Shrieking Demons is a relatively new death metal act banded of experienced members from the Italian underground metal scene. They play pure old-school death metal, with a clear Autopsy influence, but their songwriting and creativity are much more prominent. I liked their debut full-length, The Festering Dwellers, released through Transcending Obscurity Records. Now, it’s time to hear pure death chants from Giorgio and Gabri. Cheers!
Giorgio and Gabri, thank you for accepting our interview request and being here. How is life treating you these days? What have you been up to?
GIORGIO—Hi there, and thank you for the opportunity. I’m doing fine lately. Black Sabbath has just announced one final show with their OG line-up, and I’m trying to find a way to pile up enough dough to try and be there. I owe those four Brummies my whole life, so I’ll be there even if I’m dead by then. Someone will have to drag my corpse to Villa Park and place it up front!
GABRI – Hell-o! Life is always treating us like shit, but fortunately, there’s Death Metal to strike back eheh…
How was Shrieking Demons formed? How did you come together?
GIORGIO I’ve been in multiple bands with David since 2004. Mostly death metal (Assumption, Haemophagus, Undead Creep, Morbo) but also heavy doom (Bottomless) and more. Shortly after the end of our 15-year-old existence as Haemophagus in 2019 we found ourselves craving for more Autopsyan metal, so we decided to start a whole new project. David came up with the band name, which is straight from the lyrics to Autopsy’s Hole in the Head. David and Gabri have been together in the death metal band Gravesite and we’ve all known each other for a long time, so asking him to be the vocalist in Shrieking Demons was the most natural thing to do for us. Valentina and Nino joined the pack after the release of our 1st EP Diabolical Regurgitations. We were looking for someone to complete the line-up and bring this material to live on stage.
What personal, cultural, and musical influences motivated you to compose and play this style of death metal? How do you define your music?
GIORGIO – We play old-school death metal, which is the only school for us anyway. We are AVID horror fans and gothic literature devourers. Those two worlds are major sources of inspiration for what we do. Italy’s relationship with necrophobia and death’s imagery is a long-lasting one, with artistic elements spread all across our national history of art. David and I are from Palermo, Sicily, a city whose cultural fame is (also) linked to the catacombs of the Capuchin monks – easily the darkest place in the country, being a collection of more or less 8000 mummified bodies – or the Triumph of Death fresco at Palazzo Abatellis. During our upbringing, our existences were more or less marked by the sombre presence of pain, guilt and spiritual punishment as seen in all our Catholic churches. Although death metal is an American, UK and Swedish-born-and-bred genre, I think we, as Italians, have something about our cultural heritage that simply leaves an incredible, dark footprint upon our imagination. Matter of fact, our “school of doom” or Italian Dark Sound wave are undeniably strong and influential on a larger scale because it feeds upon this visual heritage.
How did you create the songs for the Diabolical Regurgitations EP? Can you share details about the recording process and the credits for this short album?
GIORGIO – Nothing fancy. I sit down at home and write demos on Cubase with programmed drums, rhythm and lead guitars for the rest of the band to listen to. Only recently I began to write tabs too. Then we meet at rehearsals and discuss the arrangements. Gabri writes all lyrics to all songs while I’ve only come up with the titles to our EP and album.
GABRI – Like Giorgio said, He wrote the music and I did the lyrics. All four songs were already composed when Giorgio and David asked me to join this project, and it may seem crazy but, due to pthe andemic and other things which I can’t clearly remember, I had just something like 2 or 3 rehearsals before recording the EP.
Writing titles and lyrics haven’t been a big deal because Giorgio’s music always has the power to create images and situations in my head as I listen to the songs, so I just have to make it fit like a collage. The “hard” part was maybe to record them after just so few rehearsals (that’s not the way I am used to working, with all my bands I usually spend a lot of time in the rehearsal room) but I think it hasn’t come out bad, hasn’t it? Responses had been good and Caligari Records did a good job, so I am still pleased with that material.
There is almost a four-year gap between your 2021 EP and your latest full-length The Festering Dwellers. Why did you take such a long break? What happened during these four years?
GIORGIO – We’re all involved in a plethora of bands, so if you look at our musical commitment from a unified perspective you’ll hardly notice any break at all. Plus, I think that to do something that sounds fresh and unique you have to grow as a person and as a musician. We’ve done it in the past, like, you know, releasing too much stuff in a short time. It’s no good for anybody, so we’ll just try and put out releases once we’re sure they’re 100% worth it.
GABRI – A lot of shit happened actually, but don’t want to bore you with all that crap… Also, one of the main reasons is that we all have other bands and projects as you know, and all of us have a daily job and other commitments… I mean, we’re not teenagers anymore even if the passion we put in what we do is still 100% the same!! And that is what matters to me, and the main push to go on with all of this despite all difficulties and obstacles.
