A Notebook of Wisdom and Melancholy: [Music/About me] STRAIGHT TO PAIN

I know that self-promotion is lame, but if I had any dignity I wouldn't be here, so I'd like to use this space that has been kindly given me by myself to advertise a little project I took part in.

I joined Straight to Pain, a metalcore band from Savona, in 2015, as a bass player. Neither metalcore/death metal nor bass guitar itself were ever truly my cup of tea, but the risk I took joining that band proved to be one of the best decisions in my life. I met wonderful musicians and friends who rekindled the fire of my creativity, I'm having a hell of a good time, and I achieved something I had dreamt of for a long time: I recorded and released an album.

An EP, to be precise: Earthless. Four tracks out of five had already been composed and arranged by the time I joined, so I just had to learn and adapt the bass parts left by my predecessor; but the fifth, "Let It Burn", is entirely a creature of mine, music and lyrics. We could call this EP a concept album, in the sense that all songs share a common theme: the end of all things, the spiritual and physical death of the world, caused by the sins and blindness of a mankind that has lost all chances of stopping its descent on a slippery slope to hell. To convey this feeling, we opted for a "dirty" sound, as close as possible to our live sound. Drums, bass and guitars were recorded separately but using our skins, our effects, our amps, no computer processing. Musically, it was a huge step forward compared to the band's previous work, Horizon Calls, marking a shift towars a less metalcore and heavier, more varied sound, mixing elements from black metal (Roots of Desperation, Everything Dies), groove metal (No One Left to Save), thrash metal (Everything Dies, No One Left to Save), and melodic death metal (Whisper of War, Let It Burn); and also, because our Simone's growl had greatly improved, I daresay.

Sure, it isn't an album for everyone, death metal as a genre is easy to dislike; and naturally we do have complaints, regrets, things we'd change etc., we wouldn't be musicians otherwise. But, I personally am very proud of this work. We received good reviews, and the fact that many had trouble classifying us squarely is, in my book, a good sign.

I'll leave you with a promotional video for the album, and all relevant links. If you feel like it, please do buy it!