Natron: the godfathers of Italian death metal

Hi Max! Let me start to say that it's an honour to have you here: without any doubt Natron is the most influential Italian band of the last 17 years and a great come back like your last “Rot Among Us” is only the umpteenth proof of what I'm saying. Your previous masterpiece “Livid Corruption” has been released in 2004 so, as fist thing, I think it's better to talk about these five years of wait.
Appreciated, man! We're glad to be back after this really long time but actually we never left, cos we kept constantly touring Europe to promote the release of “Livid Corruption”. After headlining a tour in 2005, we toured first with God Dethroned and then with Die Apokalyptischen Reiter in 2006, then we did one last tour in 2007 with Suffocation. We shared festivals stage with Messhuggah, Lacuna Coil, Entombed, Obituary, My Dying Bride, Brutal Truth and many others, performing at big festivals like Frozen Rock ,Neurotic Death fest, Brutal Assault, ...we supported Deicide for a short italian tour etc, etc...
So, we definitely didn't sit around waiting for something to happen. That was our last album on Holy Records and they didn't do that much for us, so we were asked to promote it as we were facing serious line up troubles, tryin to write new material and looking for a new label. That's why it took a lot of time for us to come back!

As you maybe have already noticed I'm talking about this time interval as a wait, and not as a delay: waiting for the right moment or for the right phormula is something of important; a normal delay should on the contary be something of negative. Well, now that we can listen this “Rot Among Us” I can say that today you're probably stronger and straight in the face than few years ago: what do you think?
I definitely agree with you, “Rot among us” is the next step of a continous evolution process. We're getting older and wiser and through the years we have learned how to compose aggressive material without being necessarily complex. Even going on tour with extreme bands with a different approach from ours motivated us to keep drawing the same line we started like 10 years ago, being brutal but let the kids having a riff to remember!

Right Max: now it's time to analyse this “Rot Among Us” in the details. Let's start from the songwriting process: how long has it needed? Do you think it's possible to find something of the new guys you've in the band? Or, as usual, is this the result of the work between your drumming and the riffmaster Domenico Mele?
Home from the tour with God Dethroned in march 2006 we started writing the new album. Actually we had a couple of ideas and we already played “Only living witness” during the tour but by the time now we were badly pissed off. Mike (Tarantino) told us he was going to quit the band, we didn't have a full time bass player and a record deal so the whole mood was really frustrating. The band actually didn't exist. It was only me and Domenico, so we decided to take a pause from the band for a couple or weeks or so, then we reactivated and  started to rehearse again. Like in the past we spent many hours writing and arranging new ideas on a tape recorder then I used to go home after rehearsals, write down all the lyrics and arrage vocals using what we had recorded on the tape. We wouldn't have taken longer if we only didn't have  to stop the songwriting ahead of time, weeks before tours approached. We had to do auditions to bass players and vocalists then we spent countless hours explaining the set list to the new guys. That's why it took 2 years til we entered the studio in march 2008. Nicola joined the band in october 2007 and Alyosha one month before the recording session so even if they wanted they couldn't put any ideas in it.

Let's talk about music. Even if we can always notice your characteristic rifferama and the huge drum work I think that this time the new tracks are more song-like structured. Personally I like to define “Livid Corruption” as a more vosionary and histrionic album: “Rot Among Us” is in my opinion more direct and “catchy”, obviously in the positive meaning of the therm. I mean that now, more than in the past, the songs stick in mind after a couple of listenings and this is something of incredible if you think that we are always talking about a real death metal album. What do you think about this and about the differences between the 2009 Natron and the previous works?
“Livid Corruption” was certainly more complex than the two albums we recored in Sweden at the Abyss studios, where the first album “Hung, drawn and quartered” and the mini “Unpure” were even more extreme than everything else we recored in our career.
I haven't much to say than it's really a natural process: we never sit down planning how's going to be the next album. Everytime we feel the urge to compose something new and fresh and “Rot among us” is a really fresh death metal album, probably the best album  we could come up with in years. Someone asked us if we wanted to match our last record but actually we never tought  to double an album like “Livid corruption”, we just came up with something different and new!

Today like yesterday we can identify your main influences: the 80's thrash metal and the uncompromising death/grind masters of the 90's like Suffocation, Entombed or Terrorizer. Obviously the mood of the new album is the mirror of this background: rotten, nihilist and dark. Now the question is: rotten, nihilist and dark as always or in a different way looking back to your past?
The mood and the musical influences are always the same. We keep listening  to those bands we grew up with but today I think that -after all these years- we forged our own sound and tried to evolve it album by album without looking too much to what' happens around. I can't tell you exactly what inspired us for the new album, as told before we  just come up with an idea and we keep it if we think it's good enough...

