HORTUS ANIMAE is Italy's premier black/gothic band. Their new brand of music is fully exemplified on their debut album, Waltzing Mephisto. I intervied HORTUS ANIMAE's vocalist Martyr Lucifer about the band and what to expect from them in the future.

Dan: First of all, thank you for your time, it's an honor to talk to you. Tell me a bit about HORTUS ANIMAE and how it came about.
Martyr Lucifer: It’s an honor for me! This is Martyr Lucifer from HORTUS ANIMAE, band’s birth dates back to 1997 when we united to create something that could go over the musical trend of our local extreme metal scene here in Rimini: death metal. We were the first band playing something so close to black metal, gothic and particularly, experimental elements…actually our first demo tape An Abode For Spirit And Flesh was pretty gothic oriented with an influence from the European doom metal scene of those years. Then we started to add more and more aggressiveness to our music. Other influences we started to feel came from the 70’s progressive rock scene and symphonic black metal scene and so The Melting Idols, our first self-produced CD, was born in the year 2000 after two years from the release of the demo… In this new (now official) release Waltzing Mephisto, worldwide released in May 2003 by Black Lotus Records, you can find the melting pot of all our best influences of the past mixed with totally new elements

Dan: How did the band come together? If I’m not mistaken you are friends with Bless, but what about GroM? He is by far one of the finest drummers in Italy. Were you planning on playing with him on Waltzing Mephisto and will he stick with HORTUS ANIMAE in the future?
Martyr Lucifer: Yes, Bless, Hypnos and I have been friends for many years and, about GroM, well, it happened that we were about to record the promo version of Waltzing Mephisto but our former drummer Thomas was about to leave because of musical divergences. We met GroM at a gig we were playing as a supporting act for Ancient and we established a good friendship. Then, when Thomas left, I asked GroM if he was interested in helping us for the recordings and he said “Ok!”. The rest is history now, he is an official and stable member of the band.

Dan: HORTUS ANIMAE is without a doubt one of the most original and unique-sounding bands to come from Italy. How did your sound take shape? Did you set out to make your own sound from the beginning, or did it happen along the way?
Martyr Lucifer: Mmm… We don’t have a stable rule, every song we wrote was born in a different way than another. In the latest release many cool ideas we had came directly into the Studios during the recording and the mixing. Our songs come up in different ways indeed... it could be from some guitar riffs of the guitarist Hypnos, from a particular keyboard part by Bless, from a concept conceived by me, from a groove of GroM... then it evolves with the full contribution of every single member of the band. Finally, in the studio, most of the arrangements are added, following the main ideas of the song but giving them that "something more" that makes them special... This means that we never decided the direction a song must take from the beginning, it all happens along the way.

Dan: So I assume this is why each member shines equally on the album, right? For example Bless, who is absolutely amazing on Springtime Deaths…
Martyr Lucifer: Hey thanks a lot! Anyway, yes, I guess that is the reason why and thanks again for the kind words! Besides, yeah, these kind of things are very natural for Bless, he’s a very talented and versatile musician, with a lot of good taste! And what about the waltz in A Lifetime Obscurity or the slow piano part of Souls Of The Cold Wind ? I think they’re emotionally great! [Dan's note - yes, yes they are]

Dan: Who writes the music and vocals? If it's only you, do any other band members help out at all?
Martyr Lucifer: About vocals and lyrics it’s all my fault cause I wrote all the lyrics and arranged all the vocal lines… about music, as I said before, the entire band is involved. We come at rehearsals with our personal ideas, we melt them and see if they run.

Dan: Do you ever create lyrics or a vocal line before adding the music?
Martyr Lucifer: It happened for Springtime Deaths: I had this vocal tune going round and round in my head so, one evening, Bless and I had a rehearsal, I sang that part to him and he started playing that beautiful piano part and then we continued working on the song. The “black” vocals, when the song becomes heavier, were added later.

