LABYRINTH INTERVIEW
The Italian metal scene has given us a lot of great acts over the past couple of years - from the bigger bands such as RHAPSODY, ELDRITCH, TIME MACHINE to the more obscure ones such as ATHENA, TIMESTORM, SKYLARK, EMPTY TREMOR and a billion more - this scene is one of the fastest growing scenes in the whole metal-circuit. Labyrinth, out of Milan, is for sure one of the most well known and most respected Italian bands nowadays, and with their brand new album ready to hit the stores, we found it a god idea to team up with guitarist and main-composer Olof Thörsen to hear about the band and it's latest happenings - here goes :

Interview by Benjamin A. Genach
Why did you change from Underground Symphony to Metal Blade?

"Well actually we're not signed with Metal Blade is just a licensing deal, we're signed with an Italian label called Pick Records. Still we sold 10.000 copies of No Limits and with the change to Metal Blade we have sold over 65.000 copies worldwide".

All the members in the band goes by another name than their real Italian ones ... t.ex. vocalist Rob Tyrant's real name is Roberto Tirrani ... so, what is the idea with the artist names?

"It all started with a joke, but after a couple of gigs people starting to call us by our nicknames. So we decided to keep our nicknames."

There has been a lot of horrible stories floating through the underground lately (especially on the internet) about the band getting into a verbal fight with their producer... What actually happened with you and Neil Kernon (Also known for producing Nevermore and Queensryche)?

"The purpose of bringing Neil in in the first place was to bring the band up to the next level, but Neil saw us a bunch of European assholes. It all started with the studio which he wasn't satisfied with, even though it was the place where million selling pop-acts such as Eros Ramazotti and Andrea Borrocelli have recorded their stuff. So as the time passed by Neil and me really got to hate each other ... we had some "communication problems". So when the final mix came it was fucked up, that we canceled the release and got our old producer to re-mix it."

Could that some how explain the poor drumming sound?

"Well the drumming only took one day, and we tried to keep an acoustic sound, and did not use the trigger effect."

Now for the typical question - what is your musically influence?

"I guess it is mostly eighties influences, such as Judas Priest and Malmsteen etc. And of course classically stuff."

The new album is the first concept album from Labyrinth ... would you care to explain what is the idea of this concept?

"It is a real story of the old Venice. It was my old history teacher who gave us a book about the old republic of Venice and its stories. And of course we have rewritten it a bit. The rest you can read in the booklet of the cd."

What about Vision Divine ... from what I've heard it's only a project band that you and your old singer Fabio Lione (now in Rhapsody) did together for fun...?

"Actually, we are doing another album, and I hope that we can complete the new album in the end of August. Unfortunately Rhapsody has gone in the studio, so Fabio doesn't have that much time. We will see about that..."

Suddenly Olaf breaks out and says..

"Would you just look at the time I've already missed my next interview, but it was nice talking to you Benjamin bye and take care."

Same here ... wishing you the best of luck with the album - and we hope to see you on tour soon!, Benjamin