Hello Death Metal mongrels, Trevor Strnad, the Obituarist here with another column, this time on one of my favorite drummers from the brutal scene (and one of the busiest!) the human whirlwind himself, Davide “Brutal Dave” Billia! Dave divides his time playing for some of the biggest names in brutality… Hour Of Penance, Beheaded, Antropofagus… the list goes on. Check out the interview below for a look into the mind of the mighty Italian skinsman, and check out the clips of his many killer projects!
First of all, I had no idea you were playing for Hour of Penance until I started researching for this interview… Congratulations! How did that come to be and what happened to James Payne? I think of all your bands, HoP is probably the highest profile, will they be taking priority of your busy schedule?
Thanks! I’m so glad I joined HoP, one of the best Italian death metal band in my humble opinion. A couple of years ago, when Mauro Mercurio quit, Giulio had already asked me to join the band since they had big tour scheduled. But I had to refuse because of work troubles since I couldn’t be absent for so long. In December, Giulio called me once again, asking me if I would have been now interested in joining HoP as a permanent member. Beheaded and HoP were about to start a tour together so he asked if I could play a double show each night. At that time I had already made up my mind to leave Putridity, so I immediately accepted his offer.
I started to study all the songs of the set after I came home from work and it took me about three weeks to learn it all: 13 songs we played live in January during Winter Meh Suff Festival (Switzerland).
I can definitely say I’m now focused mainly on Hour of Penance and Beheaded since they are the most active and relevant bands among the others I play in.
As far as James is concerned, he left HoP in November to move to the States and join Vital Remains.
So now you're playing for HoP, Antropofagus, Septycal Gorge, Beheaded, Repulsive Dissection, and Xenomorphic Contamination. How do you balance being in so many bands? You can't possibly practice regularly with all of them…. How does it work?
Antropofagus, Septycal Gorge and Putridity are all underground bands, so I have always been able to play at the same time in all of three groups (we all have stable job so the live shows during the year are not so frequent)
Lately, I was able to join Beheaded and HoP as permanent member because I officially left both Putridity and Septycal Gorge, bands where I used to be a permanent member (let me explain it briefly: as you already know I left Putridity along with Paolo Chiti, the singer, due to personal reasons while the situation in Septycal Gorge is different: there won’t be any chance to play live during the year as most of the members can’t take days off from work)
As far as Antropofagus are concerned, we are currently writing our third album that it will be released in 2016 for Comatose Music (this is the reason why we’re refusing any live or tour).
Xenomorphic Contamination is basically a studio project: Max (former singer and guitar of Vomit the Soul) and I have been friends from ages and we have always appreciated each other both as friends and as musicians. Playing together just came natural!
In 2013 we finally decided to create this project so we started the songwriting and then eventually recorded our first EP (“Chasm of No Return) at my home studio.
As of now we just finished the writing of the first full length which we are about to record again at my home studio. It keeps being a studio project with no live activity planned so far so it doesn’t really take up too much time except for composition, recordings, production or graphics.
In 2014, I recorded drums as session drummer both for Repulsive Dissection and Omnia Malis Est. Even though they have completely different style from the bands I usually play with. I had fun while recording the albums since I was able to use some peculiar drum arrangements and techniques.
You recently joined with Beheaded who are a legendary brutal band… How did you end up working with these Maltese maniacs? How do you manage living in Italy with the guys being in Malta?
That’s correct! Simone (Blashpemer guitar player) and I recently joined Beheaded. I had the chance to meet them kinda good since I shared the stage with them during european and italian festival, so we knew already knew each other. About two years ago Frank and Omar wrote me to ask if I was available to start a studio project which never seen the light due to the lack of time related to the promotion for their upcoming album, Never to Dawn, out in 2012 under Unique Leader. Last year, after their drummer Chris decided to leave the band after 25 years to focus on his family and work, the guys asked me to join Beheaded as permanent member.
I couldn’t help but accept: it’s not every day that you receive proposals from bands such as Hour of Penance or Beheaded… I couldn’t lose this opportunity!
Well, thanks to internet you can have a professional relationship of any kind even being very distant. Furthermore, Malta is an island located southern from Italy, you can reach it in one hour and half by plane paying just 30€…this way it’s kinda easy to meet. The guys came to my place several times to rehearse before the polish tour with Christ Agony started and also before the European tour with Christ Agony and Hour of Penance. They came over also to record the guitars of the new full length.
