LANDGUARD – Interview with Walter Montone – dr.

Hello, I am Andrew and I have to say that I really like your music! Please give a short bio of the band for our readers.

Hi Andrew my name is Walter and I am the drummer of the band. Our band borns in 1996 from an idea by lello (keyboards) and Armando (guitars), we have changed a lot of line up and we have changed our style of playing, from power epic to the actual progressive metal. Our line up is: Marco Mangiapia – vocals, Armando Scala – guitars, Claudio Acampora – guitars, Lello Acampa – keyboards, Salvatore Ditto – bass, Walter Montone – drums.

I first met you with “A perpetual game” demo which was very good but now “Metamorphosis” is just amazing! But why is it self-financed? I think you deserve to be in a label. What happened with Underground Symphony?

We have recorded a full length with underground symphony in 2000, called “eden of a parallel dimension”, but for some problems occourred to the label, it is not in stores. If you listen to our full length you will find that is more power and less prog… we have changed singer from this album.

The production of “Metamorphosis” is very good. Are you satisfied with the result or you would like to change something now if you could?

We are almost satisfied, the only things that sounds a little undertone are the drums and the bass…

In the booklet I read that the drums have been programmed? Did you use a drum machine? Why that? You have a drummer?

Yes, I use to play drums and to record drums, but for a self produced mini cd is too expensive to record an acoustic drum, so we have optioned for an electronic drum. We have preferred to record vocals and to made the mixing in a studio, and leave the rest to our computers.

About the lyrics… is it easy for you to write them? How are the related with your music?

Almost all the lyrics are written by Lello and me, we use to write the lyrics after the composition of the music and the melodic line by the singer. Our lyrics are almost parts of concepts, because the 90% of our songs are parts of concepts albums.

What are the reviews you have received about “Metamorphosis” up till now?

They 're all good reviews in a scale from 1 to 10 we have gained an astounding 9!!

While Greece is most famous about its black/death scene with bands like Rotting Christ, Septic Flesh, Nightfall, Necromantia etc., Italy is most famous for its power/progressive bands like Domine, Rhapsody, Adramalech, Time Machine and the ultimate epic metal gods Wotan!!! Why do you think is that? Why most Italian bands are into this style of metal?

Italy has a great musical background, that begins to classical music and ends in the actual melodic music. So every band that born in Italy is influenced by this styles, and plays a music that only an italin can do..

Have you ever performed a live show with a big band? If you had the chance to play along with a band of your liking who would that be and why?

We have performed a concert in Matera with Status Quo!! If I can chose, I will like to play with Rush… but concerning all the band I think that will be great to play with Symphony X!

What are your favorite bands and how do they influence you when you compose a song of yours?

We came all from differents styles of music, I like progressive rock, while Lello likes metal prog, and Armando prefer power metal, but in general I think that the bands that more influenced us in our songs are Symphony X, Dreamtheater , Marillion , Pain of Salvation, and many many others.