Dan: Waltzing Mephisto is one of the most interesting releases of 2003. I think it's just incredibly original and refreshing, and I fucking LOVE your covers of Freezing Moon, Terzo Incontro, and Tubular Bells. How did you come up with this idea?
Martyr Lucifer: I really thank you! I’m very glad you liked our album! Well, about the cover, the original idea was to record just a medley of Mayhem and il Balletto di Bronzo (an Italian progressive rock band of the 70s), because we used to play this thing from our very beginning… well, anyway, the idea for the final medley came from GroM the last day of drums’ recordings… we were going towards the Recording Studios listening to Daemonia, an Italian band with Claudio Simonetti as the main man, the composer of all the coolest Dario Argento’s horror movies’ soundtracks. Well, they recorded a personal version of The Tubular Bells Theme and GroM said “why not do it metal!”. We tried it out it sounded good and here it is!

Dan: So you are big horror movie fans?
Martyr Lucifer: Yeah we’re all great horror movie fans so far and this passion deserved a tribute! The Tubular Bells Theme from The Exorcist soundtrack seemed to be perfect… I have a very good collection of video-tapes and DVD’s made up of horror classics: Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Romero, the Evil Dead saga, old black and white movies and so on… [Dan's note - Lucio Fulci is one of my favorite horror movie directors. So much gore yet so deep.]

Dan: It’s interesting how you blended black metal with progressive rock and psychedelic rock. Feel free to elaborate if you want.
Martyr Lucifer: Putting Tubular Bells into Freezing Moon was for me very exciting, considering the presence of an obscure piece called Terzo Incontro in the same track. We love the progressive rock scene of the 70s. It’s complicated and dark music most of the time and, for as long as we listen to it, it’ll be impossible not to feel traces of it in our music.

Dan: Are you working on a new album? If so, do you plan on it being similar to Waltzing Mephisto, or are you going to bring in totally new elements?
Martyr Lucifer: Yes, we are currently working on the material for an album and an EP, I don’t know yet which of them will come out first but, for sure, I can tell you to expect many surprises from our next CD! The EP will be the extension of Waltzing Mephisto, maybe a little bit more gothic and melodic. Next full-length album will be a little different, maybe a little bit more aggressive and with many new surprising elements!

Dan: Perhaps a concept album? Or maybe a continuation of the Mephisto theme?
Martyr Lucifer: I don’t think it will be a concept album, probably it will have a “Leitmotiv” as Waltzing Mephisto has… There’ll surely be some reminds to Waltzing Mephisto because a song or two come directly from that period. Anyway we are currently working on the songs and anything could happen!

Dan: What are your biggest influences in your music, metal and non-metal wise?
Martyr Lucifer:Well, I think that is unmistakable that our influences come from so many kinds of music, many styles have influenced us in the past and still do. We all listen to almost everything, from extreme metal to progressive rock / hard rock, passing through classical music, dark, gothic and so on… about bands, there are too many to be mentioned I guess!

Dan: How is the metal scene in Italy? Is it as hard to make a living out of metal over there as it is in Japan or Romania, for example?
Martyr Lucifer: Well, the metal scene in Italy is growing more and more, due to the big success of bands like Rhapsody and Lacuna Coil... But of course when some bands fix a kind of "trend", there are many, too many bands that follow them, and so it ends up with hundreds of clone-bands, doing nothing but what has been already done... But apart from this I must say that the average level of all these new underground bands is quite often very high, both technically and musically; I think this is very good for a country like Italy, which has always been kind of a "second series" nation for music in general, but many things are changing and the people are starting to notice it...There are good bands in the extreme scene too, bands like Aborym, Handful Of Hate, Inchiuvatu, Void Of Silence, Ephel Duath and so on (Hortus Animae as well!)… About making a living out of metal I guess that when bands are at their first works it’s always hard if they don’t have a big record deal, but I think this is valid for every place’s scene…

Dan: Are there any tours in the future of HORTUS ANIMAE? Any American tours, perhaps? :-)
Martyr Lucifer: Eheheh… it would be great to be part of an American tour! But, for the moment, I can say that we will start to play over Europe starting this coming winter. We really feel the need to play live and promote our album Waltzing Mephisto in every place we can reach!…

Dan: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Martyr Lucifer: Thanks for the support and the interest shown to the band! For more information you can visit our new official web-site www.hortusanimae.com and feel free to sign our guest book! Cheers!