1 – Fury N Grace (origin and meaning of the band’s name, short bio with highlights, discography, etc):
The origin of the band’s name came from our interest in "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow", that is a section of Thomas de Quincey's Suspiria de Profundis. It has a lot to do with the mythology of the so-called Three Mothers. Three like Fury and Grace.
It is also interesting that it turned out to be a perfect description of our style, with all its musical dynamics going on through every song. A perfect definition of the band may be this: a twisted experience of Unheimliche where we hide to disappear, for a moment, through fury, to the grace of Inorganic. Our work openly refers to Poe’s Imp of the Perverse and Freud's Beyond the pleasure principle.
Fury'n'grace started in 1994. It took 13 years to be published: we've had many line up changes (we did have two keyboards players in our very first incarnation: its a long way to present day, as you may understand) and a couple of unpleasant experiences with two different "labels". We've recorded the first album in 1998, the second in 2003, both unpublished. In this unfortunate situation, side projects seemed to be the only way out (Edge of Forever, for instance). But it turned out to be quite a saddening experience for every one involved. When no one is really happy in a project, to go separate ways is the only solution. It's just points of view that don't agree. And it coincided with the very first true possibility for Fury'n'Grace to come to life, get rid of things considered compromising (read: no more useless winking to commercial appeal whatsoever) and shape its true, inspired incarnation.
"Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow / Nought may endure but Mutability".
2 – “Tales Of The Grotesque And The Arabesque” (writing & recording process):
In our creative process we're allowing our own subconscious to be at work. Not knowing where we're going, where this idea will lead us, is very important, intriguing and magical. It's exciting (and reckless, somehow) to be lost and have faith in something you can't even name.
Yet, it has to be an obsession that gives you the direction. Music and lyrics, together, as faces of the same creative drive.
Through this we did compose and record “Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque”.
It's always a multi-layered process that we don't really understand until it's almost complete. It's all about driving Ideas and being true to them.
A dizzy, creative height, we fear and love. We love because we fear and fear because we love. Poe's Imp of the Perverse, again.
It's all based upon unspoken language, and a mistery. It is very difficult to talk about this and explain something that deals with mistery.
It's almost magical how different themes and ideas (that me or Christian or Gabriele or Kiske brought) eventually get together, how structures reveal their nature and perfectly fit in the context of a song: improvvisation plays a huge role in the process, and we follow what we feel correct and important. But nothing is programmatic.
Same thing with lyrics: even though I write them sometimes months before the music, or together with parts of the music in demos, it is a very special moment when we find out how they fit and what an unexpected direction they give to the song. It's like opening doors where there was none. It has to be a beautiful surprise.
3 – Lyrics (influences, themes, messages) and the main lyrical concept of this record:
It seems like a weird trip in what is called "human".
But it's just a self portrait, a lucid and genuinely scary exploration of our darkest places.
What we are. No idealizations: we do not HAVE bodies - we ARE bodies, making up comfortable identities - which are fraudulent misunderstandings.
There's an abyss we're to used to hide to ourselves. This album intends to let it come to surface.
It's like saying: we are truly obscure beings, no matter how lucid we claim to be - let's face it. Let's not pretend we are something else. There is an unspoken agreement going on one should get rid of.
Since civilization is based upon the concept of identity, it is quite important to understand that we are on a pretty shaky ground.
It is very dramatic, I suppose, but it has a lot to do with humor, too. Hence the title: an evident tribute to Edgar Poe.
Schopenhauer wrote that human life is a tragedy when it is considered as a whole and in general, but turns into a comedy when we consider the single human being, going through in details. Our life must contain all the woes of a tragedy, but, as if fate wished to add mockery to this miserable existence, we cannot even assert the dignity of tragic characters.
4 – Album frontcover / artwork (who, why, meaning, …):
We relied upon Federica Galli - [www.damnedinblack.net] already known and esteemed for her works with Dark Lunacy and Kenos - to transmute the general ambience of our work into a visual synthesis able to reflect both lyrics and music peculiarities. As you may see in the artwork, it's all about entrances and exits, only you can't tell one from another. Is this the entrance or the exit? Holes and passages, isn't that somewhat human?
