Friday Guest List: Hellish God’s Top 5 Tracks For Rasslin’

December 7, 2018

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[extremely Michael Buffer voice]
LET’S GET READY TO RUUUUMMMMMBBBBLLLLLEEEEEEEEEE!

Well it’s nearly been a year since our last Friday Guest List column. Turns out these things are almost harder to put together than a non-problematic black metal fest in Eastern Europe, or something…you get my point. Anyway, most of you will probably remember our huge premiere from rising Italian death metal band Hellish God from earlier in 2018. Turns out our boys at Everlasting Spew Records had such a demand for more copies of The Evil Emanations they printed up some vinyl which is set to release in a week or two, one on a rad coloured Lava design befitting the cover art. Maybe an end of year treat for yourself? I dunno, I chose a mortgage over a vinyl habit. So today, to coincide with the pre-orders going up I shot the shit with Stefano about the album, his other project (Quantum Hierarchy), and which metal songs should be made into wrestling entrance themes.

Hi, which member(s) are we speaking to today?

Hello, Stefano here, bass and backing vocals for Hellish God!

Cool, Hellish God is a fairly recent project, can you give us a little bit of background to how the band came about?

Well, the band was born in 2015 as a 2 piece (Luigi on drums and Michele on guitars). In 2016 Tya (formerly Anthropofagus) joined the vocals, and they recorded the Impure Spiritual Forces EP. I joined them shortly after, in the summer of 2016, as a session, but, after the recording of our full album The Evil Eminations the band asked me to officially stay as a member. It was good, and I accepted. We enjoyed playing and getting drunk together, and we share the same vision of Death Metal: fast, blasting and merciless, in the vein of mid 90’s early 2000’s acts like Krisiun, Rebaelliun, Hate Eternal, Internecine and Centurian.

Tbh I’m happy with everything, just think the last time i played bass was in 2010, when i quit my activity with Imposer (and yes, I also quit in 2009 with Voids of Vomit, where I played guitars and did backing vocals)… so the HELLISH GOD woke me up!
As for now we had a change in line up, with Matteo from Ad Nauseam filling in the vacant place left by Michele on guitars. Matteo is a master of the 6 strings and we’ve known each others for years, Im SO happy we can now play and create riffs together.

2018 has been a pretty jam-packed year for death metal, your debut full-length The Evil Emanations was released way back in January, were you satisfied with the reception it received?

Of course we are! The promotion was good, and so were the reactions. In december the WAX version will be available, too! We had a lot of requests for our merch, also thanks to the fantastic artwork DechristianizeArt did for us!

Do you feel like your band’s sound is more in keeping with the 90’s traditions or the contemporary scene? Is there ever any conscious effort to write towards a particular style?

I personally only wrote bass lines for the album, so I’m excited about the new stuff, coming VERY soon. I see our full as more “Deicide oriented”, while the next work will be more “Internecine/Centurian oriented”. As I said before, me and Matteo are now in charge for the songwriting, but don’t worry, it will be an evolution in violence, speed and precision. To answer your question, I don’t think there’s a conscious effort, it’s the music and the style we like, so it becomes normal to write in a certain way.

You also play in a band we’ve been very excited by – Quantum Hierarchy, where you also take on vocal duties and perform keys, which is the more taxing project to work on for you? Is there any news on the Quantum Hierarchy front?

Well, thanks for the excitement, hahaha! Tbh I only did 4 notes on a keyboard for the EP, but yes, I take on vocal duties and all the guitars! Actually QH it’s just me and my friend Riccardo Fanara from Autotheism, one of the best drummers I had the pleasure to collaborate with (he’s a machine, or a beast, an animal… call him as you wish). The main problem with Quantum is that it’s the exact reflection of what goes on in my mind, and I’m pretty weird, so I don’t know when I’ll record something new with the project… I have some new songs and riffs, but it will surely take a lot before a new Hierarchy sees the light. Don’t worry, sooner or later this will happen, just let me battle against myself and my obsessions!

Tito informs me that you’re a bit of a wrestling nut. If you could pick your top 5 metal songs/riffs to use as an entrance theme, what would you pick and why?

Hahaha, yes, I’m a son of the ATTITUDE ERA, man! You know, when I play WWE2K16 on my console, I have my own gimmick, PRETTY BOY STEVE, to honour the real HBK fashion, so my entrance theme is actually a New Retro Wave song (yes, I’m a HUGE fan of 80’s style electro music).

But if I have to pick up 5 metal songs:

Krisiun – ‘Conquerors Of Armageddon’

I mean, do you imagine a Braun Strowman-like wrestler approaching the apron to this song?!

Evoken – ‘A Caress Of The Void’

This one fits PERFECTLY an entrance for Undertaker/Kane tag team as Brothers of Destruction!

Darkthrone – ‘Hordes Of Nebulah’

Because, come on, this one would be perfect for a Mankind‘s oriented gimmick entrance theme!

Morbid Angel – ‘Vengeance is Mine’

The song could be used both for a Sting vigilante-era gimmick and for any Stone Cold Steve Austin‘s incarnation before 2002!

Metallica – ‘Enter Sandman’

Ok I hate this fuckin’ Black Album, BUT remember the Sandman in his ECW (Paul Heyman’s era) times? It’s the only reason why I started to like this song. Beer drinker, cigarettes smoker, self destructive and absolutely UNABLE to wrestle. I loved the man, and the theme was THE RIGHT ONE. Period.

Thanks for your time!

Thank you too, 333!