When I heard Blindeath’s release “Into the Slaughter” I knew it was time to get an interview with this killer thrash metal band and here it is:

How did the band form and were any of the band members in any other bands when the band came to be?
Blindeath was born in September 2011 from Danilo Sunna (drums) and Gioele Zoppellaro (guitar), who wanted to revive the old 80's thrash sounds. The other guys didn’t play in other bands so they chose to play with the band because we were friends before Blindeath coming out.

Who came up with the name Blindeath and were any other names thrown around?
The name Blindeath came out from an idea of the drummer Danilo Sunna in a cold morning of November while he was at school, and get bored by English lesson. Playing with various monikers he decided to propose them the moniker BLINDEATH. The meaning is a quote by H.P. Lovecraft “That isn’t dead which can live forever, and in strange eons even death may die.”

What were the early practices for the band like? What were some early cover tunes you fooled around with if you even did that? How long did it take for the band members to feel comfortable around each other?
We begin to write new songs early, but we also played some cover songs of artists like In.Si.Dia, Overkill, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer. Yes we got a great feeling, so after a pair of months we had some new songs to record the demo!

How long was the band together when you released your “Dawn Of Disease” demo in 2012. Now did you sell this demo at all or was it mostly release just for record companies? What are your thoughts on this demo these days?
Yes, we gave the Dawn of Disease demo at our live concerts for free ‘cause is the best promotional way to get known your music! We think it was a great demo not for musical way, but because we were overloaded like a bomb!!! And that’s cool!

Now the following year, 2013, the band released an Ep called ‘Headshots”. Was this self-released did a label put it out? Is this release still for sale and what are your thoughts on this Ep these days?
The Ep was not self-released but we found a label that believed in us, its MGP label, an Italian label. We are satisfied about the feedback and the work that the label has done. The Ep is no more available because we sold all the discs we had. We sold it at our live concerts, and we finished it in a few months.

Now just recently the band released your 1st full length on Earthquake Terror Noise Records. How did you hook up with this label and how has it been working with them so far? Who came up with the title for the record which is called “Into The Slaughter”?
MGP label decided to stop the activity for some internal problem, we got to find another way to release our Full length. Arturo Scarduelli known yet the Ep “Headshot”, so he got interested about us, and he wanted to listen something from the new record; after some negotiations we decided to work with Arturo. We choose the title “Into the Slaughter” because the new record sounds a lot heavy so we wanted a title that inspires people to listen our work!

How was it going into the studio to record this release? Was the band as a whole nervous at all and how smoothly did things go in the studio? Were all the songs written and pretty much ready to go before you entered the studio?
Into the studio we were a bit nervous because we just discovered that MGP stopped his activity, so we got to find another label. However the recording session went great!  The songs were already to go, also “Welcome to the Thrash Party” that we composed two weeks before!

How did the cover for your new release and is there any type of meaning behind the cover?
The Artwork has been made by Francesca Follini, and she made a great work!
The meaning is: the artwork shows a blinded girl who throws 3 dices, symbol of trinity. All the things you see in the artwork concerns about the concept of the trinity.
Beside the table there are the powerful bosses of the world, above them there are two clocks: one shows the 3.00 am, the hour the devil appears to joke Jesus Christ, which resuscitated at 3.00 pm.
The meaning is that there’s always someone above them, and the girl try to represent that, because she means the Blind death.

I personally love your new release and think it is one of the best releases I have heard this year. What has been the feedback so far for your new release?
For first we thank you for the congratulation. We want to say that we didn’t expect a great feedback like this! We got a lot of feedback, and it’s a very big surprise! We will release the 27th of October, and we are so happy because the critics only listened the record, but “normal” people just listened the lyric video “Toxic war”, getting surprised of us. They remembered us as the band who recorded “Headshot”, but everything is changed here.