Holes upon holes, passages leading to holes, holes to passages leading to nothing. Here's a perfect lyrical synthesis of what human life is.
5 – “Mephisto’s Waltz” & “Inferno”. Unpublished records:
These albums are inevitable chapters we had to face. We can't say we were ready for publication, since we were 18 and there was a long way to come up with our vision. Our balance as a band wasn't perfectly set, yet, and the direction deserved a few more years and experiences to be actually fully discovered. Having said that, we must say also that the band was a genuine little cult because of our live performances and the musical research we were engaged in, already dramatic and very peculiar.
Anyway we couldn't find any label. The one we made those records with were not labels.
6 – Musical and other kind of influences:
The band's roots are of course '70 progressive (E,L&P, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Goblin), Black Sabbath and early '90 death metal.
But every one in the band is totally open to music, and often deeply distant to heavy metal. I'm sure we owe to that our peculiar choices in music. From pre medieval music to Penderecki, from italian madrigalists (Gesualdo, Marenzio) to John Zorn, we have a wide range of musical interests.
Carcass may be one of the main influence for the band. I got into Carcass when I was 12. Their sense of humor, grotesque and comical, both lyrically and musically has nothing to do with the other bands of the early '90. It was something else. Brilliant and intelligent.
It had to do with the charm of the monster, like a perverse, and yet innocent beauty of monstruosity, that, as we're kid, has a totally naive and constructive attraction.
It's when you find out that the human body is probably the most fascinating monster: for a kid like me it was a very natural interest.
As far as lyrical inspiration, literature, the classics. It's music, through prose and poetry.
With this album we payed a tribute to Edgar Poe, since he's the most comical, and probably greatest writer of all times. His tales are often misunterstood: he is always considered as an horror writer, but horror and grotesque, extravagant and serious, philosophical aspects are always mixed. Terror and the parody of terror, going on together.
Humanity, its miserable fate, is of course a pathetical and often laughable experience. Sublime and ridicolous, it's the same.
7 – Dragonheart Records:
We're definitely not used to be treated so well: it may sound ironic, but it is true that we had never experienced such attention: someone else taking care of our music, seriously working for its life as a product, believing in it no matter how difficult the album may sound - it is all very new and a little bit strange for us, and we can't be happier.
8 – Edge Of Forever:
Edge of forever is the result of a deep misunderstanding: both me and Christian couldn't quite fit in that project, even though it all started very naturally as a Deep Purple/Malmsteen kind of thing.
It seemed a project blessed with possibilities: having Bob Harris on vocals, guests as Jeff Scott Soto, being produced by Marcel Jacob, and then by Bobby Barth.
But it wasn't honest to every one: too many compromising aspects lead to inevitable split.
I'm sure everyone is at ease now: we've lost that easy side which couldn't find no more place in Fury'n'Grace compositions, and they gained the possibility to plunge into that aor/bon jovi style they always seemed to tend to.
9 – Tour to promote the record:
There’s nothing planned, at the moment we’re writing, but touring is undoubtedly essential – before considering live concerts as mere promotion – beacuse of the unique nature of every gig. The performance of a crime that cannot be repeated – nevermore. Its evolutions, and consequences, are unknown even to ourselves. It will be our pleasure to let you know, as soon as possible, the schedule of our live exhibitions.
10 – Final Message:
We expect the listener to be 100% open to it. It's so important to be open to art: it's all about mirrors. If you have a lot and give it all to the work of art, then the piece of music, the painting, the poem gives you back so much. It's always a mutual exchange.
Entrevistador: RDS
The origin of the band’s name came from our interest in "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow", that is a section of Thomas de Quincey's Suspiria de Profundis. It has a lot to do with the mythology of the so-called Three Mothers. Three like Fury and Grace.
It is also interesting that it turned out to be a perfect description of our style, with all its musical dynamics going on through every song. A perfect definition of the band may be this: a twisted experience of Unheimliche where we hide to disappear, for a moment, through fury, to the grace of Inorganic. Our work openly refers to Poe’s Imp of the Perverse and Freud's Beyond the pleasure principle.
