SCOTT ALISOGLU: Graveworm has risen steadily over its career, gaining more exposure with each album. Now it seems with the new album, Collateral Defect, and the Metal Crusaders Tour that you’re getting a lot more North American recognition.

STEFAN FIORI: I think that’s right. The Metal Crusaders tour pushed us really good. It was a great opportunity for us to show our music to a new audience. We played a lot of gigs, and I think this was a good promotion for us. The rest was done by our record label Nuclear Blast. They did really good work and the promotion for the new album was very, very great. So I hope that we will come back as soon as possible because we have had a great time in the states.

SA: Was Metal Crusaders your first formal North American tour? How was it?

SF: It was our first time in the states as a band and as visitors. We had never been in the States before and this was a really great experience. It seems the people liked us, and we had a lot of fun. It’s a really different thing to go on tour in the States, and everything is different. The people at the shows were really great. It was great to speak with them and drink something… Fantastic!

SA: I’ve got to be honest, while I think (N)Utopia is a decent album and I basically liked it, I wasn’t blown away. However, you seemed to have gotten a lot of praise for it. Talk about that album.

SF: (N)utopia was an important step for the band. At that time we got a new guitar player and in the same time a new songwriter. This all after four albums in the same writing lineup. We were all a bit angry about the situation, and we worked hard on the new material. I was sure that the sound would change because of the new songwriter. The album is more modern, but at the same time you can hear the old Graveworm influences: melodic and atmospheric parts. That was the right way to go.

SA: On the other hand, I really like Collateral Defect and think it’s a major step forward from the last album. How would you compare the two albums?

SF: Collateral Defect in my eyes is more aggressive and a kick in your face. (N)utopia seems to be more groovy and in the mid-tempo style. Collateral Defect takes no prisoners and goes forward. I like more the new album. It’s more aggressive and there are more death metal influences in it. And I like it this way.

SA: Andy Classen produced again. You must be comfortable working with him. Tell me about working with Andy.

SF: To work with Andy is very easy and simple. He is a professional producer. After three albums with him he knows exactly what every single member can do on his instrument, and he tries to push us every time to get the best out of every single person. I think a producer is very important. He must be a part of Graveworm during the recording session. When we enter the studio the songs are finished and sometimes when he listens to the songs for the first time he gets some ideas to change something. This is because he hears the songs for the first time.

SA: The new album seems a bit more aggressive in some ways than the last one. Would you agree?

SF: That’s right. I think the new one is more influenced from the death metal scene. Our new guitarist really likes bands like Kataklysm and others and the influences from that scene are big. We don’t start the songwriting with the idea to sound like this band or that band. This is a thing that happens sometimes. We write music for fans from fans. We are still fans of this kind of music.

SA: And yet the melodies are even stronger this time around, very memorable. Talk about striking the balance between aggression and melody.

SF: The guitar work is better and more expansive than on the previous albums. Thomas our new guitar player did really great work in writing this songs. I like his style of working with his instrument.

SA: Sabine’s [Mair] keyboard work is perfect too. It is another example of expertly blending atmospherics and melody without softening the edge. Is this something you thought about in making the album?

SF: Sabine has her way of playing and this way is the perfect thing for Graveworm. She is a member of the band since the beginning and her keyboard melodies and atmospheric parts are a part of the Graveworm sound. She has her style and you can hear it when you listen to the songs.

SA: It’s the reason why “Memories” is so beautiful. You dedicated the song to deceased parents.

SF: This was an idea of Eric [Righi] our guitarist. We lost some parents in the past and we wanted to do something special. Eric wrote the song and recorded in another studio in our home country with some friends. I heard the song for the first time during the recording session of the new album. I was surprised. I’ve known Eric a long time now but, I didn’t expect such an atmospheric and melancholic song. I like this song and this is the perfect melody to honor our parents.

SA: “Suicide Code” and “The Day I Die” are two of the highlights, the latter ending with a very cool keyboard segment.

SF: “Suicide Code” is my favorite track on the album. It is a really different and atypical Graveworm song. It starts with breaks and with vocals. And it kicks ass [laughs].
“The Day I Die” is a really simple song, but live is a killer.

SA: And I absolutely love Matze’s (The Sorrow) harmony vocal on “Fragile Side.” Brilliant!

SF: I heard the band for the first time when we played at the With Full force festival after the Metal Crusaders tour. I woke up totally wasted after a heavy drinking night with my girlfriend and I heard this band in a car. I asked the guy what band it is and he told me that he is the drummer of the band The Sorrow. I was really blown away as he told me that they are from Austria because they sound like an American band in the style of Killswitch Engage. We remain in contact and one day I get the idea to ask their singer if he wanted to do something with us. And so the idea of this song was born. For me this is a killer song, but we have to check out how we will play this song live in the future. We will see.

SA: By the way, would you say alternating between death growls and black metal style screams is essential to the Graveworm sound?

SA: How did the collaboration with Maurizio Iacono [Kataklysm] on “Fear of Hate” come about? Tell me about the contribution.

SF: Maurizio is a great person and a good friend of us. We did some touring with Kataklysm and we are still in contact so one day during a conversation I asked Maurizio if he wanted to sing a part on our new album. He said yes and fortunately they where on tour in Europe during the recording session. So I and a friend of mine picked Maurizio and JF [Dagenais] at the venue in Osnabrück and drove to the studio to record the song. After recording 20 minutes we drove back to the venue and had a great time there, a small party.

SA: And of course, there is the cover of “I Need a Hero.” It surprised the hell out of me, and it works! How in the world did that on come about?

SF: [Laughs] We like it to do these cover songs. We have done some and we are still working on some new songs. Be prepared. This cover song was an idea of me and Sabine. We had the same idea. For us it is important that when we do these cover songs that the song must sound like a Graveworm song at the end because it makes no sense to play the song in the same way as the original and only introducing a death or black metal voice. That’s not our way and it seems that the people like these cover songs.

SA: Is it accurate to describe Graveworm as a melodic death/black metal band?

SF: I don’t know. That’s difficult. We have a lot of different influences, six members in the band with very different music backgrounds. I prefer to say that we are a dark metal band so can introduce any music you want. From death to black, gothic, thrash and some new influences from the metalcore scene…

SA: What about the “gothic” references when discussion of your music takes place?

SF: I think this influence is going to the end. When we started writing music we were influenced from this scene, but nowadays it changes a bit. The only influences that remains from this scene are maybe the atmospheric parts from Sabine.

SA: Talk about your career as a whole – where you started, how you’ve changed, where you are now, and where you’re going?

SF: We started the band 1990 as a death metal cover band. We played a lot of songs of bands like Massacre, Napalm Death. Cannibal Corpse, and Gorefest. After I while we tried to introduce a keyboard in our musical style because melodies became more and more important. So we played a lot of songs from the German band Crematory because they were the first known band that used the keys in the way that we wanted to use it. After a few months we got a record deal with the German record label Serenades Records after sending them a videotape of a Graveworm show. The first album When Daylight’s Gone was really influenced from the band Crematory, but with the second album we gone into another direction and played more aggressive but at the same time still melodic. After another album we got a new record deal with Nuclear Blast and since this time some things changed. Everything was more professional and we started to play on big festivals and big tours. On the last three albums we changed our main songwriter and now we are here with our new album after a great U.S. tour and we are looking forward into the future. I’m curious to see what will happen.

SA: Is more U.S. touring on the horizon?

SF: We are working on it. We really want to come back as soon as possible.

SA: Any closing thoughts?

SF: Thank you very much for the opportunity of this interview and hope to see you soon on our next U.S. tour.