Encelado is a cosmic death metal studio project born from longtime friendship, blending space-themed brutality with introspective depth. Their debut EP explores vast galaxies, human fragility, and existential dread.
1. Let’s
start with the origins of Encelado. How did two longtime friends decide to
launch a studio project centered around cosmic death metal?
Me and
Simone (vocalist) discussed several times about the hypothesis of doing
something music together; however, at the time I was focus on my ex-band PULVIS
ET UMBRA but after our final tour plus final album (and Covid Era), I re-order
my priority and start focus on some studio projects. At the end of 2023 I
started working on some riffs and asked Simone if he was still interest in
perform vocals on a music project of min, so that’s basically how ENCEALDO came
up.
2. Your
debut release explores some vast concepts—space exploration, death,
self-awareness, and AI. What inspired this particular combination of themes?
Space
exploration and AI because they’re both very interesting fields but very
dangerous at the same time (death in space, being only survivor of the human’s
race or other sort of mankind ends are quite scary). I prefer to use the
expression “inner thoughts” than self-awareness (even if I like it), this theme
is very important for me because it includes the struggle experience that each
person carries inside while facing daily life, planning future and heal from
own scars.
3. Each
track on the release has a distinct title, from “Dark Nebulas” to “Pillars Of
Creation.” Can you walk us through the conceptual or lyrical journey across
these four songs?
Let's walk
in:
DARK
NEBULAS
Opening
track of the EP talks about the correlations between the unknown space in terms
of Galaxy as well as in term of inner space placed in the depth of humans. Two
universes that (despite apparently silence) share commons light, shadows, black
holes, void, burns, explosion, eclipses etc.
The chorus
of the song is a detailed example of this relation:
"As stars bleed their crimson
tears,
We embrace the void, our final call
Eclipsed by our deepest fears,
Humanity doomed to fall
A fleeting moment of rare existence,
In the darkness, we were born"
GRAVETY
The title
is a mix of the words "Grave" and "Gravity".
It tries to
imagine and explain what the thoughts and feelings of an astronaut could be
when he recognizes there are no more chances to survive during a space mission,
and he will die alone in the deep nothing.
" We spiral down, our hearts
deformed,
Like a comet dragged through a
storm,
Crushing hopes to the hallowed
ground,
Ending lifes where there's no sound
Survival’s cry in the blackened night"
FRAGMENTS
OF FEAR
This song
talks about the weight of inner fears and scars that we still carry on during
the years combined with a negative vision of daily world which seem to ram down
the weakest ones more than ever. You can start losing the reflection of
yourself and embrace decay, otherwise get your life back and "reclaim your
name". Choice is your ..
PILLARS OF
CREATION
Title track
of the EP (as well as the artwork) pays tribute to the elephant trunks of
interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula photographed by the Hubble
Telescope from NASA on April 1, 1995. In a contest similar to the opening
track, this song tries to reach the common points between these Pillars and the
born of humanity.
4.
Damien handled all music and lyrics, as well as the logo and artwork layout.
How important is it for Encelado to maintain that kind of creative control over
every aspect of your presentation?
It’s just
my personal way of work gained in several years of my previous bands. Sadly,
when you can trust the constat effort of other band members you start
self-learning what you can do to replace the “weak ring of the chain” putting
double amount of effort to save time in the future. It's basically what has
been quote as “Make a Virtue of Necessity”.
In terms of
graphic, since I always helped bands to make flyer for the events (since the
myspace era) I like to involve myself also in this part of the art process.
However, if off course I retain an artwork should fits better I contact
directly an artist designer and pay for the work
5. The
sound on this release blends classic death metal aggression with atmospheric
and cosmic elements. What were your main musical influences when crafting this
sound?
I came from
the 80s thrash era while Simone is more into Cannibal Corpse and black metal
staff. Usually, when I decide to record a new studio project, I focus some
months on study the type of genre I’d like to play; for this EP, I went to back
to the times when I was fan of All Shall Perish / Aborted / Suffocation and
resume some arabian scale / guitar harmonization / drop that I retained could
help in the songwriting as well as for match with Simone’s vocal range
6. How
was the recording process at Umbra Studio in Italy? Did the studio setting help
shape the album’s otherworldly atmosphere?
UMBRA
STUDIO is my home studio (I built it during the Covid Era while self-studying
postproduction using plugins etc.).
Having a
home studio for record guitar, bass and vocals helps indeed in save money and
time because you can go there whenever you want for re-record part of a song or
making some mixing – arrangement adjust).
At the same
time, I also involved two friends of mine – both musicians as well as music
teacher - because I think it’s always
good having external opinion during the final process of recording - mixing.
7. You
worked with two different drummers—Max on three tracks and Devin on one. What
led to this choice, and how did each drummer's style contribute to the final
result?
Devin came
first because his drumming in “Gravety” is mind-blowing (and also because it
was the first song demo produced). I personally decide to maintain a different
sound on the track as a form of appreciation for both drummers. As you probably
know, it’s more typical that in metal albums there’s a feature with vocalist or
guitarist; for me just made sense keep the original drum sound-premix from both.
8.
“Pillars Of Creation” is a powerful title. Why did you choose this track to
represent the release, and does it hold a special significance in the overall
concept?
The
original title should have been “Gravety” but being me a fan of space mission /
exploration, I came across the photo taken by Hubble telescope (gases in the
Eagle Nebulas – Pillars Of Creation) and thought it could sound better as an EP
title. Somehow the words Pillars Of Creation could lead to objective meaning to
each person, in our case it’s associated to create an EP which also talks
partially about the creation of universe and mankind
9. Given
that Encelado is a studio project, do you see any possibility of live
performances in the future, or is the focus strictly on recording and releasing
music?
We received
few requests for join live performances and it flatter us, especially
considering that we’re just a newcoming underground band who released an EP.
However, we must decline because we’ll keep ENCELADO only a studio project.
10.
Finally, what’s next for Encelado? Are there more cosmic journeys or dark sonic
explorations on the horizon?
We just
released the second single of our debut EP at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afMdmoNOzZU
and looking forward to have as much reviews / construct criticism as possible.
No plans for new stuff atm.
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