1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?
We are a death/thrash metal band formed in northern Italy, across 2007. We were just kids, 16yo to 18yo was the average age of the members. The band consists in: Giona Nazzari (bass), Joshua Basile (guitars), Stefano Dal Soglio (drums), Paolo Antoniazzi (vocals, guitar). We are 4 guys who just love death metal, hardcore, thrash and punk, and wanted to fucking play some killer riffs with fast drumming, which we did for 5 years, since 2008. We released 2 demos and recorded a CD in the summer of 2012, that's being released on February 18th by Unspeakable Axe Records.
2.How would you describe your musical sound?
In the beginning of this project we were listening a lot of thrash metal, so in the past we were playing faster riffs with cleaner vocals, being contaminated by classic thrash and crossover/hardcore bands. Then we came in contact with D-Beat, old school death metal, crust punk, grindcore, italian hardcore as well, so we decided to put things up to this level. We grew up between the italian metal scene and the punk one. We listen to a lot of bands and we decided to make a mix of all our musical influences, trying to include every aspect of a genre we liked, but remaining on the headlines of a fast death metal sound. So that's what it is for us.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Well, we are kind of a anarchic/left-wing sided band, such as Sepultura was in the first place. We faced lyrical themes such as war, life, death, we criticize the fulcrum of the biggest cancer of mankind, which is catholic church (living next to it), the struggle of realizing to live in the illusion of this society, how society itself is collapsing, and how governments have such negative power on the masses. The amount of shit with which medias are distracting us from what's happening around it's embarassing. We tried to put together every aspect of this world which makes us fucking angry, because that's what it is.. You have to be worried about what they're doing to people, what they did to information and medias, what your future will be -and things are getting pretty clear for people nowadays- and explode everything you have to say with your music.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name Omnivore?
Well we chose it because we were in front of a big change for the band. The previous name was Nightmare of Fallen, which we decided to change after a slight band split-up. We wanted to find a name that suited well the band's music and that sounded good to us. Then we've been inspired by the song "Omnivore" by Demolition Hammer, which sounded fucking good. We would like to specify that we did not choose it for going against ANY food culture (such as vegetarianism, veganism, raw food diet users, etc.), which, instead, we respect. Omnivore is the thought of men, Omnivore is death, is something that eats and incorporates everything, without distinctions of any kind, and it comes for all of us.
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Honestly, we played a lot of gigs in the past years, but almost every time we played in pubs, small rooms, and we did a lot of gigs in social clubs. We played exclusively in Italy until now, but we played in a lot of different cities. I think the biggest gigs we did were during some italian festivals. The band's live activity is huge but most of the gigs were in this terms. We never have been paid to play, and we enjoyed every one of the gigs we played in, we had a good time, we tried to make people moshing and headbanging, and of course we tried to transmit our ideas. We never cared much about sound, because in a lot of situations we had to -or decided to- play with other people's equipment (such as amps, microphones), or we shared our equipment with others. You try to get the doomest sound you can, then you plug-in your instrument and destroy the stage.
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We were planning on doing a self-financed tour over Europe after the album's release, but it's all under construction, and after the studio sessions we decided, due to various things, to put the band on hold. So.. we don't know anything yet. Let's see what lies ahead.
7.The new album had a Sepultura cover, what was the decision behind doing your own version of one of their songs?
We decided to make a cover of it because it's the song which represents the most all of the ideas and thoughts we were trying to inject in the album. This song has a personal meaning for us, it represents a moment of our lives when we were discovering this music, when we were kids, making rehearsals in our garage. It represents the climax of a great band. It gives you the charge, the song is telling you to stay put, to resist, to withstand. When we decided to include the song in the album we didn't know what was going to be the future of our band, so we recorded it to leave it there in case things were going to end. It's representative to us and it sounds fucking good. What else?
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death and thrash metal?
Our music never reached a worldwide level until now. Thanks to a friend of us, Tobi Zama of the Australian band Sewercide (which is a kicking awesome band, check it out!), we signed under Unspeakable Axe Records, and the owner, Eric, is doing an excellent job pushing our product in and outside Europe. So we are being reviewed right now, (with positive feedbacks, I have to say) our music is going through some radios and it's spreading. We don't expect nothing, of course, but this is positive because honestly we never thought we would have reached these results!
8.Are there any other musical projects besides this band?
Of course there are other projects. Bassist Giona started a throaty/death/crust/gravy band called Infuria and a Death/Doom band called Hadit; guitarist Josh started a band called Overcharge, playing a motorcharged/rock'n'roll/d-beat/riding music; Stefano, the drummer, always played along with some really good hardcore bands such as Miseria, My Own Voice, Ruggine. All of these bands recorded at least once at Mobsound Recording Studios in Milan, Italy, which is the same place where we recorded our album, releasing a demo or a CD. So if y'all wanna check out some good stuff..
9.What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
Honestly.. we have no idea. Things are constantly evolving right now, and this label and promotion stuff is really new and positive. We hope we can gain some gigs outside Italy (that would be really cool) and for now we don't have thoughts on future releases in particular. We have to wait, be patient, and see where all of this good feedbacks lead us to.
10.What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We always listened to a lot of bands different genres. Every band we liked had an influence on our music, of course each one in a big or a small part. I would like to include every band that had at least a bit conditioned our way of composing: Driller Killer, Sepultura, Hail Of Bullets, Bolt Thrower, Toxic Holocaust, D.R.I., Exploited, Inepsy, Violator, Wolfpack, Wolfbrigade, Demolition Hammer, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Sabbath, Raised Fist, Death, Discharge, Motorhead, Eyehategod, Death, Tragedy, Municipal Waste, Slayer, Opeth, Ratos De Porao, Razor, Disrupt, Skitsystem.
Of course a lot of italian bands made the difference: Negazione, Skruigners, Sottopressione, Wretched, Jesus Ain't In Poland, Tear Me Down.
11.Outside of music what are some of your interests?
All (or almost all) of us are working to make a living besides this passion. We like hanging out, drinking, smoking pot, going to concerts, pussy, science, astronomy, quantum physics, car tires, car parking, car rental, Germany, german pussy, jazz, writing articles for magazines, teaching, drumming, spitting, wine, beer, italian cheese, italian food, world food, and a lot of things like these. Otherwise, even if we have to, we don't like to work.
12.Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
We hope people appreciate our work and share our music. We dedicated the album to the metal/punk scene on a worldwide scale, we hope it will continue to shake the pillars of earth and keep giving birth to awesome new bands as it always did!
