   
How
did you start the band?
Planar
Evil started their activity as a jam band in 1999 I think, but
officially it became a steady band since 2000, 9 years ago. Everything
started very naturally...we just kept following our lifestyle and our
passion. Initially we were a thrash-trio very influenced by Venom style
with vocalist/bassist Mark Evil, guitarist Maurizio and drummer Rob,
there were some line up changes through the years. Now the band is
composed by MARK EVIL (vox & guitar), MAX (bass & ignorant
chorus), ANTONIO (lead guitar) and AMILCARE (drums).
You started off by
playing covers. What covers did you play?
In
the beginning we played Venom, Motörhead and Metallica covers. Now we
only play one or two covers during our concerts like Exodus (A lesson in
violence), Sacred Reich (Independent), Slayer (Raining Blood,
Postmortem, South of Heaven), Motörhead (R.a.m.o.n.e.s.), Metallica
(Whiplash), Sepultura (Arise).
When did you start
writing your own material? What made wanting to write new material and
who were your influences?
In
2000 we started to arrange our own material and in the beginning the
influences came from the old school thrash as well as from Motörhead
and Venom.
Maurizio (Guitar)
were replaced by Gabriele from the Italian band Leprosy, what made him
decide to quit?
He
just lost his motivation and felt like working on other projects. Now
Mark and Maurizio play hard rock together for fun in the spare time.
How did you get in
contact with Gabriele? Did that result in any major changes for Planar
Evil?
Gabriele
played with Leprosy (www.myspace.om/leprosyita)
with me. But we split up in 2001. A friend of mine told me that Planar
Evil were searching for a guitarist in true-Venom style and I though:
Gabriele is the one!!! When the band decided to swelled in a quartet in
2003 to have a more thrash and powerful sound I entered the band too and
Mark Evil switched over to rhythm guitar. Gabriele has a great thrash
aptitude and we had a lot of fun with him.
You released your
demo "
Land
of
Doom
", what can you tell us about that demo?
When
“
Land
of
Doom
” was recorded at
Temple
of
Noise
studios in
Rome
I was only a great Planar Evil fan. I helped them in studio during the
recording sessions and some days after they asked me to join the band.
The demo expresses the thrash metal in the old school way and you can
clearly recognize Venom influences too. I think it’s a good product
for thrash metal maniacs fans but the new one (“mankind way of
life”) is absolutely better ‘cause now the band is technically
better.
That demo made you
"The Best Italian Thrash Metal Band of 2003" on Nero Opaco
Metal Awards, was that a surprise for you? Can you tell us what Nero
Opaco Metal Awards is?
Nero
Opaco was a good Italian webzine, now is closed I think. Of course It
was a great surprise to win the poll for the year 2003, we were really
proud.
You came at second
place as well as the "Best Technical Performance" on Bonefro
Rock", what can you tell us about that?
It’s
not an important result . It’s a small concert competition and we won
a guitar that we sold to a friend to arrange some money to record the
new album ahahahah!
You released your
first full length, how was the recording process?
The
recording process took us a lot of time because we started a
pre-production at home and after we entered the
Temple
of
Noise Studios
in
Rome
. We spent a lot of time for the mixing. As for the next album we
absolutely are keener on spending much more time to get our best product
ever.
Do you sell it
yourselves or do you have a management or label doing that for you?
I
manage Planar Evil with Italian Thrash Attack (www.myspace.com/italianthrashattack).
I have done a good work : the first 400 copies printed were sold out.
Thanks to some distros the cd was sold from
Italy
to
Japan
, to
America
, to
Germany
and so on…Now we have signed a contract with the German label MDD
records who has reprinted the cd in 1000 copies and the promotion will
start in the next days.
What response has
that album got so far?
It's
good for the sold out of the first 400 copies and also for the reviews
all around. We cannot complain at all.
Any tours or shows
coming up for Planar Evil in the near future?
We
had an intense live activity during last summer to promote the new album
with the “Thrashin’ All Around Tour” but we are planning new shows
for the winter, we hope in
Germany
too thanks to the label.
You're the creator
of Italian Thrash Attack as well; can you tell us more about that? What
made you start that site? How long has that site been active now?
ITALIAN
THRASH ATTACK was started on may 31, in 2007. As you know I’m a thrash
metal maniac and I had this idea to create a website (through myspace
that is too much used nowadays) to promote the Italian thrash metal
scene all around. There is a complete database of all the Italian thrash
metal bands, the links (banners) in home page to the most important
Italian thrash metal bands, the links to the most important thrash metal
spaces on the web, mp3 rotation, videoclip, updated news, concerts, live
photo reports, album covers, flyers, merchandise and so on… everything
you need to keep in touch easily with Italian thrash metal scene! I
thought it could help whoever in need of information.
How's the Italian
Thrash scene at the moment? Favourite bands?
My
favourites Italian thrash metal bands are National Suicide, H-George,
Shock Troopers and why not, Planar Evil ahahahaah! And don’t forget
that next year Bulldozer are coming back....
Are
there any cool metal festivals in
Italy
?
The
most important festival in
Italy
is Gods of Metal but we have also: Play It Loud Festival, (S)hammer
Metal Fest, Metal Disorder, Revenge of True Metal Festival, Armageddon
In The Park. Check out on ITA for their official space.
What are your
favourite active thrash band(s) out there at the moment?
Municipal
Waste, Gama Bomb, Bonded By Blood, Onslaught, the reunion of Forbidden,
Hirax, Dr. Living Dead, Evile, Warbinger, the new Testament album.
What do you think of
the international Thrash scene at the moment?
There
is a great come back and too many good bands without a contract with a
label.
What will happen in
the future for Italian Thrash Attack?
I’ll
be working to keep it updated but also I have started to set upsome
concerts. We have done the first edition the last month and I’m
planning some others all around
Italy
with all the thrash metal bands from the local scene. I want to set up a
summer festival too with the most important Italian thrash metal acts.
Any thoughts of
starting a Thrash Metal Fanzine? ;)
When
I’ll have enough time I have in mind to write a full biographical book
on the Italian thrash metal scene.
Any last thoughts?
Thanx
Ollie for the interview and the promotion, that's very needed, and for
the great work you do to promote your local scene too. See you
thrashin’ all around!!!
Thank you for taking
your time answering my questions and I wish you good luck with both
Planar Evil and Italian Thrash Attack.
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