Interview with Degrees of Truth, Female Fronted Symphonic Progressive Metal Band

Interview with Degrees of Truth, Female Fronted Symphonic Progressive Metal Band

Degrees of Truth is Female Fronted Symphonic Progressive Metal Band from Varese, Italy. They’re Matteo Clark - Bass, Luca Ravezzani - Drums, Graziano Franchetti - Guitars, Gianluca Parnisari - Keyboards, and Claudia Nora Pezzotta - Vocals. DOT gave us some information. Check it out.

Tell us about Degrees Of Truth?

Our experience began in the year 2014, from Gianluca’s project; he contacted Graziano (guitars) and me (vocals) and soon we began writing the album songs. The idea was to approach the Symphonic Metal genre in a “progressive” way, searching for new means to convey concepts, emotions and moods through music, exploring the many possibilities within every instrument, the voice in particular.
 In 2015, the line-up was completed with Matteo (bass guitar) and Luca (drums) and we released our first demo; we then began performing live, by ourselves or with other bands (Elvenking, Eternal Silence, Hidden Memories, Temperance…). Our first album, The Reins of Life, came out on October 2016.

What are lyrical themes of Degrees Of Truth?

The Reins of Life, as the title says, is a concept album about Life itself: from the origins of the universe and the first living beings, to mankind, civilization and its decline. The will to live, to fight entropy, to preserve one’s form is the basis of everything; it can give birth to beautiful creatures and sceneries, inspire art, poetry and ideas to improve our condition, as well as rouse fear, arrogance and hate, leading to war and destruction. To lose consciousness of the circle of life and death, the natural connection of everything, the frailty of balance, can be a disaster for mankind, as it ends up destroying its own resources and, consequently, to meet its demise.
These are eternal themes, always worthy being explored, so here’s our take on them.

What are your influences?

First of all, film soundtracks have a great influence on our music, with their power to evoke certain feelings and ideas, thus setting the perfect atmosphere.
Then, there are many symphonic metal and progressive metal bands that inspired us, even though we really want to develop our own style and try not to resemble any other band.
There are many sources of inspiration out there, from folk music to the western art music of all ages; we just choose what we find appropriate for what we want to express and evoke, keeping balance and efficacy in mind.

How did you choose the cover artwork?

The artwork was designed by Gustavo Sazes, following some directives of ours; it summarizes what the album is about, featuring symbols of interaction between microcosm and macrocosm, physical and mathematical laws, natural and human world, all based on the same concepts and part of the same architecture.

How were the songs written?

We always start by composing the music; we may know in advance what the song should be about, or we can develop our song from a purely musical idea and then decide the theme, anyway music and arrangement always come first. Lyrics are one of the last steps, with the important task to explicit what music already wanted to convey. While composing, we pay attention to timbre and colour, to the interaction between instruments (voice included) and the balance between every element; we also like to experiment on rhythm, vocal styles, song structure and sound effects, to find original ways to express ourselves, new musical paths.

How did the recording process go?

We wanted our album to be the best it could, so we spent the needed time to refine everything. It took us one and half a month to record all the tracks, then a few months more for the mixing and mastering. We all worked really hard, but it was worth it and also fun; we had the occasion to collaborate with wonderful and talented people, such us Oscar Mapelli (our sound engineer) and Omar Ruggiero from Varganath (growl vocals in Fine Art of Havoc). It meant a personal and professional growth for us and it was really satisfying to see our creation take its final form, step by step.

What are your future plans?

We are working on a single, which will include a new song; we also plan on making a videoclip. Of course we are setting some dates for live performances in the next spring and summer.
There are also many ideas for a new album; The Reins of Life was a great step for us, an important project, but we want to move forward, improve and experiment some more in songwriting. There are many stories we want to tell, many paths to explore…

Are there any countries you’re interested in touring or performing in? Why?

We would really love to visit foreign countries; United States, Canada, South America would be a great experience, but first of all we would like to tour Northern Europe, especially Germany, Holland, Finland, Sweden and Norway. In these countries our genre is really popular and has much more visibility than in Italy; there are also many bands from there which inspired us.
Other countries we would like to play in are Spain (another fertile field for metal) and Japan.
To see the many different ways our music can be received in different countries would be great; so we hope to tour as many nations as possible, one day.

What bands would you like to play alongside?

Talking about bands of a similar genre, we would like to play alongside Epica, Nightwish, Kamelot and Dream Theater. Anyway, the list could go on forever; sharing the stage with other bands, big or small, and meeting other artists, especially those we admire the most, is always an important experience we look forward to.

Any last words?

We are glad to be able to bring our music on stage and share it with everyone; we are thankful to those who supported and keep supporting us, friends, fans and families. We will continue on this musical path and we hope to bring you something new very soon, even better than before. Our journey has just began, so stay tuned for more!

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