Fury'n'grace started in 1994. It took 13 years to be published: we've had many line up changes (we did have two keyboards players in our very first incarnation: its a long way to present day, as you may understand) and a couple of unpleasant experiences with two different "labels". We've recorded the first album in 1998, the second in 2003, both unpublished. In this unfortunate situation, side projects seemed to be the only way out (Edge of Forever, for instance). But it turned out to be quite a saddening experience for every one involved. When no one is really happy in a project, to go separate ways is the only solution. It's just points of view that don't agree. And it coincided with the very first true possibility for Fury'n'Grace to come to life, get rid of things considered compromising (read: no more useless winking to commercial appeal whatsoever) and shape its true, inspired incarnation.
"Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow / Nought may endure but Mutability".
2 – “Tales Of The Grotesque And The Arabesque” (writing & recording process):In our creative process we're allowing our own subconscious to be at work. Not knowing where we're going, where this idea will lead us, is very important, intriguing and magical. It's exciting (and reckless, somehow) to be lost and have faith in something you can't even name.
Yet, it has to be an obsession that gives you the direction. Music and lyrics, together, as faces of the same creative drive.
Through this we did compose and record “Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque”.
It's always a multi-layered process that we don't really understand until it's almost complete. It's all about driving Ideas and being true to them.
A dizzy, creative height, we fear and love. We love because we fear and fear because we love. Poe's Imp of the Perverse, again.
It's all based upon unspoken language, and a mistery. It is very difficult to talk about this and explain something that deals with mistery.
It's almost magical how different themes and ideas (that me or Christian or Gabriele or Kiske brought) eventually get together, how structures reveal their nature and perfectly fit in the context of a song: improvvisation plays a huge role in the process, and we follow what we feel correct and important. But nothing is programmatic.
Same thing with lyrics: even though I write them sometimes months before the music, or together with parts of the music in demos, it is a very special moment when we find out how they fit and what an unexpected direction they give to the song. It's like opening doors where there was none. It has to be a beautiful surprise.
3 – Lyrics (influences, themes, messages) and the main lyrical concept of this record:
It seems like a weird trip in what is called "human".
But it's just a self portrait, a lucid and genuinely scary exploration of our darkest places.
What we are. No idealizations: we do not HAVE bodies - we ARE bodies, making up comfortable identities - which are fraudulent misunderstandings.
There's an abyss we're to used to hide to ourselves. This album intends to let it come to surface.
It's like saying: we are truly obscure beings, no matter how lucid we claim to be - let's face it. Let's not pretend we are something else. There is an unspoken agreement going on one should get rid of.
Since civilization is based upon the concept of identity, it is quite important to understand that we are on a pretty shaky ground.
It is very dramatic, I suppose, but it has a lot to do with humor, too. Hence the title: an evident tribute to Edgar Poe.
Schopenhauer wrote that human life is a tragedy when it is considered as a whole and in general, but turns into a comedy when we consider the single human being, going through in details. Our life must contain all the woes of a tragedy, but, as if fate wished to add mockery to this miserable existence, we cannot even assert the dignity of tragic characters.
4 – Album frontcover / artwork (who, why, meaning, …):
We relied upon Federica Galli - [www.damnedinblack.net] already known and esteemed for her works with Dark Lunacy and Kenos - to transmute the general ambience of our work into a visual synthesis able to reflect both lyrics and music peculiarities. As you may see in the artwork, it's all about entrances and exits, only you can't tell one from another. Is this the entrance or the exit? Holes and passages, isn't that somewhat human?
Holes upon holes, passages leading to holes, holes to passages leading to nothing. Here's a perfect lyrical synthesis of what human life is.
5 – “Mephisto’s Waltz” & “Inferno”. Unpublished records:
These albums are inevitable chapters we had to face. We can't say we were ready for publication, since we were 18 and there was a long way to come up with our vision. Our balance as a band wasn't perfectly set, yet, and the direction deserved a few more years and experiences to be actually fully discovered. Having said that, we must say also that the band was a genuine little cult because of our live performances and the musical research we were engaged in, already dramatic and very peculiar.
