Interview with Veil of Conspiracy band - Doom metal and snow

By Ipsissima Verba -
Since its birth under the scorching sun of Italy, they have gone through various evolutionary stages, starting with a progressive metal sound, meanwhile developing more gloomy, darker, and doom'ier characteristics.
The four artists who are forming Veil of Conspiracy at the moment,  Alessandro Sforza- voice, Luca Gagnoni - guitar, Emanuela Marino - guitar and Davide Fabrizio - drums, have worked together to release one of the best progressive / doom metal albums of the Year: Echoes of Winter.
Inspired by the endless winter that darkens the judgment of mortals when it collapses on the still-reclaimed ground, and accompanied by the delicate sound of Sforza's voice, only to transcend three-dimensionally into growl vocals, more like a storm of burning ashes, and the guitar's sorrowful riffs tamed by Luca's gentle yet colder hand, these are some of the reasons why Veil of Conspiracy cought my interest.
And as music brings us togheter, around the fireplace, in our longest winter, I sought to learn more about their never-ending path.
In the end, "all roads lead to Rome ..."


   Ipsissima verba - Shadows : Greetings.  Thank you for the opportunity to interview you.  Tell me, how are things going for you in these dark times?  I would love to know something about each one of you, for our readers.
   Emanuela : Thank you for your interest in our music! Things are going well and we’re fine, thanks! Every one of us is so thrilled about the release of our new album “Echoes of Winter”, and we’re already working on scheduling some live dates, hoping things will continue to proceed in the best way possible with all this international pandemic situation. We miss the stage so much...

   Shadows :  Two years ago, you released your debut album, Me, Us and Them, which propelled you to the list of important bands of the progressive metal genre.  Before going into detail, I am curious how, where, and under what conditions you laid the foundations of this project?  How did you choose the band's name?
   Luca : Veil of Conspiracy originally was a project I created, as I wanted to make some progressive metal-oriented music. Then I developed a darker and doomish sound, as you can listen nowadays in our music. The name was inspired by the word “conspiracy”, intended as a combination of energies working together to achieve a certain purpose, that in our case is a doom, gloomy and dark-veiled sound.
   Shadows : I discovered Veil of Conspiracy through the song Mine Forever, which caught my interest.  The atmospheric rhythm, the parts of clean vocal that flow oppressively gradually measuring the shady sides of the artist's soul itself, to end in a dark and painful note. Such a musical composition is hard to forget.  What is inspiring you in the creative process, and, even more so, where does the genesis of a song starts? Tell me more about the creative process.
   Luca : It’s not so simple to define what inspires us to write music, because there can be many things that catch our interest. For our first album mental illness and disease inspired all the songs and the lyrics, for “Echoes of Winter” it was nature. Regarding the creative process, most of the time we collect some ideas first, then we sit down in our little studio, record all the ideas, and then work a lot on the arrangements. After this pre-production phase, we record the final version of all songs, with all the instruments and the voices. It always takes some month for the process to complete, but it worth it.
   Shadows : I recently found out that you will be releasing a second album, Echoes of Winter, through Solitude Productions and Bad Mood Man Music.  What can you tell me about the album itself?  How did you respond to the challenges of production, rehearsals, recordings?
   Emanuela : Well, fortunately we’re always very prolific on creating new music, and we have all the necessary tools to record it the best way. We have a little Veil of Conspiracy studio where we recorded all the instruments and vocals for “Echoes of Winter”. Then we have entrusted our work to Stefano Morabito and his 16th Cellar Studio based in Rome, and Stefano did a really great job on mixing and mastering the album, that has been released on August 27 via Solitude Productions/Bad Mood Man Music. We are so excited to release our work with Solitude Productions, is a great label and we were already following some bands on their roster before being part of it ourselves. As for the rehearsals, basically we study a lot individually at home and then we meet all together at the rehearsal room.
   Shadows : What inspired the writing of the new album?
   Emanuela : We wanted to dedicate the entire album to nature, that is the main subject that inspired the writing of “Echoes of Winter”. We love to contemplate nature and to be surrounded by it, we enjoy walking in the woods and spending time there a lot. We also particularly like the winter season, so it came naturally to us writing about nature on the album.
   Shadows : Although we are nearing the end of the interview, I would like to ask you, what set-up do you use when you are recording, or when you are on stage?
   Luca : Of course some of the instruments and tools we use in studio are partly different from the ones we use on-stage. For what concerns the guitars and bass, when we play a live show we use amp heads and stompboxes; during the pre-production in studio we use some guitar and bass plugins but when recording the final and definitive versions of the songs we re-amp all the instruments. 
   Shadows : Considering how much the metal scene has been affected in the last two years, how did you cope with the shortcomings due to lockdown periods, mass hysteria, lack of concerts?
   Emanuela : It’s a very though period for bands and musicians, and even if we personally don’t live on the music we play and the albums we release, we suffered and are still suffering the lack of live shows, as players but as listeners aswell. During the lockdown period we concentrated on our music, we arranged and recorded “Echoes of Winter” and this helped to get through those very hard times, for all of us.
   Shadows : How do you plan to promote the new album?  Do you plan concerts, tours?  Is there a specific scene that you especially want to play on?  Any a band you'd like to perform with?
   Luca : We are trying to schedule some live concerts, and we really hope to go back on-stage soon but all will depend on the progress of the pandemic situation, during the next weeks. We’d really like to play some show in North Europe, and maybe supporting some of our favourite bands (Katatonia and Swallow the Sun above all). Who knows! 
   Shadows : Well, we're at the end.  Thank you for your time.  Would you like to add a few words for family, friends, fans?
   Veil of Conspiracy : Thank you for your time and for supporting our music, we hope you enjoy our new record and can’t wait to see you all at the live shows. Ciao!


This concludes my interview with Veil of Conspiracy band.

Pre-order their new album here: Echoes of Winter
Looking for some cool merch? Here: Veil of Conspiracy/Merch

You can follow, stream and support their music via the following links:


Doom regards,
Ipsissima verba -  Shadows
I am one when there are many. Yet I am many when there is none. I am Shadows. Founder/ Lyricist/ Concept writer/ Manager of the international romantic gothic doom band Lord of Shadows. Poet/ Novelist and the sole writer of the independent webzine Ipsissima verba - Shadows.

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