Editor’s Note: Recently, Italy’s Ultra-Violence released their amazing album entitled “Operation Misdirection”. “Operation Misdirection” is not for the faint of heart, it is a take no prisoners thrash metal beast of an album that certainly doesn’t lack in breakneck tempos, shattering guitar riffs, and thundering rhythm section. Vocalist/guitarist Loris Castiglia sat down with us in this fun conversation. Fans can check out Ultra-Violence at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/ultraviolencemetal
www.instagram.com/ultraviolencemetal
Madness To Creation: In your craft, what is one thing that you focus on in order to further perfect your craft?
Loris: Songwriting is my main focus. I mean, I don’t really sit there doing guitar exercises to get better and faster these days. I prefer to listen to different kinds of music, understand new aspects of it, try and play different instruments like piano or drums, improve my production skills. Because I want to have different perspectives when it comes to write a song and I wanna be sure to consider all the possibilities for the arrangements and the structures of that song.
Madness To Creation: New album, “Operation Misdirection”, what were a couple of themes that inspired the album?
Loris: Each song on the album has a different theme and I really like how we managed the connection between the music and the lyrics. Plus, the topics are deeper and more personal on this one, I really put myself out there with this album. I’m gonna talk about the theme on “Welcome To The Freakshow”, the second song and single: I got inspired (well, more triggered than inspired) by all the people who asked me what I do for a living and gave me that “stop dreaming and get a job” look while saying “wow, that’s cool!”. I hate those people. They study, get a job, get married, have a kid or two. They feel like they’re doing great and everyone’s proud of them, but then what? All that’s ordinary and it’ll soon become routine. And they’ll suddenly find out that everyone may be proud of them, but they’re not. So, that’s what this song’s about: do what really makes you happy and not what people think it’s best for you.
Madness To Creation: Take us into the music video for “Cadaver Decomposition Island”, what inspired the music video?
Loris: The message of the song and the story behind it inspired the music video. I already had the whole idea in my mind when I was completing the lyrics and I knew I wanted it to be epic, cause it’s about my vision of life and death. The main message, as the lyrics say, is “matter can’t be created, matter can’t be destroyed” and the story behind it is divided in 3 parts: the first one is about a dead man whose body is decomposing; the second one is about his body merging with the soil thanks to the animals and plants which in the song are called “the detritivore community” or “unsung heroes of recycling”; the third one is about rebirth and how parts of that man have now become parts of mountains, rivers and trees. It all ends with a rainstorm that represent Mother Nature’s tears of joy for the rebirth of one of her sons and the last line says “for winter always turns to spring” announcing the beginning of a new cycle.
Madness To Creation: Maggots gross me out, what is one thing that grosses you out as a member of a thrash metal band?
Loris: You know, one of the many concepts that I wanted to express with this song is exactly that maggots (or things like that) shouldn’t gross us out. They’re actually good for us or this planet could be covered with dead bodies by now. Also, and I know this is not easy to grasp cause we’re not used to this way of thinking, I think that there’s no difference between a mother breastfeeding her child and a fly lying eggs in the cavities of a dead body. It’s just a mother taking care of her progeny in the most appropriate environment for it. As for what grosses me out, well, the majority of today’s stupid TV programs and reality shows gross me out more than maggots for sure.
Madness To Creation: Tell us about the music scene in Italy, one band that’s local from Italy that we should check out!
Loris: Check out our friends Game Over, they’re great. Also, I recently listened to Vexovoid. I don’t know them but their music is awesome, they’ve been surely inspired by Vektor. I was happy to find out about them cause it’s been a long time since I’ve listened to a very well written Italian thrash metal album. You can hear that there’s been a lot of work and a lot of thinking behind it and I like that.
Madness To Creation: Favorite moment playing in Japan with Skull Fist.
Loris: I’d say the whole 3 days. It’s been like a dream, maybe cause we never slept. I mean, we were in Japan for 3 days, we’d have plenty of time to sleep on the flight back home. The best part was the show in Tokyo, I know it sounds obvious but we had a great time on stage and people were enjoying it so much. That’s what makes us happy.
Madness To Creation: What are the plans for Ultra-Violence for the rest of 2018?
Loris: We want to play as much shows and festivals as possible in order to promote our new album and make people aware of our existence. We haven’t started to work on a new album yet, but we’re thinking about it and you’re not gonna have to wait another 3 years for sure.
Madness To Creation: What is something that makes you feel ultra violent?
Loris: *laughs*, definitely not the way I look. We’re all super nice and chill guys in the band, we’re not violent at all. I’d say our music is the only violent thing about us.
Madness To Creation: Giving you the floor to add whatever you want to add about the band.
Loris: I’m gonna say thank you to everyone who already purchased our new album or listened to it on the streaming services. Please, give “Operation Misdirection” a spin if you already haven’t and don’t miss a show if there’s one near you. I also wanna thank our producer Simone Mularoni cause without him our albums wouldn’t sound amazing as they do and our manager/booking agent Tito Vespasiani for all the shows we played in the last 3 years. It’s great to have trusted friends working for the band.
Madness To Creation: Thank you for your time to interview with me for Madness To Creation.
Loris: Thank you for having me, it’s been a pleasure!
And there you have it! Ultra-Violence has a couple of gigs for the rest of the year. Check out the dates below.
Saturday, Sept. 1st- Extermination Fest III at Gasoline Road Bar in Lentigione, Italy
Saturday, Nov. 24th- Metal Night Stans in Schwibogen, Switzerland
For tickets and further information on any of those shows, click here.
Add “Operation Misdirection” by Ultra-Violence on your Spotify playlist today!
ICYMI: Check out our review of “Operation Misdirection” here!
