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Into The Night with Raging Dead

Into The Night with Raging Dead

Raging Dead is an Italian Horror Punk Metal band from Italy whose latest entreaty entitled When The Night Falls has been unleashed worldwide through Pavement Entertainment.  Fans of acts such as The Misfits and Motionless In White will surely want to check what this exciting new band has to offer the world at large.  They’ve opened for the likes of Sister (Metal Blade Records) and are ready to enrapture the planet with their sonnets of darkness and intrigue.  Highwire Daze Online recently sent a missive to Raging Dead to find out more about this dynamic new band on the rise.  Into the night we go with the Raging Dead horde!  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Raging Dead, and how long the band has been together.
Hi, the band started at the beginning of 2014, made up by Cloud Shade (vocals), Matt Void (Guitar) and Tracii Decadence (Drums), while Simon Nightmare (bass) joined us one year later…. we’re still a pretty solid team.

Where is the band based out of and what is the local music scene like there?
Well, we are from a little town in northern Italy, the local scene here is not that bad but not so good either, there are too many bands but with little support between each other.
Anyway there are also cooler realities where everyone tries to support each other.  We hang out a lot together, and it’s really a satisfaction seeing that there are people with the same attitude with which we share a strong connection.

How did you wind up on Pavement Entertainment?
To be honest we did nothing special. We recorded our 1st album so we are still a pretty young and unknown band in the world of music.  Surprisingly had  good feedback from labels, and after some talk we decided to sign with Pavement. Tim and Mark made a good impact to us and we were really interested in the opportunity they offered. We think we’re working good together and still think Pavement was the best choice for us.

Is there any story or concept behind the When The Night Falls title?
Sure there is, I’d start saying the main topic of the album is “FEAR”, and the trick it does to our subconscious…. “When The Night Falls“.
Let’s say, we are used to live with people in some place and situations we’re comfortable with, but would it be the same if we happen to be alone and surrounded by darkness?
We pictured this scenery in a woodland, it seemed perfect, with a person in need to explore the world and discover new things, but suddenly the Night comes and he found himself alone in the dark…
Every emotions is amplified when the night falls, wrapped by fear you start to feel a lot of things you normally wouldn’t feel. For example, every little sound can break the silence and makes your heart beats like crazy, or a cold breeze can give you chills, you start to see ghosts and so on.
The Night brings Fear, and this is awesome. Fear is what makes people “Alive”.
The artwork concept was from an idea of Matt Void, it represents Hecate, the goddess able to travel between the human world and the realm of the dead. We see her walk through a gate at night, in the woodland we just talked about. Since this is our 1st album, she’s leading us in the world of the living…. The Worst Gang Ever is Back in Town!

Select any two songs from When The Night Falls and what inspired the lyrics.
We need to talk about Streets Of Rage. This song is an overwhelming and powerful opening track for our album, it starts mentioning our promo EP ([…] We are the children Born In Rage), giving continuity to our story.
It talks about the society we live in, where appearance is more important than facts. Elegant people show fakes smiles and wouldn’t hesitate to stab each other’s back for their own good and success. The poor people struggle to get a job and gain nothing… but recommendations and sexual favors sure will help.
And then it talks about us Raging Dead (and about people like us!), seen as “The Worst Gang Ever“; we are marked as the bad guys, outlaw, nightmares and so on, people from the “high-ranks” fear and judge us, but we don’t care and often know better ethics than them. We look like undead, but we are not the ones who’s truly wearing a mask. We speak the truth and won’t judge people from their cover.

Another good one is Ballad of the Storm, we were inspired by the Mad Max movie saga. We have many references to those movies in the song. We are fond of post-apocalyptic situations and choose to end our album this way. We’re very proud of this song because we created it in the very last week we were recording the album, with the help of our producer Frank Altare.

What could one expect from a live Raging Dead show?
We are a bit more raw and arrogant then what you listen in the album, we are a rock n roll show: sweat, loud music and a lot of fun
If you want to know for sure, just come to see us!

Any strange or scary happenings on the road or at a show?
We could write a book here. Sure it was awesome during summer 2015, when we were playing in Hungary, a lot of people went crazy for us and joined us jamming some songs after our usual show, with some hit like Misfit’s Di Up Her Bones. Well, it was a crazy tour after all. for ten days, almost every time we didn’t know where we had to sleep till the last moment….

Has Raging Dead ever played in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area or plan to do so in future days?
No we haven’t, we live pretty far and it’s not an easy task! We’re working hard to be able to do it next year, it’s our little dream right now.
While a few months ago it was just a fantasy, now thanks to the Pavement guyz it could get real.

What was the experience like opening for Sister and did you get to meet or hang out with them at all?
We think Sister is a great band, we were their official opening act in Italy in the last two years and it was important facing with a bigger reality than us.  We learned a lot and gained motivation.

If Raging Dead could open up for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
WASP for sure because they are a really important inspiration for us.
We never forget about Wednesday 13 too, we owe him a lot and we wouldn’t be playing together right now if it wasn’t for him. We also hope to be able to play in tour with him very soon.

What’s up next for Raging Dead?
We need to promote our album, we are very proud of it and we want to reach every possible people. We just ended a good pre-promotion tour in Italy, we had a great feedback and now we are looking forward to play abroad again. We are planning to hit Europe and UK soon, and maybe Russia. We’re working on it with our Italian booking agent Matteo Camellini from Jack Rock Agency and some other promoters.
After that we hope to come in America soon, as we said before.

Any final words of wisdom?
We’d like to thanks all the people who believe in us, from Pavement Entertainment to Jack Rock Agency, Atomic Stuff Promotion, our producer Frank, the promoters and fans who support us and our music every day.
You can’t change nothing alone, you need people. We are friends, we are family. A family not bonded by blood, we CHOOSE our family and struggle together for the same dream. Revolutions comes with sacrifices, you need to shed a lot of blood, but you make it smiling every single time.
Brace yourself, the worst gang ever is back in town! Thanks Highwire Daze Magazine, see you on the road!

Raging Dead is:
Cloud Shade – Voice/Guitar
Matt Void – Lead Guitar
Tracii Decadence – Drums
Simon Nightmare – Bass

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Raging Dead on Facebook

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