THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY – Imprisoned with chains

It’s time for THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY from Italy, an Italian death metal act who recently released their second album entitled "Requiem for us All". 

First of all, we need some background on the band and band members. When, where, who and why did The Modern Age Slavery become a reality?

The Modern Age Slavery were born from the ashes of the band Browbeat, active for several years in the metal-hardcore Italian scene. After the break-up of those 3 of the 5 of the members (Luca Cocconi, Mirco Bennati and Giovanni “Gio” Berserk) decided to continue the musical activity creating TMAS, moving to more extreme sounds. The line up was completed with the old friend Simone Bertozzi on guitar and Gregorio Ferrarese on drums.

After a few months releasing the first album, Gregorio has been replaced with the current drummer Stefano Reynoldz Brognoli.

Did any of the members have any other band in history before they joined The Modern Age Slavery?

Each one of us, growing up, was fed up with music and all of us, since childhood, have played in different bands.  We all come from metal, but different kinds of metal: this gave us a chance to try different types of sounds to obtain the final one for the The Modern Age Slavery

Where does the name come from?

These are our words: freedom lacks nowadays, such as in the past ages. We live in a society where we’d have every mean to be free but … do we really want that? No … It is too scary. Can you imagine how scary it’d have to choose for us? I’m being sarcastic but that’s what happens.  We attempt to avoid Responsibilities, and freedom is the biggest responsibility that a man can have. There you go: THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY. You are imprisoned with chains, you can hardly see. Every time you let someone else decide for you or the world you live in, every time you do not scream because it is more comfortable to keep quiet, every time you put a bandage on your eyes because you do not want to see; those times you are avoiding the responsibility not to be slaves. Referring to Erich Fromm: you are escaping from freedom.

What can you tell us about your debut album "Damned in Blindness"?

I listened to Damned To Blindness a little time ago and I am sure it’s wicked shit but even if it’s a good album with excellent tracks, it is not homogeneous compared to Requiem for us all … there are many great ideas, maybe a little ‘inexperience, maybe a little’ and the rush in writing it but I would recommend to listen to it 😉

What is the biggest difference between the debut and your new album "Requiem for Us All"?

Like I told you before DTB lacks a bit of homogeneity than of Requiem For Us All. With this album we decided to hit harder over but with a more well defined "melodic" line so that every riff or sung always remains recognizable to the listener.

Your new album "Requiem for Us All" is an awesome extreme metal album. I like great extreme metal and this album makes me happy. How did you do it? Please take us all the way from the first riffs and ideas to the finished product.

Thank you, I’m glad you liked it! Let me tell you (5 years have passed from DTB until Requiem for us all) what happened, I would have written the Lord of the Rings 2 AHAHAAHA! Seriously, the album was written at different times, some tracks have had a very long gestation, such as Requiem For Us All and Ivory Cage, they have been made up, changed, dismembered and sometimes even cut away because we were not satisfied with the result …others (like The Dawn Prayer, Slaves Of time) were written in just a few sessions. Surely, in every song, we tried to create a different atmosphere, a different feeling while still remaining with the foot accelerator pressed all the way up!

How do you feel you evolve as a band During the entire process of songwriting and recording of the album?

It is a great satisfaction because while this process you understand that certain choices (especially in the songwriting) were welcomed and they give you the right energy to keep going. For recordings we always trust our guru Simone Mularoni and its Domination Studio (www.dominationstudio.com) he is the King Midas of Sound but instead turning stuff into gold, it turns your music into real destructive power ☺

How has the metal press and fans received the album? How has the feedback been in Italy and the rest of the world?

We were very pleased by the reaction of all the webzines, what gave me the most satisfaction is that we were defined ‘modern death metal’ genre. In Italy we were in nomination for best album of 2013 and fans were literally enthusiastic. In the rest of the world we are receiving a lot of success, even in States, where the first album was a little snobbed … our revenge came along ahahahah!

Inspirations, where do you get most of them from When writing new songs? Which bands inspire you the most?

We are children of the 80/90 trash/death scene so we have absorbed that kind of sound and albums from bands like Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Death, Malevolent creation, etc. they are still in our player. Even modern bands such as Aborted, Despised Icon, Black Dahlia Murder, Misery Index, Psycroptic, Decapitated, Behemoth etc. have influenced us a lot during the composition of the new album.

Do you pick up inspirations from other things like the ordinary life, movies, books etc..?

Especially from everyday life, you may think that movies can give you inspiration, but real life, sometimes, is more absurd than any book or movie ever written

What about the lyrics? Where do they come from?

All lyrics are written by Giovanni, he is our damned poet (definition given by a French review at the time of Damned to Blindness). Giovanni has been inspired by an Italian poet active after the Second World War , Pier Paolo Pasolini. In his writing, Giovanni has found a way to explain some concepts without falling into obvious.

Is there a creative mastermind in The Modern Age Slavery or do you work best as a united band?

Usually Guitarists bring ideas and then, along with bassist (Mirco), they make a sketch of the final track. After that is sent to Rey (drummer) who writes the drum parts, then it is all refined before giving the song to Giovanni for the sing and the latest fixes.

As a journalist I have noticed That the metal scene in Italy have grown Lately and there are tons of bands there. Lots of them are good, some are great and a few are excellent. How do you see the scene today?

I think that the Italian scene has always had good bands, maybe now is better exposed. In the past big labels that produce extreme metal snubbed our country (I do not know why exactly) but luckily now there is a turn over. I believe that we can compete with groups from overseas!

Have the global success for Fleshgod Apocalypse opened any doors for the rest of the Italian metal scene?

Surely they have opened the door to the rest of us and, thank goodness, Nuclear Blast have noticed this super band, they are good musicians, great people and friends!

What about live gigs? Do you play a lot? (In Italy and other countries). I would like to see you up here sometime.

Hopefully! ahahaha ☺ After the release party we have done some gigs around our area, we now have several shows in other parts of Italy, in Switzerland and Austria, other dates are on their way to be confirmed and we are planning to go on a European tour. Why not, we might come to Norway, folks ☺ stay tuned;)

What’s the future like for The Modern Age Slavery? Is it bright and glorious or are you just an ordinary hardworking metalband?

We always think big and we wanna fix new goals, otherwise one’s a dead band…. we will be headliner at Waken Open Air soon; P

Thank so much for your time. As I said earlier, hope to see you up here in the cold sometime.

Thank you for the attention and for supporting the underground scene, we hope to see you soon and set fire in the cold with a violent pogo during a concert of The Modern Age Slavery

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