The Rapturous Visions of Hell’s Guardian
The Rapturous Visions of Hell’s Guardian
Hell’s Guardian from Italy present epic melodic death metal at its most visionary and profound. They’ve shared the stage with the likes of Trivium, Children Of Bodom, and Amorphis, and are more than ready to enrapture the metal masses of the entire world. As Above So Below is the name of the latest magnum opus for Hell’s Guardian, a thrilling masterwork that genre fans will want to revisit time and again. Highwire Daze recently caught up with guitarist and composer Freddie Formis to find out a whole lot more about the the rapturous visions of Hell’s Guardian. Read on…
Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Hell’s Guardian, and how long the band has been together.
Hi Ken, I’m Freddie, I’m guitarist and composer in Hell’s Guardian. Our band is formed in 2009.
Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there?
We are all from Berzo Demo, a small town in mountains near Brescia in Italy. In Italy, big metal bands are well followed. For underground bands the prospectives are not so good, it is difficult to catch the interest even though there is potential.
Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title As Above So Below.
Yes, we are inspired by real facts about the emotional and psychological sphere, focused on those invisible but concrete worlds that are created within the mind in each of us. A continuous above and below between reality and unreality.
Select two songs from As Above So Below and what inspired the lyrics.
I choose the two songs that moved up the release of album. Blood Must Have Blood talks about a dark entity that live inside of us and it influences us to do evil. Crystal Door talks about a girl with mental illness, she is looked in a room so she made a fantasy world in her mind, and she doesn’t know more what is reality and what is fantasy.
One of the guests on your album is Adrienne Cowan, who has played with everyone from Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia to Winds Of Plague. How did she become involved with the recording of As Above So Below?
We know Adrienne since she is a friend of Marco Pastorino (our vocal producer on As Above So Below) because she sings with him in Light & Shade, so we ask to her and we are glad that she agreed to sing for us.
What could one expect from a live Hell’s Guardian show?
We don’t think twice about using all our energy on stage and we have fun keeping the show exciting and entertaining the audience as much as possible.
What was the experience like opening for Amorphis and Children Of Bodom, and did you get to meet or hang out with them at all?
These experiences were amazing. They have helped the band to grow up on stage. We only talked to Amorphis and to Children of Bodom briefly and took some photos, no more. We didn’t want bother them because we know they wanted their privacy and they wanted to stay focused on their job.
How did your recent show with Trivium and While She Sleeps go and what were some of the highlights?
The concert with Trivium and While She Sleeps in Live Club in Milan was an amazing experience. We loved seeing people enjoy our music and have fun with us. Unfortunately we didn’t meet Trivium, we have only talked with Corey.
If Hell’s Guardian could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
My personal dream is opening for Avantasia or Edguy because Tobias Sammet is my idol.
Has Hell’s Guardian ever played in the States or plan to do so in future days?
No, we have never played in USA and we aren’t planning it. If there will be the opportunity in the future we will be very happy to play there.
What’s up next for Hell’s Guardian?
For now, we are trying to promote “As Above So Below” as much as possible on various social networks and on stage, obviously we prefer the stage. We think it is an album that deserves to be heard and we are very proud of it.
Any final words of wisdom?
We are guy with normal jobs, we started with nothing, we didn’t know anyone in music business, we went in pub playing our demo in search of live dates. Now we are glad to say that we have reach some goals and dreams that we had. Often people say to us that all money invested for music, all time spent in concerts and all passion that we put in band are worthless. Maybe we’ll never reach the success we want but we don’t care and we just do what we love and we try to do it well.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!
Thanks a lot for this interview, it really was a pleasure! Follow us on our social network and listen our music! Stay Tuned!
Hell’s Guardian is:
Cesare – Growl vocal and guitar
Freddie – Guitar
Claudio – Choirs and bass
Dylan – Drums
(Interview by Ken Morton)
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