Your new album The Festering Dwellers was released on January 31. Can you give insights about the release process? How has the response been so far from the scene?
GIORGIO – The response has been great and it still is. We got a shitload of awesome reviews and people seem to dig the album. It was one of the most clicked/sold/whatever releases on Bandcamp upon release date and it ended way up on their metal charts, which is just insane for us. We would have NEVER expected this and we weren’t seeing it coming, either. The album is out on Transcending Obscurity Records from India. Their label boss, Kunal, is working his ass off 24/7 to make sure the album lands on every desk.
How did you compose The Festering Dwellers? Are you a band that rehearses a lot, or do you use different methods?
GIORGIO – Alas, I wish we could practice way more than we do. That’s because we live in different places. Gabri and Nino live in Modena, David lives right outside of Bologna, Valentina is from Crevalcore (roughly halfway between Modena and Bologna) while I live furthest from them all in a very small town North of Treviso that sits next to one of the gateways to the Dolomites. That’s more than 2 hours away from where our practice space is, so we can only rehearse before gigs or during selected periods before recordings. Songwriting-wise, the procedure was the same one I described earlier on.
What was the recording process like for The Festering Dwellers?
GIORGIO – It was a pain in the ass ahah! We first recorded a rough, live-in-the-room version at one studio in Modena where we’d been practising for a while. It was very warm and direct-sounding but still too rough around the edges. Then, we decided to re-record it in the same studio but to a click track, which eventually proved to be a bad idea as it just wasn’t happening. The songs sounded stale and stiff and we had all sorts of problems during that session, so we packed it in and re-scheduled some new sessions at another studio, i.e. Claudio Mulas’ Art Distillery. That’s in Modena, too. We booked five days there and we just went, fuck it! This time we’ve got to get it right, and we kinda did. It’s a 100% live recording with the full band playing in the same room. Only Gabri’s vocals, my solos and some acoustic guitars were overdubbed. Aside from those, what you hear on record is the most unfiltered version of us. We even left some mistakes on the final product and that’s because this album is our humble reaction to the plastic crap we’re all being fed nowadays with triggers, ultra-edited tracks and AI taking over guts and feelings.
GABRI – Talking about me, everything’s been very easy: I went to the studio, puked some mental vomit and blasphemies, did quite a few takes (but not too many, I can assure you) and the day after I was done. Luckily, this time I had the proper time to work on the songs during rehearsals together, so when is like that I go to the studio 100% ready and prepared… and I like to keep it raw and organic, as I think Death Metal (well, like 99% of Metal actually) should be.
What kind of equipment do you use as a band?
GIORGIO – We use Fender and Jackson guitars and an Ibanez bass. David has recorded the album on a Pearl Master Series kit. I’m a huge Strat lover although my favourite guitar brand is Hagstrom. Being an Iommi fanatic I’m a Laney enthusiast, too. I own an Iommi 4×12 cabinet, another Laney cabinet, a GH-100 L head and an Ironheart head. You might have noticed there’s a lot of wah-wah pedal on most solos, sometimes just as an extra colour or even as a sweet spot tweaker. This is NOT a nod to Kirk Hammett, whom I only dig on Kill ‘Em All, but much more a way to celebrate my hero Michael Schenker and the Corrales/Cutler couple.
GABRI – Absolutely nothing! I have a couple of mics and pedals for vocal effects, but never had to use it in this band.
After your latest album, what are the possibilities for live shows and tours?
GIORGIO – Although we always have lots of stuff in the pipeline we’ll try and play live as much as we can. Nothing planned yet, but we’ll surely have a release show in our area and then we’ll see if we can plan a proper EU tour or at least a bunch of scattered gigs whenever the situation is right.
GABRI – I hope we can make at least a European tour this time, because “Diabolical Regurgitations” didn’t have the chance to make it… We just made 3 gigs since the beginning of this band, not many at all ahah… but really, we want to change this as soon as the album is out. Promoters and maniacs get in touch!
You are a band composed of highly active musicians in the Italian underground metal scene. Do you have any other ongoing projects or bands?
GIORGIO – Gabri is in Cancer Spreading and Terror Firmer, I’m also in the black metal band Thysia, heavy doomsters Bottomless, Becerus, Assumption and solo horror music project Dolore. Valentina is in Coffin Surfer. All projects are quite active at the moment.
What kind of lyrical themes do you use in your songs? How do you think they influence your music? And what things are you influenced by about lyrical themes?