For a complete overview of your new work we have also to talk about the production. For “Negative Prevails” and “Bedtime for mercy”you've worked with Mr Tagtgren and for “Livid Corruption” with Anders Lundemark, two big names of the scene. This time we are in front of a total made in Italy production (that I personally love): I think that the result is a sort of come back to the roots, but with a superior quality that an underground production usually hasn't, if you know what I mean. Why this choice? Should this be another reason why “Rot Among Us” sounds extremely direct and in your face?
Working with those big names in death metal was definitely a great chance which today means a lot for  us. We learnt a lot of things and we'll be always grateful to them but now I have to say that I feel really satisfied of “Rot among us”. This time we were right in choosing the Golem Dungeon studio and I'm proud that it's a 100% italian production.
That studio is property of a good friend of the band, Ottavio Marzo is the guitarist of italian melodic death metallers named Golem and he's been doin' the live session-guitarist with Natron for a long  time. When we considered to record the new album he offered to produce it in his new studio. We first recorded a three tracks demo in january 2008, we were satisfied enough so we finally opted to record there and to work with the engineer Giuseppe Dentamaro. Recordings started in march and we also had the privilege to come back home every night after the recordings. Having not so big time restrictions, obviously sessions lasted for weeks because everybody decided to record  in the spare time so we ended the recordings in april and mixed the album in july! It took longer but “Rot among us” sounds exactly the way we had it in our mind and  production surpassed whatever else we recorded in the past since “Negative prevails” was out.

If the whole album is direct and furious I suppose that the lyrics too have followed the same direction: can you describe in the details the main subjects you've tackled this time? Do you think that the present worldwide situation should now influence the lyrics of a band more than in the past or not? I mean... everything is getting worse under every point of view and a nihilist album like “Rot Among Us” should be the right statement.
Through the time and albums we have abandoned the classic gore-horror inspired lyrics to move towards more catastrophic topics. Apocalypse issues maybe still result a little bit futuristic or just too far away from  reality but if you take a look around and you don't see we're getting worse you must be only blind. World is actually collapsing under the daily weight of religion lies, bad politics, wars, even more crazed bio-technologies research and natural catasthrophies; 2/3 of the earth population is starving to death and lying still uncivilized and world powers are starting to experience a long era of big economy crisis so..... the question is : where are we going? Are you still sure we're not going to face the Armageddon? Well, we have the answer, and the answer is certainly not to find in religion or politics cos this won't save you from a biohazardous attack, a pandemic virus or a thermonuclear war.
“Rot among us” is an invitation to think: maybe we would never be destroyed by a exterminating virus or conquered by alien civilizations but we're not exactly going into the direction to survive any longer.

We've already said that after “Livid Corruption” you've performed an impressive numbers of shows in Italy and around Europe, sometimes supporting really big names like Deicide, Suffocation or Entombed: now that you have a new album out what do you have in mind? I suppose that the promotional activity will be huge: I know that for the first time you'll play in the United States but that's not enough right?
We're going to tour Europe in january 2010 with Mumakil, this extraordinary grind core band on Relapse Records. They remind me of early Nasum, a band that I appreciated a lot in the past so I guess this is gonna be a killer tour! Afterwards we have some gigs here and there in Italy and then we have in plans a North American tour including USA and Mexico in july 2010. For the very first time in quite 18 years we're going to play overseas! It's something still in the works even if we're already confirmed in Detroit for the 20th anniversary Michigan death fest. Hopefully we're gonna  have more festivals to play during the summer but I dont' make plans. I just look foward to go on tour in one month or so, sell as many records and tees as possible at shows, doing interviews, having fun. That's the only thing that matters to us at the moment!

Now that we have talked in a complete way about this new “Rot Among Us” I will take advantage of the fact that I'm talking with the drummer of  the most influential death metal band from Italy. You are around since 1992 and during these long years many things have changed under your eyes: talking about your country we can say without any doubt that the “new” death metal bands are now more regarded than in the past. If I'm not wrong Natron's been the first death metal band from Italy with a good deal with a big label of another country: fortunately today we have other examples like Hour Of Penance, Vomit The Soul and others. I will not ask you an opinion about your colleagues but I'd like to know how you lived these changes: do you think that Italy is now really stronger than in the past and that your scene should still grow up? Why are the people looking at the Italian bands with a different interest now and not few years ago? Are you conscious of the role you yesterday had and still have today and how do you live it?
It was 12 years ago and the scene was a lot different back then. We've been around like two decades and we witnessed a lot of changes. When we got signed to Holy records things were already changing: many bands which seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough disappeared or were absorbed by the same scene they contribuited to create and this was probably due to the music market crisis and the evergrowing number of bands around.
We surivived that  because we were a death/grind band coming from the underground and we kept building a solid core of devoted fans around.
Today the italian bands have  generally better skills on instrument, they stop “monkeyin'” bands from US or Sweden and try to have their own personality but the scene is getting even worse because shows are tragically deserted in Italy and many new bands don't have the time to build up a strong following of fans.
Personally I dont think we influenced these new bands because we  play a different kind of death metal. Some press labelled us as “the godfathers of italian death metal” - which is something that hurts someone, ahahaha- but probably the only role we had, or we still have – like you say – is that we opened possibilities for the italian bands that came after us, to appeal to a foreing audience and consequently attract the label interest .

Well Max I think that we are at the end of the interview. It's been a pleasure for me and I really hope next time you'll not wait other five years for another great album. You are free to greet our readers in the way you prefer: thanx again for your helpfulness and see you soon on the road!
Well Jacopo, hopefully there will be another new album in a close future but for the moment enjoy this new one cos we definitely dont' think to release new shit at least in one year from now! Enjoy the new Natron and see ya on tour in 2010!!! Support good true death metal!Cheers!