CADAVERIA: Interview with the artist
Interview by Miriam Cadoni
The sixth album of Italian melodic black metal Cadaveria, “Emptiness” represents the rebirth of the band together with the singer.
After her painful and healing journey through her breast cancer, she regained a spiritual part of herself sorely missed. Now, with this full-length, Cadaveria and her band are ready to unveil to her fans (and listeners) their new musical era. Discover more with us.
Hi Cadaveria, welcome back to Femme Metal Webzine? And, how are these spring days treating you?
Hi all, I’m fine, thank you. Even if I’m super busy promoting the upcoming album “Emptiness”, I’m enjoying spring . It is eight years since our latest full-length “Silence”. So you can imagine how excited we are about this new one!
Before digging into the upcoming LP “Emptiness”, I’d like to talk about your recent re-press of Cadaveria’s debut “The Shadows’ Madame”.
After so much time, how does it feel to re-discover such opus? Which are the memories that you cherish the best about its production?
“The Shadows’ Madame” is a piece of history, not just because it turned 20 years old but because it means a lot to our fans. It contains some of the songs that we cannot avoid playing live. Considering all, Time To Kill Records proposal for a reissue in cassette and vinyl was warmly welcomed.
This is our debut album because it marked the beginning of a new path and has had positive feedback beyond all our expectations. During the recordings, I still remember how focused we were on its production until to be detached from reality. In those early days, the attack on the twin towers took place. After the shock, we closed the studio door and threw ourselves back into our music.
In retrospect, which meaning does hold for you regarding the re-release of “The Shadows’ Madame”?
Vinyl reissues are now a must to celebrate release anniversaries. Our debut album deserved it because we never released it in that format. However, it was released on cassette at that time. And this time, we have dedicated all our attention to the case.
There is also a limited edition on blue vinyl which if preordered through our website, features a limited edition signed band poster. Our goal was to offer our fans the original sound they are so fond of. Additionally, we have included a demo version of “Spell” and our beloved bonus track “Velo (The Other Side of Hate)“ from the “Silence“ album. It closes the circle between the first and the last album (or until March 2022 was our last album).
“Emptiness” will be released on May 27th via Time to Kill Records. If we consider that the four singles “Matryoshcada”; “Divination”, “Shamanic Path”, and “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” was digitally released between the end of 2020 and June 2021, then when precisely do we have to set the begin of the album production?
While the various singles were just released in digital format and as music videos, the writing of new songs proceeded in parallel. Since the vinyl-only single “Return” came out in October 2020, we have never stopped working. Mostly, everything dates from March 2021 on.
For example, after the single release of “The Woman Who Fell to Earth”, we already had two more singles ready and recorded. We then realized that it was time to work on an album. We put our foot on the accelerator and concluded the composition of five more songs up to September 2022.
Until January 2022, you were busy mixing and revising the new songs and revising the mix of some previous singles. Tracks like “Matryoshcada”, “Divination” and “Shamanic Path” in the album appear in a slightly modified version.
The choice to release many singles diluted in time is curious and risky. Why did you opt for this solution? So far, how was the feedback from fans and the press?
It was a brave and winning choice. While most of the bands tied to a record deal remained paralyzed by the pandemic, unable to play shows, and did not take the risk of releasing new music, with our creative freedom and my improved health conditions, we decided on this.
Indeed, with our comeback, we have differentiated ourselves. After being inactive for long, I would not have felt like immediately approaching the amount of work of an entire album. So, working on small objectives, one single at a time, helped me to regain confidence. There were times when I seriously thought that I would never go back to making music. Everyone welcomed all the singles very well and all the fans loved this choice to release digital singles followed by a music video.
“Matryoshcada” was one of the important releases for me, the one that talks in-depth about how I lived the cancer treatments. This song is dedicated to all those who supported me in that period, both with affection and financially. I had three surgeries that were expensive which without any help, nothing would have happened.
I hope that the next question is not too personal. But,I cannot avoid asking, how your unlucky experience with breast cancer has affected the lyrical aspect of “Emptiness”?
My attempt is always transfer my thoughts and personal experiences into the lyrics. Even this time, perhaps more than ever, my illness and the path I took to heal the body and the soul, inevitably flowed into the lyrics of “Emptiness”. In “Emptiness”, there is my pain, my fragility, the will to live, and the path of shamanic treatment done with the Brazilian natives.
As well as the treatment with traditional medicine, then mother nature has been beside me. Then, there is the latter as I live now, in the uncertainty and hope that the half-yearly check-ups will always go well.
The word “emptiness” is defined as “lacking force, containing nothing and without people”. Which of these three definitions would be suitable to express the lyrical context of the album?
Emptiness is not a lack of anything, it is not something negative. It is something related to my research, and it is what I aspire to. I don’t intend it as nothingness, the emptiness of which I speak is not the oblivion, but the cosmic emptiness, the 99.9% of the Universe, that we do not know and that, however, is not empty at all.
Above all the mind’s emptiness that I aspire to reach through meditation, the absence of thought, which sets me free. We must not be afraid of emptiness. Human beings spend most of their life making things and feeling complete only if and when they produce something. People identify themselves with their work when you ask them: who are you?. The answer is: I am a teacher, I am a manager, I am an artist. That’s not who you are, it’s what you do. I would like to learn TO BE, instead of to do. Stay in the here and not, in the absence of thought, judgment and emptiness.
Despite the pandemic, what is in the pipeline? Which is the thing that you are looking forward to? Which are your plans?
Honestly, the pandemic has never represented an obstacle for me. I’m not fond of restaurants, I love to have long walks in the countryside. While people were confined in their houses, I was enjoying my walks. Now, that once again allowed me to travel, I take a few trips now and then.
For the rest, I am dedicating myself to the release of the album and I’m eagerly waiting to play live this Summer. Subsequently, we plan to shoot another video after which I hope to have some free time to hike in the mountains for a few days.
So, Cadaveria, we are at the end. Feel free to say hi to your fans and listeners. Thank you so much for this interview.
First of all, thank you for reading to the end! Hopefully, you will then listen to our songs on Spotify and watch the videos on CADAVERIA’s official YouTube channel, especially the most recent ones from “Emptiness“ (you can find them in The New Era playlist!). The album is available on cadaveria.com as a digipack CD, double vinyl, and cassette. So if you want to support us, you know what to do: grab your copy! Thanks for this interview!