The Italian surreal metal band Mhela has released its first EP “ES” last month.
It presents 7 tracks which introduce the band’s style.
The melancholic “All around me” is the first track of the album,
I really enjoy the intro with the piano and the guitar solo.
The surprise is “Eden and Hell” sung in spanish, this song is pretty slow but
the sound is addictive.
“Night with spirits” is the first single released from this album and it’s a good track with a catchy refrain.
The guitar arpeggio introduces “She isn’t here”, the sound in this song is soft and all works well.
More heavy are “Nightmare before the war”, “Bastard snake” and “Vampires don’t sleep” but somehow didn’t get my attention
that much.
It’s a good EP, even if the sound is still unripe, I like the change of vocals in between clean and growl and musically the band is compact.
If you listen to bands like Bullet for my Valentine you will enjoy Mhela’s music.
Mhela is a band from Tuscany, their firs EP “ES” has just been release, with their music they take us to a ride in the human subconscious that wants to become the “Superego”.
We had the opportunity to talk with them about their first EP, the metal scene in Italy, the plans for the future and much more.
–Hey guys, how are you doing? Fine thanks, hope you are fine too.
-Would you mind to introduce the band and give us some biographical hints?
We are MHELA and we are an Italian surrealist/alternative metal band from Tuscany born in January 2013.
The current lineup features vocalist Erick “Steve Low”, drummer Michele “Splash” Sestito, bassist Mattia “Il Clone” Giannini and guitarist Andrea Zucchini. The band originally included a fifth member, keyboardist Federico Carraro, who quit in November 2016.
Erick, Michele and Andrea met in high school and and started the project with others, Mattia and Federico came on later.
In 2015 we released our first demo and later our first music video “Vampires Don’t Sleep”.
Thanks our commitment in playing on every possible occasion in the Versilia area, the band was able to play in various events alongside bands like Under The Bed, Athena (now called Moderntears), Atlantic Tides and more.
-Your first EP “ES” has been released at the beginning of 2018, what can you tell about its genesis and lyrics?
Well, music and lyrics in Es came from our deepest problems and darkest fears. Giving a face to our most negative thoughts helped us a lot in making the musical parts; for the lyrics instead we tried to sort them out. It was something strange and painful, but we made it. Playing the songs it’s something that helps us fight back those things and we hope that it could helps anyone who has those negative thoughts.
The Es of Sigmund Freud is the human subconscious; our is the human subconscious that wants to become the “Superego”.
-From the EP has also been released a video-clip of “Night With Spirits”, did you enjoy the making of this video? Do you want tell us some details of the making-off and behind the scene?
It was an amazing experience! We were in this surreal place, all covered in dust, cold as hell while it was raining.
It took one day to set up the place because it was full of objects, chairs, tables, robot arms… Then we filled it with speakers (gave us by the owner of that place, that we would like to thank) and the next day we did our best to kick some ass.
It was fantastic, a really beautiful experience and we want to thank Donatello Viti and his girlfriend for the amazing shots and the patience showed with us.
-Your music is define surreal metal but where does Mhela root its influences?
Well, many people define us in different ways. There’s the one who says we are Nu Metal, the one who says Pop, the one who says Symphonic… Honestly? Maybe we don’t really know what we are, but we like it.
Influences, again, are various. Everyone of us gives what he really likes into our music but mainly we are inspired by bands like Korn, Nightwish, Slipknot, A Perfect Circle, Eeen Reggae and Dubstep are on our list.
If we would tell every artist who inspired us, we would be here till dawn!
-You have on program some shows in Italy, what’s about the future? Any plans for gigs outside Italy?
We really want to go outside of Italy, but right now we are just waiting the right moment to do that.
We want to enjoy our journeys in front of us hoping that people likes our artist choices.
-If you have the chance to choose a band to share the stage with, which would be? Definitely Korn. It would be a dream comes true.
-Nowadays Italy has a bunch of good bands even if they’re still not so popular, how hard is to rise up in the metal scene in a country like Italy? And what’s your favorite Italian metal act? Italy has always been place for great artists but right now people don’t pay much attention to them, much less for the musicians.
There are many artists who succeed abroad but in Italy is very difficult. People doesn’t like live music, especially metal bands, but that’s because of the media imposition against this genre.
In Italy metal is treated with inferiority and for that it’s difficult to emerge. So there is only one thing, work hard and hope that our music reaches as much people as possible.
I think Lacuna Coil is very important for live performances and it’s strange that they had such an outcome abroad but in Italy are not so famous. By the way, we think that they have a great metal act that you must see.
-We are at the end of this interview, thank you so much for your time! Would you like to say something to our readers?
Yes, we would like to thank the people who supported us and assisted to our progresses. For us it’s a very important project and see people that support us is very satisfying.
Not only our parents and friends but we would like to thank Tana Del Lupo Records for the recording sessions, Tiziana Podda for the graphics of ES, Russian Metal Radio, Metal Hammer, Metal Force, Metal In Italy and you for the interview.
Thank you so much.
