Damnation Gallery. Interview with Lord Edgard, Low and Scarlet

Interview by Andrew Stanton

Damnation Gallery are quite a quirky band from Italy. A lot of different styles of Metal being played. Andrew Stanton talked to the band about their new album.

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?

(Lord Edgard) We were born in 2016, from an idea of mine and Low. We came from two different bands, but we had known each other for some time and after a first attempt to join forces in a project, we managed to realize the intentions with the birth of Damnation Gallery in March 2016. Initially the idea was to play 80s metal, but with the discovery of Scarlet’s vocal potential emerged the need to try more extreme solutions. This first four-piece line-up spawned the first EP Transcendence Hymn, which was brought live on November 4 of the same year. The band then underwent a lineup change, first becoming a quintet with the entry of Lord of Plague. Subsequently, there was the defection of the drummer, with the entry of Coroner in a stable plant.

After Black Stains, the first album, there was copious live activity and interesting collaborations (including Terror Tales, Death SS tribute compilation and a Necrodeath tribute compilation entitled “The Cult of Necrodeath”) and opening concerts for bands such as Pestilence, Death SS, Labyrinth and Necrodeath themselves. Son of the pandemic is instead Broken Time, the last work of the band, which sees a more direct and less “ethereal” turn, with the participation of Steve Sylvester (Death SS) in the videoclip of “The Unnamed” and the behindthe-scenes collaboration of Roberto Falcao (King Diamond) who helped me with excellent advice to produce the album.

- Who is in Damnation Gallery?

Low: The lineup consists of: Scarlet - vocals. Lord Edgard - guitar. Lord of Plague - guitar. Low - bass and backing vocals. Coroner - drums

- What bands did you like growing up?

(Lord Edgard Halliday) I grew up with bands such as Nevermore, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Necrodeath and Bulldozer. Later I fell in love with the bands Hell from the UK and Satan’s Host. (Low) Personally, I grew up with all that was the British heavy scene of the early 80s, so Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon and others. I have always listened to a lot of thrash metal while in the Italian context I cannot fail to mention historical realities such as Death SS, Paul Chain and Extrema. I have always listened to everything without setting myself who knows what limits. Scarlet: I grew up listening to any kind of music or genre or style. I’ ve always listened to hard rock, metal in all its forms and styles, hip hop and pop music. I truly believe that every song, artist or album can find the right way to touch and move your deepest feelings, no matter which kind or style it is. I think all this reflects my singing and my composition and defines the message I try to send as a singer. My favourite bands and artists that really made a difference for me are Death SS, Guns’n’ Roses and… Elisa!

- How do you describe your music? Is it Power Metal?

(Lord Edgard Halliday) Although each of us has different musical influences and power metal can be part of the tastes of some of us, I would say that it is the least representative genre of our proposal. I think there are more amounts of thrash, black and death in our project.

(Low) I would say no... we define ourselves as Horror metal band because both our music and our image have a strong connotation of that type ... however, our proposal is characterized by the fact that we all have very different and varied influences and tastes, what we do is nothing more than merge them together in a formula that we like to define “ours”. As a result, you will find many heavy influences, thrash death Black and Doom, mixed with what is our personal vision.

- Do you find your fans are mostly older Metalheads?

(Low) No, there are people who range for every age!

- What are your lyrics about?

Scarlet: lyrics are written by all of us. Every song is a personal experience, fear, unconfessable feeling of each one of us. Mostly, the story itself is hidden among metaphors, narrative, historical transpositions.

- Where did you get the name Damnation Gallery?

Scarlet: we would like to bring all our listeners with us through a sort of path, exploring and facing all the obscure parts of human nature. Not only a path, but something more suffocating, a walk through any pain or secret instinct a person could experience. So, we thought Damnation Gallery could perfectly express the meaning.

- Why do so many Italian bands sing in English?

(Low) I think for each band it’s a personal choice so I can only answer for what concerns me: personally, within this genre I do not like the type of musicality that my language proposes, nothing more nothing less and hence the choice to use English, although we have Angoscia which is a song written in Italian (moreover among my favorites) but it is to be considered an experiment for us more than the norm.

- Your album covers seem very interesting. It’s almost like they have hidden meanings.

(Low) Taking care of the graphic aspect, I can absolutely answer yes. Both on Black Stains and on Broken Time you can find many references to us, to our lyrics and to the message we want to carry on. Obviously not everything is visible, indeed I had a lot of fun hiding everything as much as possible, so that only a careful look can grasp everything he sees. Even the images both in the covers and in the booklet accompany the listener in our world.

- Do you have a message for our readers?

(Lord Edgard Halliday)

In a world devoid of hope, only music remains. Blast your ears to thundering metal sound, thanks for your undisputed support.

Low: http://www.facebook. com/damnationgallery

http://youtube.com/c/ damnationgallery

http://damnation gallery.bandcamp.com

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