Interviews

Fulci Interview

We did a nice interview with Italian Horror Obsessed Death Metal  Band “FULCI”

  •  Hello guys. Let’s start our chat with a classical question. Can you give us some info about what you’ve done as a band until now? And what kind of music do you play? How do you define Fulci for an Extreminal audience?

Ciao Cenk, this is Fiore (Vocal). Fulci band is active since 2014, we recorded two demo songs, two full-lengths and one single. We have played up and down our country with bands such as Disgorge (USA), Jungle Rot, Cryptopsy, Mass Infection, Holocausto Canibal and Rotten Sound. We toured overseas: “USA West Coast Run 2019” together with Accidentally Murdered (from Stockton), playing in the worst bars and clubs, passing through Albuquerque till LAS VEGAS DEATH FEST. We reached the 35th position in the KERRANG! Chart of the 50 bands from the past 10 years who’ve kept death metal alive and well. Fulci is three “brothers” with the passion for extreme music and horror cinema. We play death fucking metal screening cult movie scenes directed by the Maestro!!!

  • -How did you start to play as a band? Can you talk about the demos titled Incubus in the Surgery Room and City of the Living Dead? What were your goals in the first days of Fulci for you?

The band was born from an idea of Dome and Me. Soon after Klem joined. We have been friends for many years and have played together in other hardcore and metal bands.  The demo songs are inspired by two horror classics: “Re-Animator” and “City of the living dead”, recorded at “Till Deaf” Recodings Studio. The initial goal was to get back to playing old school death metal combining one of our passions: zombie movies!!!

  •  Fulci’s first debut album is Opening the Hell Gates and it was released by CBC and in your previous records, again they were released by CBC records-as CD-R and tape. How was the deal between you and CBC? Was it hard to find a record deal?

Premise: CBC (Caserta Beatdown Commando) is a group of friends (including us) who organize concerts, produce and support musicians, design graphics and artworks, shoot videos and make tattoos with a DIY attitude since 2008!

The first album OTHG was released in part by the Italian label “Despise the Sun Records” and in part by the CBC collective. The album was inspired by the film “Paura nella città dei morti viventi” (aka “Gates of Hell” aka “City of the living dead “). The agreement with Andrea Cipolla of Despise… for the release of the album happened just after the release of the demo. We made the deal at a concert drinking lots of beers. Ahahah

  •  After four years, Fulci returned to the scene of Death metal with a new full-length called Tropical Sun in 2019. What would you talk about this album? What’s the story behind it?

“Tropical Sun” is dedicated to Lucio Fulci’s cult movie “Zombi 2” (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters) released in May 2019 and produced by the Italian label “Time to Kill Records”. Musically we are influenced by TOMB of the MUTILATED and everything that sounds extreme. The absolute novelty is the introduction of the synths played by Dome. The first press was sold out in just three months, so TTK printed a second version on CD “Blood Edition” and over 2 vinyl format prints in 4 different versions.  More pressing is on the way.

  • You guys picked up Fulci as a band name and obviously you‘re influenced by the world-famous Italian horror movie director Lucio Fulci. What things are the main influences of yours from his works? (For Extreminal crew, they are Zombi and Beyond) What are your famous scenes from his movies?

The macabre and oniric horror/splatter imagery proposed by Fulci is a source of inspiration for our music. The films that have most influenced us are included in “Gates of Hell Trilogy”: City of the living dead, The Beyond and House by the cemetery; besides movies like Zombi 2, A cat in the brain, Voices from beyond, The New York ripper etc. It’s really hard to pick scenes, however on the podium of gore we place:
3) bloodthirst spider from “The beyond”
2) shark Vs Zombie from “Zombi 2”
1) regurgitated guts from “City of the living dead

  •  What can you mention about the artwork of Tropical Sun? What do you think about Italian Horror flexes and Giallo? After all these years, what can you say about the present horror movie industry in Italy and the World?

“Tropical Sun” artwork was designed by the illustrator Chris “Misanthropic Art” and was selected and included in the illustrated book “Best Metal Artworks 2019” along with other works from him.
Italian horror and Giallo cult movie of the 70s and 80s should be in the history books. The artworks, the soundtracks, the rudimentary effects, the performers, the beautiful and sensual actresses, the shootings, the colours and the stories they tell are something unique and inimitable.

Today’s horror cinema has completely changed, often it’s full of special effects and poor in content. In Italy, there are no more “artisans” of the cinema as in the past years. Even if there are some good films produced in the last decade, some examples are: Across the river (Lorenzo Bianchini – 2013), Violent shit: the movie (Luigi Pastore – 2015), Ballad in the blood (Ruggero Deodato – 2016), Furious anger – Er Canaro (Sergio Stivaletti – 2018), Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino – 2018), Il Signor Diavolo (Pupi Avati – 2019). I suggest you check out our friend Simone Scafidi and his amazing docufilm “Fulci For Fake”! Last year I liked the American director Ari Aster for originality and imagination with its films: Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019).

  • You like horror movies, gore and violent cinema…
    Viruses, one of the top-rated topics of horror/science fiction movies, and issues such as humanity’s efforts against this virus, etc. from the pandemic process taking place today, as if it has turned into reality. If we talk about it, did this pandemic world affect you? How is the situation in Italy right now and we are curious about your opinion about this Covid-19 virus?