I also saw that Beheaded was just tracking a new album. What can you tell me about your first album with the band? Have you updated the Beheaded sound to include your trademark 3000mph blasting?
Yes we just finished the guitars recordings and I have just finished with the drums. I can definitely say that we are really satisfied with the result! Compared to the previous albums, Never to Dawn had a slightly different style. With the new album we followed this “new path” trying to make it richer and better.
Together with Putridity, Septycal Gorge and Antropofagus I have always been playing with a very modern, extreme and technical style while with Beheaded new album I finally have to chance to simply make something different: compose and arrange drum parts with a very 90s death metal sound (simpler from a technical point of view but the final result is like a slap in your face!).
As far as the style is concerned the answer is “definitely no!”. We don’t want to change the style to bring the BPM up to 3000! [Laughs] I adapted my drumming technique according to band’s needs and this is what I generally do when I play (ok….Putridity and Antropofagus have 3000 bpm blasts… but this is what was needed! Septycal Gorge are just on 2800… [laughs]!)
As I was saying, the new Behead is a definitely a death metal album pure 90’s style so I chose a simple yet very effective drum line that flows perfectly together with the riffing.
For brutal death metal heads, Putridity has quickly become one of the most worshipped bands in the scene alongside such loved names as Disgorge (CA) and Defeated Sanity. I consider Putridity to be one of the most intense acts in the entire world and I am certainly not alone. A new album is just on the horizon but sadly, you and vocalist Paolo Chiti have parted ways with the group. What caused you both to leave the band before the album even dropped? It sounds like there might have been was some drama there…
You got the point… Actually it wasn’t easy to leave Putridity and it has been a very sad moment for me. First I’d like to say that there is this a new terrific album which will be out soon and I’m so proud of this work: I loved the composition (all the songwriting comes from Ciccio and later rearranged by the whole band) and I’m very satisfied with the general result also of the final recordings, mixing and mastering since I did it all at my home studio – this is the second album done entirely at my place after Scourge by SG. During these years we had had discussions and very animated debates, mostly related to our different personalities. Sometimes, when alcohol was flowing too much, some of the members showed their real childish personalities and we argued over stupid issues and suddenly they were losing their minds (also with violent behavior…)
We frequently found ourselves involved in very unpleasant situations also during live shows and it was always their fault. An underground musician life is generally pretty stressful and exhausting. Most, if not all drummers have to load, unload, assemble and disassemble the drum set on their own while the other guys are already having fun or drinking. While touring, you don’t sleep much and when you do usually is uncomfortable places, travel distances are so long… it’s not like being on holiday!
So, when you have to deal with this stressful and tiring life AND cope with the stress caused by some members and their total lack of control and violent behavior soon after couple of beers or some joints… it’s too fucking much!
In November 2014 we met to start again rehearse after a long pause related to the recordings and album production. The purpose was to start getting ready to tour to promote the album. It was supposed to be a kickass Saturday night chilling among us friends waiting for the Sunday rehearsal… but actually it never was! Things got so bad we didn’t even make it to Sunday, I can definitely say it was the worst night ever. I’m not going into further details but let me just tell you part of the group decided to leave immediately facing a 4 hours travel in the middle of the night.
Are you still excited for people to hear the album? You must still be proud of what you did, no matter what brought upon the split?
Of course I am! As I told you before, I’m very proud of this album, it will be a total blast!
You will find in it typical Putridity sounds but we also added something new, giving to the album a more defined personality and variety. The cover art is stunning and very peculiar (it was carved on wood by Valentina Bardazzi) and I believe it is a unique piece of art totally reflecting the album concept. I’m very proud also of the recordings, mixing and mastering since I did them all at my home studio, studying and looking for the perfect sound without giving a shit to the “nowadays trendy sounds”.
You can already find online couple of songs while the official release date is 18th August. I’m just little bit sad I will not be part of the live promotion but anyway I’m proud of our work!
I understand that you recorded yourself for the Septycal Gorge album as well as the new Putridity. Tell us about your studio.
The studio was born years ago as rehearsal room and it’s taking a more defined shape year by year.