Anyway we couldn't find any label. The one we made those records with were not labels.
6 – Musical and other kind of influences:
The band's roots are of course '70 progressive (E,L&P, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Goblin), Black Sabbath and early '90 death metal.
But every one in the band is totally open to music, and often deeply distant to heavy metal. I'm sure we owe to that our peculiar choices in music. From pre medieval music to Penderecki, from italian madrigalists (Gesualdo, Marenzio) to John Zorn, we have a wide range of musical interests.
Carcass may be one of the main influence for the band. I got into Carcass when I was 12. Their sense of humor, grotesque and comical, both lyrically and musically has nothing to do with the other bands of the early '90. It was something else. Brilliant and intelligent.
It had to do with the charm of the monster, like a perverse, and yet innocent beauty of monstruosity, that, as we're kid, has a totally naive and constructive attraction.
It's when you find out that the human body is probably the most fascinating monster: for a kid like me it was a very natural interest.
As far as lyrical inspiration, literature, the classics. It's music, through prose and poetry.
With this album we payed a tribute to Edgar Poe, since he's the most comical, and probably greatest writer of all times. His tales are often misunterstood: he is always considered as an horror writer, but horror and grotesque, extravagant and serious, philosophical aspects are always mixed. Terror and the parody of terror, going on together.
Humanity, its miserable fate, is of course a pathetical and often laughable experience. Sublime and ridicolous, it's the same.
7 – Dragonheart Records:
We're definitely not used to be treated so well: it may sound ironic, but it is true that we had never experienced such attention: someone else taking care of our music, seriously working for its life as a product, believing in it no matter how difficult the album may sound - it is all very new and a little bit strange for us, and we can't be happier.
8 – Edge Of Forever:
Edge of forever is the result of a deep misunderstanding: both me and Christian couldn't quite fit in that project, even though it all started very naturally as a Deep Purple/Malmsteen kind of thing.
It seemed a project blessed with possibilities: having Bob Harris on vocals, guests as Jeff Scott Soto, being produced by Marcel Jacob, and then by Bobby Barth.
But it wasn't honest to every one: too many compromising aspects lead to inevitable split.
I'm sure everyone is at ease now: we've lost that easy side which couldn't find no more place in Fury'n'Grace compositions, and they gained the possibility to plunge into that aor/bon jovi style they always seemed to tend to.
9 – Tour to promote the record:
There’s nothing planned, at the moment we’re writing, but touring is undoubtedly essential – before considering live concerts as mere promotion – beacuse of the unique nature of every gig. The performance of a crime that cannot be repeated – nevermore. Its evolutions, and consequences, are unknown even to ourselves. It will be our pleasure to let you know, as soon as possible, the schedule of our live exhibitions.
10 – Final Message:
We expect the listener to be 100% open to it. It's so important to be open to art: it's all about mirrors. If you have a lot and give it all to the work of art, then the piece of music, the painting, the poem gives you back so much. It's always a mutual exchange.
Entrevistador: RDS
Entrevistado: Matteo Carnio (Guitars)
Fury N Grace – Tales Of Grotesque And The Arabesque” (2007) – Dragonheart Records:Este é já o terceiro disco desta banda Italiana mas é apenas o 1º a ser editado oficialmente! Os Fury N Grace praticam uma fusão de Heavy e Power com toques Progressivos e Neoclássicos. As influências são diversas e ajudam-nos a criar um som heterogéneo, forte, pesado, com muito balanço, toques progressivos e jazzísticos, sons de inspiração clássica, influências latinas e orientais, e um forte ambiente épico. Há aqui muitas ideias interessantes a surgir a todo momento que ajudam a manter o ouvinte atento do início até ao fim. Em termos líricos é também muito forte, indo buscar inspirações a nomes como Poe, Schopenhauer, Freud, entre outros. Uma boa aposta para quem gosta de Metal Italiano, com o habitual cariz épico, Neoclássico e Progressivo. 75% http://www.dragonheartrecords.com/
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