Progression, new horizons and fresh sounds with Warknife

You've just released your second album entitled "Amorphous". Now that it's out there and finished what are your thoughts? Are you happy with the finished article or are there things you would have changed? Is there a sense of pressure, a weight lifted off of your shoulders now that things are complete?
Greetings from the south of Italy! Yes, we have just published our second album “Amorphous” and we are satisfied with it. The album lives up to our expectations. Our aim was to create something different from what we did before. This kind of shift is connected to the fact that we have grown up, that we listen to different types of music and it is also connected to new life experiences. We are very happy about all the positive reviews and also about the fact that our fans appreciate our work, notwithstanding the fact that we also take into consideration few less enthusiastic comments. We know that we have created something different from the classical metal or hardcore standards, so we were aware of the fact that some people could not like it. As we said in other interviews, we are in transition: from what we were to what we will become.

You left a five year gap between albums, was this a deliberate wait? How did it feel entering the studio again after so long and did you feel that by taking your time you we're improving the quality of your music?
To be honest, this gap is only due to the fact that we are an underground band that is struggling to express a passion: during these five years, we have changed our line-up for several times; this definitely slowed us down. It was when we decided to become a four member band that everything became clear, fast and led up to Amorphous.

As a band do you prefer spending time in the studio recording or are you a band that prefers to be on stage performing in front of people?
We do love performing! Being on a stage is fundamental for us to express our essence, our music; moreover live performances are our relief valve.

As I mentioned your album is entitled "Amorphous". Can you explain the themes that run through the album and what the name means to you? We're there other names being considered?
”Amorphous” is connected with changes, and this is the reason why we have chosen this name: it perfectly reflects our sound: it is shapeless and impossible to be classified. The lyrics deal with several topics and they are all connected, somehow, with our personal experiences, translated into metaphors. “The infected enigma”, for example, deals with the corruption of the church( a topic also present in our previous album); “Hate seed” and”the Veil fragments” show how people’s prejudice create the monsters and ghosts of our society, while “Ill becomes order” talks about the habit of becoming addicted to uncomfortable situations( like the soldier in our video, who fights without knowing why and loses everything important to him); and “A bleeding Sunset “ is a gothic description of a sunset.

Slightly off topic but two members of Warknife also feature in progressive death/thrash band Kronium who haven’t released anything for seven years. Is there a future for that project and if so what are the future plans?
Actually it is not correct: Cesare and Marco featured in Kronium and they published:”Dark grave” (2005-demo);”Kronium” (a full length in 2007); “Deviance” (2009-promo) and “Flows of hate” (2012, the last album Cesare and Marco recorded while they were members of the group). The material has been published but not promoted, so that’s why you thought Kronium released nothing for the last seven years.

Getting back to Warknife, do you get involved in the local scene there in Lecce or Italy as a whole? What kind of camaraderie do the bands share and are there any local bands you'd recommend?
We feel part of the local (and Italian) scene, but we are trying to become part of the international one. We do not think that bands share any kind of camaraderie here, but we highly recommend Shank, Cast thy eyes, Ajna, Silvered and Slumcut.

What bands did you all grow up listening too? Which bands popped your metal cheery and of the bands you grew up with which would you say influenced the Warknife sound the most?
Definitely Slayer, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Death and Black Sabbath. We do listen to metal, post metal and hardcore, but talking about our sound we also have to mention other influences like the ones from classic rock, jazz and blues. So we don’t think that our sound could be compared with others, even if some reviewers compared us to Mastodon, Isis and Tool.

Is metal your whole life or do you find time for other interests? What do you like to do away from the band and from the day job?
We are 100% devoted to metal, but we also love movies, art and sport.

Your lyrical content is centered on topics such as war, death and religion. Looking at recent news does the troubles in Syria, Ukraine and Libya enter into your thinking when writing music or do you take a most historical standpoint?
Not particularly. Our lyrics are connected with what we see and experience every day.

You could make a living off of writing about the ill effects of religion alone. Being from Italy, a predominantly Roman-Catholic nation, what personal experience do you have when dealing with religious types? Is it forced down your throat from childhood or are things more relaxed these days?
As you said, Italy is a catholic nation, so religion is present in every aspect of people’s life and this may create a sort of business connected to the exploitation of people’s believes, as we said in “Infected enigma”. But in our case, we are far from any religious imposition.

What are your political views? In Italy I suppose your most famous leader since Mussolini would Berlusconi, a man we see over here as a bit of a comedy figure due to his outrageous antics. How is he viewed in Italy? Are you glad he’s now out of power?
We think it’s better not to talk about such a “delicate situation”…

Finally, what does the future hold for Warknife? Do you have any final words for the readers at BRUTALISM? Cheers for your time and congratulations on a great album!
First of all, we want to promote our album (as far as we can) and we want to increase the number of our live performances, and… And that’s it! So thank you so much for your enthusiastic review and for this interesting interview. We’re glad you enjoyed the album and we invite your readers to listen to “Amorphous” and to buy it, if they like it. They can also watch online our music video (“Ill becomes order”) on Blank TV. Greetings, Warknife