Claustrum – “…we don’t care too much about experimenting…”

Claustrum created a bit of a buzz on different digital platforms with their putridness from Italy. We described their self-titled debut as “How good is this debut full-length in the end? Well, to put it frankly, it fucking rules. This is an amazing debut album. Honestly, if you like Old School…….hell, if you like Death Metal in general you will love this album.”.  Fair to say we were impressed. And when we are impressed…we start asking questions…

Hi Ricardo, thank you for this interview and your interest in Claustrum! Our history started in 2020 during pandemic, between Trieste and Gorizia in North East Italy. All started in our rehearsal room trying some riffs and drinking cheap beer, just for fun. At the beginning we were with four, then Claustrum contained three members; me (Paolo) bass player and lyrics , Pablo (guitars and vocals) and Stefano (drums).

So Death Metal….?
We wanted to play rotten and powerful riffs because that’s what came naturally to us at the time, and because we’ve been wanting to make a Death Metal band for a while. Death metal is a wild genre, an outlet for our shitty lives, work and everyday routine.

When it comes to the style you’re playing, which band and/or release defines it the best? Autopsy, Death, Incantation…?
Certainly the bands you mentioned define the style and the genre I (Paolo) love. And we all love Autopsy (my favourite album of them is ‘Mental Funeral’). Death’s ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ and ‘Leprosy’ are fucking masterpieces, and Incantation’s “Onward to Golgotha’ too. We also love the “Dirges of Elysium” a lot, but all Incantation records are fucking good. We also love classics like Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, Morbid Angel etc. And also the classics 80 / 90 Thrash Metal like Sodom, Kreator and obviously Slayer.

Lets talk about your debut full-length “Claustrum…
During the pandemic we wrote the album together drinking lots of beers, listening music and everything happened very spontaneously as a sort of liberation. We are very satisfied with the final result , we recorded all the songs at Trackterminal studio with a friend of us, Francesco Bardy. Then we choose for the mixing and mastering Gabriele Gramaglia from Cosmic Putefaction. We love his bands and projects and he did a great job! He also sent our first demo to Avantgarde , which we knew being a historic label in Italy and their Death Metal division; Unorthodox Emanations. They were immediately struck by it, so they offered us to release our album on vinyl and cd. We accepted immediately because the proposal was excellent.

The lyrics of our songs are written by me (Paolo) and they were created drinking lots of beers, haha, watching many horror movies and taking inspiration from sci-fi horror and authors like Poe and Lovecraft. We all love classic horror Italian movies of the 70s, 80s of authors like Bava, Fulci, and Dario Argento. We love Zombies and George Romero movies. But we also like new movies; the intro of ‘Hopeless despair’ is taken from ‘Green inferno’ by Eli Roth, which is a kind of remake of the classic ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ of Ruggero Deodato. The lyrics are important for us as they increase the dark and rotten atmosphere of the songs, making the whole thing darker and dirtier. But we have no secret messages or revelations to make.

As your debut is released on both vinyl and cassette, what do both formats mean to you, as artist and collector?
We think that vinyl is the best. both for our music and for music in general. I (Paolo) have always bought vinyls. I still remember when I bought my first Iron Maiden record as a kid. I’m the oldest in the band and I love vintage formats like vinyl, because together with the graphics makes a magnificent object in itself. As said, I’m still buying vinyls and tapes too, glad they’re back! A tape version of our album will be also released by Night Terrors Records (Amsterdam Netherlands) and FilthJunkies Records (Praha, Czech Republic)

What are your expectations for Claustrum in the future?
Our expectation for Claustrum now is to play our music live. And yes make new music as well. We are already working on new riffs and new songs, they will be heavier than ever, dirty and raw, as we don’t care too much about experimenting. We like some noisy industrial stuff or drone but we are a raw and rotten band and that’s how we want to stay!

One of you is also involved with Affliction Vector. Any news to tell our readers about it? Are there any other projects?
After Claustrum, Stefano our drummer also joined Affliction Vector. Fierce and I (Paolo) played with Grime (Sludge / Doom / Death) ) for years. We also have another project that you will hear soon..We don’t work in other studio projects. We just record our songs with some micropones in our reharsal room, during our songwriting process.

Are there any bands or albums of your recent playlist you would like to mention? Do you also have any favourite labels?
Yes ! There are several bands besides the older ones, that we currently like and love. Both in Europe and outside, such as Undergang, Hyperdontia, Coffin Mulch, Snet ,Vacuous, Teratoma, Ferum, Vastum  Cerebral Rot, Tomb Mold , Necrot, Mortiferum, Fossilization , Spectral Voice…just to name a few. And also in Italy there are several excellent bands such as Assumption, Burial, Hierophant, Cosmic Putrefaction, Deathsiege and many others.

We love labels like Me Saco Un Ojo and Extremely Rotten Productions because they still love the underground music ,and great taste for music.

Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts? Is there something I’ve forgotten to ask you which you would like to mention? Thanks for your time!
We want to thank Avangarde because they believed in our music from the very beginning, from the first badly recorded demo in the rehearsal room. And all those who are now appreciating our album and are supporting us, we hope to meet you as much as possible even at the concerts we would like to do in the future! And thank you Ricardo for asking for this interview

Big hugs and long live Death Metal!