Especially at the beginning of this pandemic, it was like living on a movie set: empty streets, crowded hospitals, ransacked supermarkets, collective fear and delirium, the lockdown … and many many deaths! A horror film experienced as protagonists and not as spectators!!! Regarding the situation of the band, a series of dates and our 2nd USA tour has been cancelled. Italy after 2 months of tight lockdown has slowly returned to normality and this has increased the risk of contagion. Every day there are new cases on the rise, however, we are learning to live with this invisible enemy hoping to survive during coming winter. I work in a clinical analysis laboratory, we do also molecular tests for the diagnosis of Covid-19. What can I tell you: this fuckin virus is real, it exists and circulates among us, in my opinion, it is not as lethal as we have been led to believe. Regarding its origin I still have any doubts, we will never know the truth !!! The goal, for now, is to avoid contagion and at the same time “to live”.

  • How, when and where did you guys record the Tropical Sun album? Can you tell us the production and recording process of this album?

Before starting to compose the music we choose the film to pay homage and get inspiration. Dome took care of riffing, synths and drum lines; together we wrote the lyrics capturing the most significant moments from the movie. We then choose dialogue parts from the film to use as an intro/outro. We involved the electronic band “Acid Castello” for the composition of the intro “Voodoo Gore Ritual”. We invited two of our great friends to sing as guests: Danny Bellone in “Splatter Fatality (who among other things took care the illustration of the text) and Ivan Di Marco in “Palms by the Cemetery”. The album was recorded between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 at the “Till Deaf” Recordings Studio by Ando Ferraiuolo. Ando can be considered the 4th Fulci member! Without him, we would never get the sound we have

  • Song titled Death by Metal with “Face Your Enemy” and “Metal Carter” is described as a little strange song. And I watched your video clip. I can describe it as brutal rap. What is the story of this song? Why did you need to make such a feat? Do you guys in Fulci like rap music?

We listen to many kinds of music without paranoid. Dome and Klem listen to a lot of Rap, and a lot of hardcore, as well they play it (Dome sings in Face Your Enemy). Marco aka Death Master “Metal Carter” is a famous Italian rapper but he is a big fan of horror cinema and death metal, he was also the first drummer and founder of Corpse Fuckingart! We shared the stage with him during a show and we found out that we both love horror movies and we shared the same attitude and musical background. We think the music shouldn’t have many rules and barriers so the idea to collaborate with a Death/Rap icon experimenting the introduction of rhymes rapped on death metal riffs got us very excited; We decided to pay homage to Face Your Enemy by using verses from one of their songs (Teschio Truck) for the growling chorus and then also introduce HC style metrics made by Dome. This is the story of “Death by Metal”, a song that unite us all, sharing our attitudes and honouring the immense Chuck Shuldiner and DEATH.

  •  How did you start to work with Time to Kill Records? What can you say about this deal?

We know Enrico Giannone (TTK Records Boss, as well as voice from Undertakers) for many many years. The partnership with the label was born after a friendly talk during one of our live shows. TTK believes in us and has pushed us a lot in terms of promotion and visibility. The success of the album is also due to Enrico and Davide (the other partner). For now, I can only anticipate that new FULCI shit is in the making….

  •  Here we have a section of short questions.(you can answer it, person, by a person as a band if you want to)
    – What’s your favourite movie?
    – What’s your favourite drink?
    – What’re the first and last albums you bought?
    – Play live festivals to a large crowd or a small hot bar/venue gig packed with a lot of people?

Dome:
– Big Trouble in Little China
– bloody mary
– Iron Maiden “A Real Live One”; Run the Jewel “RTJ4”
– Floorshow in a small packed bar

Fiore:
– The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
– Mojito
– Litfiba “Re del Silenzio”; Necrot “Mortal”
– Venue gig packed with a lot of people

Klem:
– Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
– gin and tonic
– Metallica “…and justice for all”, Blood Incantation “Hidden History of the Human Race

– small clubs, crowded with a lot of beers!

  • What are your future plans? Do you have any concert and tour plans if this pandemic ends?

Unfortunately, this unexpected “event” has destabilized our plans. For now, we have only cancelled dates, Blhaaaa !!!Plans for the future? We hope to return to normality as soon as possible, to start touring towns and clubs again, bringing the Fulci Cult everywhere!!! In the meantime, we did an intense “lockdown” at the “Till Deaf” Recordings Studio headquarter together with Ando to record a dark and claustrophobic death metal EP paying homage to another Fulci film.

We will reveal the details shortly. We are also writing the soundtrack for a short movie titled “Tropical Sun” directed by Ritual Video. It will be produced by TTK records so stay tuned!

  • We finished our questions. How can our audience reach Fulci and your records? What would you like to say to finish this interview?

Thank you very much for this long and interesting interview, ciao to the readers and all of you from Extreminal. I hope to play in Turkey together with Cenotaph soon or later. FULCI LIVES !!!

CONTACT:
www.facebook.com/fulciband
www.instagram.com/fulcicult
www.twitter.com/fulcicult

MUSIC:
www.timetokill-records.com
www.fulcicult.bandcamp.com

VIDEO:
www.youtube.com/user/cbcunited

MERCH:
www.serimal.com
www.cbcunited.com

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