First I just needed a room where to place my drumkit and where to rehearse with my first band, Halphas. I had those two old rooms just under my home, they had neither floor nor electricity. I was 15 by then and so I asked my dad to help me install electrical systems. After that, I had the floors built and later I made all the walls soundproof. I demolished the wall that divided the rooms to make it as one single big space; then I bought the some low-cost microphones set together with sound cards so that I was able to start some recordings experiments. Over the years, I upgraded the quality of the microphones and of the audio boxes and of course I improved the soundproofing of the room (I also built my own studio desk).
As of now the studio is like any simple home studio with a well working computer, two audio cards (8 channels each), high-quality microphones and adequate audio boxes. It’s nothing that special, but you can manage to achieve some satisfying results with a little patience and some music knowledge.
Brutal death drumming is something like an Olympic sport. It takes a lot of time and determination to achieve a level of greatness like you have. What drives you to be one of the best the genre has ever seen? What drummers have influenced you the most? Who are the top 3 best BDM drummers out there aside from yourself?
Well, first of all thanks for mentioning me, it means a lot to me to be included by you in such a list. The main reason that led me to be so much passionate and dedicated to this instrument is no doubt my passion for this kind of music ( I’d say determination came later). I started listening extreme metal as I was 9 after I saw Ace Ventura movie on tv… I still have the VHS onto I recorded the movie and I remember watching the frames with Cannibal Corpse over and over and over!!!
I asked somebody to lend me Butchered at Birth and Tomb of the Mutilated tapes and it was love at first listen. I was so dazzled by the incredibly violent drums that I started being interested in this instrument and few time later I bought my first drumkit.
Among my main influences I’d list:
Pete Sandoval – Formulas Fatal to Flesh is the first cd I asked my parents to buy me (I was ten by then) and his drum technique drove me crazy. I listened that cd for months and I still do, it’s my favorite Morbid Angel cd ever.
Derek Roddy – he had very strong influences over my style. To me he’s one of the best drummers ever- When I was around 14/15 I downloaded from Soulseek three drum solo videos and I was literally shocked! I can’t even tell how many hours I spent watching those videos and also watching the I monarch recordings videos: I wanted to capture every single detail e learn as much as possible.
During those same years I attended a festival in Milano where bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Krisiun, Marduk and Nile where playing. At that time Tony Laureano was the official drummer of Nile… no words needed for such a beast! I can definitely say he has been as well a great source of inspiration to me.
Until couple of years ago I would have said that the best drummers were Roddy, Kollias, Sandoval, Laureano, Culross, Hoglan… Nowadays the technical level has risen up, I mean you can find dozens of videos on youtube by “unknown” drummers kicking asses.
It’s totally impossible to choose only 3 drummers.… I honestly can’t imagine myself in the TOP 3 but thank you anyway for your great consideration! (I do appreciate it!)
The Italian scene has become one of the most watched for ultra sick death… it seems like an exciting time to be from italy. Devangelic, Sickening, Natron, Vulvectomy, Antropofagus, Septycal Gorge, Hour of Penance, Hideous Divinity, Unbirth, Logic Of Denial, Fleshgod Apocalypse…. the list goes on. Do you feel pride for your Country's contributions to the scene?
I’m extremely proud of it! Lately, in Italy we had like an explosion of awesome new bands that have nothing on the rest of the world’s bands! It’s amazing when you think we come from a little state and yet we release so many noteworthy albums!
It’s time to update the motto “Pizza, Spaghetti, Mandolino and Death Metal” hahahah
What's international BDM "supergroup" Repulsive Dissection up to? Is there any new material in the works?
Yes a new album in on the way to be released under Sevared Records and it’s called “Church of the five precious wounds”
As I said before I play here as session drummer and I got to say I had a blast recording the album since I have been able to use a very different style from mine. I was able to introduce particular patterns and arrangements that I’ve never used before. I consider it a great album, definitely different from the classical brutal death. Sometimes I think it recalls the old Cephalic Carnage stuff, frantic and filled with time changings. The album should be released by the end of 2015, check it out because it’s worth it! (You can pre-order it here)
Hails to Davide for the informative interview and cheers to the Italian death scene as a whole for churning out the greats. Until next time, stay lubricated!