GABRI – Well, actually the process of writing the lyrics has always been made AFTER the music, not BEFORE… so it couldn’t influence it. I don’t know if Giorgio is influenced by something I have written previously, but I don’t think so because he has a solid and personal vision so there’s no need to… for sure he now knows my lyrical themes and way of writing, so the two things just match probably.
As I stated in the previous interviews I made about this topic, “The Festering Dwellers” doesn’t have a main concept, every lyric is a story strictly connected with the vision that every specific song created in me after listening to it a few times… It could be Lovecraftian horrors, nihilistic visions about life and death, the summoning of demons in otherworldy scenarios, sometimes historical figures and serial killers (like “Apostasy…” which is about the sadistic experiments of Gilles De Rais) and so on. I like to maintain this free artistic vision, but I don’t exclude that in the future this could change, maybe one day I will want to write a concept album, who could say…
About influences: well, almost everything I can take inspiration from. Horror movies and literature, other bands’ lyrics (mostly the ones I grew up with, I have rarely been influenced by something very recent but in some cases, it could be), occultism, demonology, real-life morbid stories, serial killers… everything that touches my fucked up brain, who absorb it and throw up it in something even more putrid and stinky.
How do you see the underground music culture in Italy? Can you share some current insights about the scene?
GIORGIO – Italy is a quite big country with an ever-growing metal scene. It’s as lively as ever at the moment and we’re friends with many active bands. Some of these include MESSA, GOTHIC STONE, BUNKER 66, AD NAUSEAM, RESTOS HUMANOS, ASKESIS, ERASER, SPASTICUS, CADAVER MUTILATOR, TENEBRA, GRUMO, GOLEM OF GORE, ENTROPIA, CONSUMER, FORDOMTH, NAGA, GORRCH, CANCERVO, HATEFUL, HOBOS, FERAL FORMS and more. The scene nowadays is stronger and more dynamic in Central and Northern Italy although some of the hardest-hitting prime movers are originally from Sicily (SCHIZO, SINOATH, INCINERATOR, NUCLEAR SYMPHONY, BALATONIZER, DARK WITCH, INCHIUVATU and others).
Do Italian extreme metal bands in the underground face any challenges when it comes to touring and playing shows in Europe and other parts of the world?
GIORGIO – Definitely. As of 2025, 90% of all metal-related events take place in a handful of Northern cities such as Milan, Bologna, Parma or Padova. It’s getting harder and harder to see any metal happen south of Firenze, although a brave bunch of active promoters in Central and Southern Italy do try to make things happen. As far as Sicily is concerned, Palermo and Catania can still count on some friends who manage to organize shows and draw in bands from the rest of the world, but you can easily imagine how tough some logistical challenges may prove to be. This country is spending so much on war and army expenses, funding the Israeli genocide machine and the deportation of migrants while cultural spaces are being shut down or cleared out as we speak. The same goes for many squats that have played a fundamental role in welcoming live music of all sorts from the 80’s on. To quote Saint Vitus, it’s a dark world…
When and how did you first discover metal music? And how did you become immersed in the underground extreme metal scene?
GIORGIO – My musical discoveries were extremely consequential. I started with the Doors and the Beatles. Then, I discovered the sacred trinity BLACK SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN, which is still my favourite. My elder brothers were key to gaining access to extreme metal, punk and hardcore. Thanks to them I got to dive into bands such as SEPULTURA, SLAYER, DISCHARGE, RATOS DE PORAO, SINISTER, HAEMORRHAGE, SATYRICON and a hundred more. My first band ever was a DEEP PURPLE cover band. Then I got to play guitar in a couple of high school bands called Souls Ripper and Crawlers. We played thrash metal classics, which is how I first stepped into a heavier world, and we even got to play some local gigs. Afterwards, in 2004 I joined a thrash metal band called Interior Demise with David on drums. We had our repertoire and it’s then I realized that I wanted to write my stuff.
GABRI – I discovered music at a very young age, watching video clips on TV and stealing records from my older brothers… I am always been fascinated by music and extreme stuff (music, movies, books or comics) since I have memories of…
From what I remember, the very first record I bought with my own money was a SLAYER one (I was 13 years old). When I was a teenager I started to dive deep into the Metal and Punk worlds (and explore other genres too, like Industrial or Post Punk for example) and went to gigs at the age of 15/16. Being involved in the UG scene was the next natural step of course, since I had the desire to meet more maniacs like me in the whole world (and remember, no internet those days.. at least for me) so YOU HAD TO go to the gigs and started being active in some ways.
How did your desire to play a musical instrument and perform this style of extreme music begin? What were your first instruments?
