thelastcoolgrind

Is there room for humour in metal? Can short-haired dudes play extreme music? If these sound like inane questions, you don’t spend enough time hanging around in dank basements drinking questionable beer and obsessing over heavy metal minutiae, methinks. Because these are serious questions, ones that Italian melodic death/hardcore crew STIGMA are no strangers to.

“Great question,” says vocalist Stefano “Vlad” Ghersi when I pose if metal and humour can coexist. “This is exactly what we want to express with our music. We all truly believe metal is just about having a good time. Especially in our country, metal is doing music about everything you want and sharing it with friends and people around the globe, so, yes, we created this mix with a purpose.”

Hey, he’s a nice guy! We kinda thought the screamer behind the band’s new disc, Concerto For The Undead (Pivotal Rockcordings) might be a mean motherfucker, but we should have known, what with the campy Tales From The Crypt-worshipping cover art that adorns this, the band’s second, that he’d be nice. But is he nice enough to draw out the longhairs to the band’s shows?

“So far we got mixed crowds,” says Ghersi. “Everyone from the guy listening to ‘80s metal legends to the very young kid who got into metal with the deathcore trend. Our first album [When Midnight Strikes!] is not an album born to be played live; the reaction to the new songs we played so far is awesome. We can’t wait to go on tour and play more new stuff live.”

At the time of this interview, the band had just finished auditioning guitar players for a vacant second-guitarist slot. But don’t expect a new member to change the band too much. After all, these are horror—and metal—dudes for life; things generally don’t change too much within those comfy confines.

“I think there will always be some good gory themes to fit in metal music,” says Ghersi, “mostly because it's something which you can easily match with screaming voices and blasting beats, but also because, as I told you, metal is all about not taking things too seriously. I would love to hear Britney Spears singing about an ancient curse of an undertaker killing his dead sister's son to use a coffin he made by mistake (laughs) but I guess she’s too busy singing about lonely hearts of 14-year-old chicks and her crush for the lord of all gym clubs (laughs)!”
Did we mention we like this guy? And metalheads are probably going to start liking his band a bit more, even though we know short-haired dudes playing melodic death metal is a tough sell sometimes. But give ‘em a chance: these guys are fighting the good fight with Concerto For The Undead.

“I think it's a big step forward compared to When Midnight Strikes!, because this time we had something to focus on,” says Ghersi. “We compared our debut album to what we really wanted to write and worked hard getting better on some important aspects. We wanted a more tech album, at least guitar-wise, but at the same time we wanted it to be easier to listen to, with catchy riffs and structures that work well in live shows. I also think I’ve improved my skills on lyrics and I'm pretty stoked on how we managed to create a whole thing inspired by the concept of the album, from music to the artwork.”