After only being around since 2011, this something a band never wants, to releases their debut album and than not be around to support it.  So hopefully we will see Pol put the pieces back together and get the Omnivore machine going again, ‘cause they are a pretty killer act.  Go out and get the album, you will really enjoy it!

Paul, congrats on your debut self-titled album, it’s pretty killer. How did the deal with Unspeakable Axe Records come about and what has the press and fans been saying about the album?

Thanks, man! Actually, after we recorded the album and after the master was ready we were searching for somebody who was interested in printing the CD, but we found nobody in Italy. We left the product on hold for a while and we were just giving up. In that exact moment we were contacted by Eric of Unspeakable Axe Records, he made us an offer on printing and distribution and we accepted. Tobi Zama of the Australian band Sewercide (we were about to record a split with them) pushed our work to be released (thanks, Tobi!). I think we’ve been lucky because the guy’s got something with Italian old school death/thrash, and he’s really a cool guy, doing a great job with the promotion and everything.

For now, we haven’t received negative feedback, and it’s fucking great. Eric sent the album everywhere to zines and blogs, so now we have a lot of great reviews, which we posted on our Facebook page, and the word is spreading. We’re obviously not the greatest band on the planet, but honestly for us these are great results and we never thought of getting this kind of reception!

So the band is on hold for the moment? What the hell is going on, debut album comes out and now you guys want to break up? You don’t want this album to get wasted, which is what will happen if things fall apart?

Yeah, mate, this is the worst part of the whole thing. Actually, the band was on hold even before we came in contact with Unspeakable Axe. Let’s say that everyone was focusing on different projects after the work was done. We were having problems before entering the studio to record the thing, but decided to keep going and not waste the years we’ve played together as a band and as friends. We decided that this was to be done even if this would have been our last work. Obviously we don’t want the album to get wasted, but we’re waiting for the right moment to get the band together, which, for now, would be really a hard thing. We are happy that the work is not getting wasted for now; let’s hope that in the future we come back physically on the scene!

Please explain the album cover. I really have no clue what it represents and what is going on with the artwork?

That artwork is really sick, isn’t it? We wanted it to be as sick as possible. We got our friend who is really, really good at drawing and painting, a natural talent. He had a painting on his wall, which he drew years ago and it was a different version on the one he painted for us. When we saw it, we loved how sick it was and wanted it to represent the album cover. We asked him if we could have a different version of it, he said yes, and the following weeks he spent a lot of time closed in his bedroom working on it and listening to the sickest kind of music. The painting that came out of that bedroom was even better than anything we were imagining. I think it’s like the door to the album; every sensation or the atmosphere we wanted to recreate it is trapped in that cover art. The album was originally going to be called Nothing More Than Dust, as one of the tracks, and we made the concept based on that song and the lyrics in it. We wanted an abstract but concrete picture, and that’s it. Our friend is called Fabio Martignoni (www.facebook.com/fabio.diosepoltura): he’s an awesome artist. He also does tattoos and he’s playing bass and vocals in the band Overcharge (www.facebook.com/OverchargeRnR), along with our guitarist Josh “El Meridionalos”. Check em’ out!

I love your blending of old school death/thrash. Sounds like old Sepultura/Kreator, etc. Is this your favorite form of music?

This is definitely our favorite type of extreme music. We’ve always listened to the most different kinds of music, even outside metal. We grew up in a relatively small music scene and in the last few years we came in contact with the Italian punk scene. We began to appreciate D-Beat, crustpunk, grindcore, bands like Wolfpack, Driller Killer, Toxic Holocaust, Disrupt, Skitsystem, Discharge, etc. I mean, these bands are sincerely ass-kicking and they sound fucking awesome, so we tried to put a bit of this inside of our music as well. We like death metal bands like Bolt Thrower, Hail of Bullets, Napalm Death, as well as classics like Kreator, Sepultura, Slayer, Demolition Hammer; hardcore bands like Raised Fist, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., Exploited; we took something from Italian hardcore/punk bands as well, like Negazione, Skruigners, Sottopressione, Wretched, Tear Me Down and Jesus Ain’t In Poland. So yes, we tried to get our sound taking something from every band we like and mixing it all together.