GIORGIO – My mum taught me the very first chords on a battered, nylon string guitar. I became obsessed with it and started daydreaming about owning an electrical one, but first I felt the urge to learn the basics, so I took guitar lessons for more or less a year with an awesome fella who’d allow me to jam a lot over the blues scale once I’d learned a couple of boxes. His name is Tony Randazzo and I’ll never thank him enough for being the killer teacher he was. My first electric guitar was a banana-yellow Eko Telecaster, which I smashed on the floor during a rehearsal with friends in an attempt to go full-on Blackmore style at California Jam. Ridiculous, eh?
GABRI – When I was a kid, I tried learning to play guitar but that wasn’t for me… then I tried drums and that is something I like, but, as far as I remember, I always wanted to be a singer. I like writing and telling stories, vomiting on a mic, and experimenting with different approaches… My first experience in a band as a singer has been Cancer Spreading, my first (and still active) band. I was something like 19 years old if I remember well.
I’m a huge fan of classic Italian horror films. Have these films ever influenced you and your musical world? Who are your favourite films and directors?
GIORGIO – Of course. We are manic about Italian horror. It’s our daily bread. You just can’t go wrong with ARGENTO, BAVA, FULCI, DEODATO, MARGHERITI, AVATI, LENZI, BIANCHI, MARTINO, D’AMATO or SOAVI. My favourite director ever has to be Dario Argento and my top 3 Italian horror movies are Suspiria, La casa dalle finestre che ridono and …e tu vivrai nel terrore! – L’aldilà.
GABRI – I strongly agree with Giorgio’s suggestions, and I would add some hidden gems like “Dark Waters” by Mariano Baino, “I Vampiri” by Riccardo Freda (it’s arguably considered the first Italian horror movie ever, from 1957!) and “L’Anticristo” by Alberto De Martino.
And, as I stated in previous answers, of course, all of this influenced me since I was a very young kid (I started watching horror movies on TV and VHS with my older brother when I was something like 7/8 years old) and never stopped. Recently I have watched “The Substance” and “Terrifier 3” and I must say I liked both, I don’t think this is a bad period for horror compared to the last decades.
Why do you think Italian horror cinema is no longer as prominent? Would you like to recommend any hidden gems we might not know about?
GIORGIO – I think that horror as a whole is not as prominent as it used to be. Take old Mexican horror flicks, Hammer or Amicus productions. In the latter cases, most of those movies were part of a tried-and-tested studio system with plots that only served as bare circumstances and highly stylized forms. Still, there was always some room for experimentation and some degree of novelty. Well, perhaps not always, but in many cases. That’s because the rulebook had not been fully written yet, so some movies could take unpredictable twists as far as acting, special effects or camera shots were concerned. Even budget issues could prove creative (Roger Corman anyone?), whereas nowadays you get the same shots, music and atmospheres over and over. There’s not much creativity left and the audience isn’t there to be stimulated as much as it did, anyway. It’s the mindset and sensibility that have changed forever. Italian horror is dead and buried and I can’t think of any recent work that could even sit next to the worst outcomes of the old days – and believe me, I tried. Today, other film schools such as those of India or South Corea are way more relevant and intriguing than ours, if ever we still had any.
GABRI – There are many different reasons for that, it’s not easy at all to answer this question. First of all, the decay sadly started in the late ’80s/ early ’90s as you can notice: Horror didn’t sell like before, TV has started to be more profitable than cinema so many directors started working on that rather than cinema movies like before… Then, CGI and computer graphics started to be the way instead of the craftmanship that Italy was so renowned for… and of course, Italian directors and productions couldn’t have more $$$ than the USA products. So the chasm between the USA and Italy started to be more prominent, and everything slowly died as people gradually lost interest.
Of course, there are many reasons, but this is a point for sure… we could probably write a book about this issue ahah. A very sad book, because from the ’90s to nowadays not much has changed speaking about this issue…
As we approach the end of the interview, what are Shrieking Demons’ plans?
GIORGIO – Our n.1 aim as a band is to try and get out on the road as much as we can and we’ll do our best to make this nightmare come true. Cross stumps!
GABRI – Stomp and crash skulls, eat brains, write new unholy blasphemies and spill some blood & vomit on stage!
Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans and music promoters out there?
GIORGIO – Thanks to all the midnight ghouls who checked out The Festering Dwellers or even got as far as spending some money on it. It means the world to us! Our barf belongs to YOU!
GABRI – Get in touch or DIE! (joking of course… or maybe not 🙂
Thank you for this interview, your dedicated and detailed answers, and the time you’ve taken. Cheers!
GIORGIO – Cheers to you, Soner, for having us answer what I believe to be the longest interview we’ve ever done eheh! Stay ugly… stay dead!
GABRI – Thanks to you mate. Wish to meet you one day, have some beers and chat about Horror movies. Keep on rotting, cheers!
