Hi guys and thank you very much for accepting to have this little chat. First of all congratulations on your excellent demo release. It would be nice to start with some more details for your course so far?

G: Hi. First of all thank you to support metal music and our band and thanks a lot for compliments! Well, the first core of the band – Marco on bass and me on guitar - goes back to summer of 2002, I guess… but the things became serious when Claudio (guitar) and my brother Francesco (drums) entered the band in 2004. Then we chose the name of the band, we convinced Andrea “Sax” to be our singer and we started a long series of rehearsals to debut on stage in 2005. After 2 years of gigs we finally recorded the demo during last year.

Taking into account the writing process and the recording session, how long have you been working on “The Day of the Raven”.

G: The demo is the result of the early days of the band and the songs came all across this time. So “Black Raven” and “Riders of the Grave” go back to the very beginning of the band and they are straight-to-the-bone songs indeed. So we can't say how much time we spend in the writing process because it was scattered all over these years. When we felt ready we booked the recording studio and recorded our work in about one month of sessions during March 2007.

How satisfied are you with the final outcome and if you had the chance, what would you choose to do differently.

G: Well we are obviously satisfied with the work we made and with the good reactions it has. But, you know, this is our first demo and a lot of things can be improved – and must be improved -. In fact we have the chance to change something because we are working at our debut full-length and the songs of the demo will be re-recorded for it. So these remain demo-versions of the songs. We will fix something but we won't change the substance.

What's the reaction of the media and the fans so far? Does it me your expectations?

G: Well, the reaction is a little bit beyond our expectations. A lot of good reviews came from the webzines and from some magazines from all over Europe and a lot of people also send us compliments on our “myspace” (myspace.com/blackravenheavymetalband). We are very pleased for all the appreciation and for all the support we are receiving.

The whole demo speaks out loud that Black Raven is a pure traditional Heavy Metal outfit and there are gonna keep it that way. Does that reflect on the musical background of all five of you, talking about your influences and stuff you like to listen to?

C:   All members of the band have slightly different tastes, for example, I am a lover of Epic Metal bands like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Heavy Load, Warlord, Doomsword etc.., the Power\Speed Metal of German bands like Accept, Running Wild, Blind Guardian, Warrant, Gamma Ray, Grave Digger etc…, and all Heavy Metal from the 80's.
Andrea "Sax" likes American Thrash Metal bands like Megadeth, Annihilator, Anthrax, Slayer , Metallica but also something from Europe like Primal Fear or Gamma Ray and the immortal Judas Priest.
Francesco like s to listen to the very classical bands of the hard-rock/metal scene so Maiden, Metallica, Priest, Saxon, Motorhead, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Hendrix and also some southern rock is good for him. All the best from the past!
Marco loves Classic Heavy Metal but he loves also new styles: from the most extreme Death and Black Metal to Progressive.
G: Well, if you take out black metal from the list, almost all the bands that Claudio just said are good for me. Maybe I can add Domine (the Italian Epic metal band) to the list. My favourite guitarists are Zakk Wylde (and of course Randy Roads before him), Mustaine for the riffs & Friedman for the solos.
Anyway, as you can see traditional Heavy Metal is the point of agreement of the band.

Who is mainly responsible for the songwriting or the lyrics? Do you five work as a team or does someone stand out for his compositional talent?

C: Usually the songs come from my mind. I explain an idea (riffs, or important passages of the song s ) to the band or make some improvisation to find out some riffs . Then, all together, we develop the idea until we find the solution that convinces us 100%. All lyrics are born with the music and they have much influence on it. Anyway I can do the all work by myself. All the band members have an active part in songwriting because we built the songs together.

Would you agree that 2007 was a very good year for old-good heavy/epic metal? I mean with bands like Black Hawk, Doomsword, Wizard, Domine, Wotan releasing very good album do you believe that the fans are ready to embrace again the old-good traditional sound just like they did in the 80's and early 90's.

G: We really hope it. We are big heavy metal fans before being members of Black Raven so I may say that it's a dream if the scene rises up again. Old style heavy metal always puts all together, I mean it's the music that all metalheads listen with pleasure.

And do you believe that Black Raven can stand the challenge? What's your dream about the band and its future?

C: Well, the dreams are many and beautiful but the reality will be different from our dreams. At the moment we're searching a label to release a really Heavy Fucking Metal album. Then we hope to play many gigs across Italy and also out of Italy to promote our work. That's all!

Let's talk about the Italian metal scene. You guys have done a great job all these years on all metal genres with bands like DOOMSWORD, RHAPSODY, LABYRINTH, ELDRITCH, DOMINE, and many other acts. I guess this flourish of bands has to do with the local crowd's interest and activeness in listening, buying, and supporting the domestic scene and generally metal.

C: I must admit that the Italian metal scene today is better than in the 90 ' s. There are many brand new good bands coming out and also old glories returning in to the scene as Sabotage, Dark Quarterer, Strana Officina , Crying Steel etc. However the support of Italian Metalheads has increased although not ever reaching the levels of countries like Japan or Germany .

Any discussions with labels made yet? Do you move towards this direction?

G: Yes, we had some contacts yet with a couple of labels but nothing is sure.

Do you have any live experience so far? Are you going to do so in the future?

G: Of course we had and of course we will continue to play live in the future. We hope that we can cross the Italian borders and do some gigs abroad, in Germany or Slovenia and also continue to play across the Italy , even more far than we made yet.

Any plans for the future? Are you working on new stuff at the moment?

G: Yes, our full-length is coming in this year – hopefully -. We are working right now on the new songs that will be in the album together with the songs of the demo-cd (re-recorded obviously). The only commitment we can make is that it will be a pure Heavy Metal album like the demo was.

Once again thank you very much for this interview. From the bottom of my heart, best wishes for a happy and successful new year. Is there anything you'd like to add?

G: Thank you for the support and thanks to all who appreciate our work and supported us so far. Stay tuned for the new material, we are at work.
C: Thanks for the support, stay heavy! See you on the road!