Beholder
with Patrick Wire on Sep 02, 2004


Although your new album Lethal Injection will only be released a couple of weeks from now, you already have received quite some positive reviews. Are you satisfied with the final result or are there things you would have done differently if you could?
Well, we have received a lot of positive ratings and we are very happy with them. We were not sure whether everyone would love this album because we always change something in our sound, in our look… every time we take some risk… but I saw that journalists and fans appreciate our work and that’s great!

What can the fan expect to hear on Lethal Injection?
They will listen to a lot of heavy metal songs with great melodies and refrains. We worked hard on writing the songs and arranging them, in order to reach a final result that could satisfy every Beholder fan. Since the album has been released here in Italy, I’ve seen that the reaction of the guys is enthusiastic, so I’m very happy and proud of Lethal Injection.

When I listened to the album for the first time it reminded me strongly of its predecessor Wish For Destruction. Would you like to commend on that?
Maybe the intro and the opener (“Mr. Grady”) could remind everyone of the previous album, because of the speed and aggressive feeling, the evil interpretation or something. The other tracks are different, we wanted to play some more mid tempo songs and we even wrote a ballad (“Far Away”) that features Roberto Tiranti on vocals.

  Lethal Injection starts with an eerie intro track called “The Overlook Hotel” which is of course influenced by The Shining from Stephen King. Are there any authentic sounds from the movie used in there?
No, they are not. Actually I wanted to take something from the movie and put it in our songs, but I thought it was enough to base the first two tracks on the Stephen King novel. These songs represent the atmosphere of the Overlook Hotel quite well; anguish and pain… I hope that Stephen King fans will appreciate it and I hope they will feel the horror atmosphere of the movie as a result of to the sounds…

Every band has the same idea for the cover artwork and we think that’s very boring.

 The cover artwork is rather weird and far from the standard power metal artwork; I was wondering if there is an idea behind it?
Well, we wanted to do something far from the Italian standard. Every band has the same idea for the cover artwork and we think that’s very boring. Sure, a lot of people will not love this cover but it represents the anguish and pain of our lyrics. I wrote the lyrics of the title track about capital punishment and I wanted to have a cover that could represent it with an image. A screaming face was a good idea, even though it’s a seventies punk-style cover!!!

  Since neither your lyrics nor your artwork have much to do with fantasy (which is very refreshing to say the least), can you tell me what the ideology behind Beholder is?
We loved fantasy atmospheres and lyrics when we were younger, and I wrote a fantasy concept for the first album because I thought that was the right theme for our music. The sound was symphonic and we played typical power metal with classical influences, so it made a perfect combination with fantasy stories. Then we changed our mind and we grew up. With the second one, Wish For Destruction, I wrote a futuristic story about scientific progress and world domination, a crazy concept based on the news about a cloning experiment I was reading during those years. The sound changed too, and it was modern and perfect for this kind of theme. Now, we are so far from our debut album, the sound is different, it has something dark, something “horror”, but it has retained lot of melody too, so it is the perfect sound for dramatic lyrics dealing with our minds and our fears…

  Which leads me to the next question; where did you get the name Beholder?
The first Beholder’s drummer decided it, it comes from the D&D role-playing game, don’t ask me anything about it because I don’t know what I’m talking about hehe! Anyway, I loved that name and I said it was great, so we kept it.

  With this new album basically ends your three album obligation to Dragonheart. Will you continue the relationship with Dragonheart or do you have other plans? Have you been satisfied with their promotion?
Yes, we are satisfied with the label’s work. The boss, Enrico Paoli, is a friend. He always knows what a band needs and our friendship is great. I don’t know what we will do in the future, because we have a lot of ambitions and we want to check out every chance, in order to be popular in every country. I don’t even know whether or not Enrico wants to produce our fourth, I will speak to him after his holidays.

I think Vision Divine just recorded one of the best Italian albums of these last couple of years.

 Since Beholder have always played a style that deviates from standard Italian power metal I was wondering what bands have been a big influence on the music of Beholder?
Well, I love bands like Children Of Bodom, Rage, Nightwish, but we all are ‘80s hard rock maniacs, so we love Skid Row, Mötley Crue, Kiss, AC/DC… we have a lot of influences, we don’t like Italian heavy metal that much, except for Vision Divine, Domine and Lacuna Coil, which are great bands. I think Vision Divine just recorded one of the best Italian albums of these last couple of years. Oh well, I even like Evanescence and The Darkness, they are great!!!

  Roberto Tiranti (front man of Labyrinth) is featured on the ballad “Far Away”; how did he get involved?
He is a friend for a long a time already. I just called him and asked him if he wanted to sing on this ballad, because I thought his voice was perfect for this song and I loved to do a duet with him. The song is dedicated to a girl, so you know, it was impossible to ask Leanan to sing on it… Roberto said it was a pleasure to do it, so he went to the studio during the recording sessions of the album and he did an excellent job. The song is really nice and sweet thanks to his fantastic voice.

  To promote the album you will only be touring through Italy supporting Vision Divine. Are there any plans for a European tour, and would you prefer that to be a tour as headliner or as a support act?
To be headliner of a European tour is everyone’s dream, I suppose. We are still a too small band for something like that, but I hope one day we will have the chance to support a big band during a world tour; it would be great to promote our album and to let the people acquaint themselves with our music. The Italian tour with Vision Divine has been a great experience, they are such nice people and we still remember the great moments we had with them on stage as well as backstage.


What do you think about the power metal scene in Italy; do you feel there is enough room for new bands like Beholder to make a difference?
Unfortunately, I think we have good musicians here, but too many bands. There are a few bands that we can consider “great”, I’m talking about Lacuna Coil, Rhapsody, Vision Divine and Domine. The other ones are still small bands, and there are too many similar ones here. I hope that musicians will try to follow an original direction in the future, in order to offer a valid product to the fans, because I think people are tired of hearing hundreds of similar albums…

Thanks a lot for the interview! Is there anything left unsaid?
Well, I invite every Beholder fan to connect with our website, http://www.beholderofficial.com and to listen to something new from Lethal Injection! See you on stage, guys!

(Frank van de Voorde)

© Rockezine.com Sep 02, 2004, viewed 787 times since 666
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