seems like metal has a much stronger following over there, whereas it's very difficult for a band that doesn't play a breakdown every ten seconds to make any money in America.

Euro and U.S. scenes are different, and that's a point, in Europe we are more focused on music, but maybe we are too cold when we see a band perform its set, things are the opposite in the U.S. as I experienced, but I think if you're a good band and you manage to give great shows to the people, everyone can pass over the trends or fashion and recognize if the project has a long lasting value or not, that's it!


Well that should just about do it, thanks again for talking to us, guys. Anything else you wanna say to the readers before we call it a day?

Thank you and keep on supporting Fleshgod Apocalypse!
We'll see you all on tour soon!


Paolo, FA

Grazie \m/

You heard it here first folks, Fleshgod Apocalypse are set to perform on this year's Summer Slaughter. Sold! Thanks again to Paulo and everyone in FA for chatting with us, and thank you to all the readers who keep this bad boy going, keep it coming guys. There's plenty more really exciting stuff in the works for Mosh Rebellion, so as always stay tuned.

-The Baby Killer