For someone who has never heard the band before what would you say you sound like and do you feel you’re an original band at all?
If you never listened us before, let’s find us on YouTube and look for Toxic War, because it’s the actual sound of the band. We said before that everything is changed in the band. Headshot is totally different than our actual sound, because we had a lot of change of Line-up, and so we got much more “heavy”

Does the band get to play many live shows and do you feel you’re a good live band and do you have any videos up on sites like You Tube?
We can give to people who come at our live concerts much more than we do, so we know that we can grow up, and reach a better sound. On Youtube there are some old videos!

Do you plan on trying to do any type of touring to support your new release?
Yes, we will do the official release party supporting the Italian thrash legends In.Si.Dia in Brescia the 31th of October. 20 days later we will play with German guys Dust Bold in Milan to support their new record and our too! About the 2015, we will announce new live concerts, stay tuned.

Tell me a little about yourself and each band member.
Ok, we’ll try to be short because there are a lot of things to say!
Gioele the vocalist. is a very great boy. When you see him for the first time you can think “Oh fuck it’s a mad guy”, but it’s a good soul.
Danilo the drummer, is the most professional, it’s the “logistic leader” of the band. He books the live concerts and all the origination stuff of Blindeath.
Simone the lead guitarist is the most paranoiac, and the first composer. He’s also the driver of the band. A quiet guy.
Luca is the quietest guy of the world. He always thinks about his business and not about the business of other people! Another quiet guy.

Does the band have any goals for yourselves? How far would you like to see the band go?
We hope to carry on like this, but we know how it’s difficult to survive in the music business, because it’s a couple of shit. The major companies don’t bet on young bands, except if the band is under their decision from the start. We have an attitude, and we won’t sell ourselves for some shit!

If you had to pick 3 cover tunes to do, what 3 songs would they be and why?
The Mechanix by Megadeth
Unleash The Bastards by Municipal Waste
And finally Old School by OverKill!!!

What is your favorite band and why are they your favorite band?
Simo prefers the old heavy stuff like Megadeth, Metallica, or Iron Maiden because it’s the beginning of my musical background.
Luca is open mind on the new metal stuff like: Decapitated and Nile but he likes the old stuff too like Sodom, Kreator, Vader.
Gio prefer the old thrash Metal and Death metal classics like: Death, Destruction, Slayer, Obituary… he love the old stuff because is too rough and makes a good vibration to him.
Dani prefer the old school thrash metal and the Sweden scene of death metal like: Entombed, Dismember, Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Municipal Waste

Where do you go these days to find out about new bands and are there any good record shops you can get to go to buy new music?
We like to spend our night times in our favorite Pubs both around Milan and north Italy. There you can find some good bands, and we also had the chance to play there a lot of times. About record shops, there are some great ones in Milan where you can find a great number of underground releases! Any of them are fantastic!

When you listen to a song for the 1st time, what do you listen for?
We think it depends by the people: for example, Danilo try to find a good vibration from the song and he think attitude it’s more important the ability of the musician, Simone try to find a good vibration too but he pays attention for guitar solos! It’s not the same for everyone!

The writing of a song is that a band effort or does one of 2 band members do that. How about lyrics, who writes those and what sort of stuff do you write about?
This is a great question, because people say “Listen this song, is beautiful” but in 99% of cases they say “beautiful” just about the instrumental face of the song. Lyrics are as important as the music. In our band the most of the lyrics are written by Danilo, it’s the most able to do that! The other guys are more able to make the instrumental part.

Does the band have a good local following where it is based out of? What do your parents think about you being in a band?
We think we have a great fan base, and a lot of them are our friends; friends that we know to our concerts. Our parents are happy about us; probably they didn’t imagine that we could have recorded a full length at 20 years old!

Please plug any websites you have out there.
Check out our official FB: https://www.facebook.com/Blindeath.Thrash
Check out our you tube channel too: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3o89KJxBhf4ee6oHgS6CA

Horns up for the interview and last words you want to say to wrap this up?
Thx for this interview, for this kind of space… so, don’t forget to by the album and support your local scene! “Drink beer don’t work listen Thrash Metal and FUCK YOU ALL!”

Danilo, Gioele, Simone, Luca

Interview by Chris Forbes

November 2014