I enjoy your rendition of “Arise”, how was it covering one of the most classic death/thrash songs in existence and are you gonna send it to Max to see what he thinks?

Haha! Never ever thought of that, but…hell yes, why not? Obviously we’re not as good as they were back in the days, but we could at least try. Anyway, the song represents a moment in our lives when we were discovering this music, when we were kids, making rehearsals in a garage. It’s every idea we had mixed into one perfect song, so we had to record it and put it at the end of the album. I know it’s not usual putting covers onto a debut CD, but who gives a fuck!

How long have you been singing and playing guitar and what inspires you to sit down and write the memorable music that you do?

I have been on vocals since 2010/2011, if I remember correctly. Before that, we were playing classic thrash metal and we had a singer so I didn’t need to sing. I was just playing the guitar and I was happy. After we modified the sound to a bit more death metal, the singer left us and the guys in the band asked me to be on vocals to simplify the search for a new singer, but I had never even tried to sing. So we started an intense period of rehearsals when I was struggling to sing over the guitar parts we wrote, and that was the most difficult part, even worse on the first gig with me on vocals, Haha! Well, every single one of us took part in the writing process, we did it all together, from the music to the lyrics. So thanks mate, I’m glad you like it, but it’s all thanks to the band!

Italy has a huge death metal scene, but you never really hear about the thrash scene, so is there an Italian death/thrash scene that you can speak of?

We always played a lot of gigs in squats and social clubs, so we can’t say much about the Italian death/thrash scene. There are awesome places, tax-free and self-managed, which are really the last place where you can play underground music freely without coming into unpleasant situations, which happens when you play in a pub or something like that. We always shared the stage with punk, hardcore, grind and crust bands, a bit with some metal bands but only a few times with death or thrash bands. We are aware of the fact that there are a lot of old and new bands around that are shaking the scene of our extremely dull country, but we never really have been part of this scene. The thing is that there are bands all over the country but there’s a small possibility for them to play in public, and this sucks.

What kind of guitars/amps do you use to get your sound?

There’s not much gear, pretty much guitar plugged in the amp, no effects, no pedals. Even in the studio the thing was pretty simple: Josh used a Marshall JCM 800, with a Marshall cabinet, “Gianni Zacchetti” handmade custom guitar, I-Spira humbucker pickups. I was playing a Jackson V black, with EMG active pickups, plugged into a Peavey 5150, direct into the Marshall cabinet, same as Josh’s. Honestly, I can’t remember the bass setup. But that’s it, we like to play and get the doomiest sound just from our amp. No worries on effects, distortion pedals, overdrives, delays, echoes, reverbs, stereo cabinets, 7 guitars on stage, 9 string guitars, wi-fi cables, and shit like that, which is only harder to manage.

Are you presently writing material for another Omnivore album and will things continue along this musical path? I really love the riffs on the album, very memorable!

Why, thanks, mate! At the moment we’re still on hold, so no new material. Unfortunately everyone is playing with other bands now, but we talked about getting together again. Releasing another album would be really cool for everyone, obviously, but I can’t say anything now because you never know what will happen. We would like to let things settle for now.

The style of music you play is experiencing quite a resurgence, with a lot of bands taking up this death/thrash approach. How do you guys stand out from the pack and what are some of the most important elements in playing old school death/thrash?

I think there are no rules or particular approaches to play this kind of music. We always played the stuff we liked and the stuff we listened to, always trying to have fun, from rehearsals to the stage. Of course we had to play lot of gigs to get a bit of experience and to see if people liked our music. The most important thing is making it all personal, never forgetting the influences you have. Of course, we never decided to play “old school death/thrash” but that was the music we liked and so the songs came out like this. Keep it simple, keep it fast, keep it rotten, keep it fresh!

Paul, any final comments for our readers?

Thanks to everyone who supported us and who bought our CD. We never thought we would have reached an international audience, so this is a big deal for us. Please support extreme music, support the Italian and worldwide underground scene and don’t let it disappear! Cheers!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Omnivore/265473320143668

http://unspeakableaxerecords.com/