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Rabaelliun are, in my opinion, one of the best Death Metal bands coming from the underground. From their roots in the Brazilian slums to conquering Europe and the underground scene by storm, they have come forward with some of the most brutal musick ever. I had a little chat with Fabiano Penna about Rabaelliun before the recording of their next album, Annihilation. I bet the album is out by the time you read this, go get it and be brutalized!!! |
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REBAELLIUN Interview by
Noorwan Ariff - Answered by Fabiano Penna (guitars) - July/August '2001.
Everything is OK, REBAELLIUN is
gonna unleash a new album soon and I just cannot wait to see the album out.
Ronaldo left REBAELLIUN last
year for personal problems, his mother was sick and he couldn't dedicate
himself to REBAELLIUN. He came back 'cause we were looking for a second
guitarist when the band was a trio, and since he was in a better moment, we
all thought it was the time to have him back. Marcello left 'cause he wanted
time to dedicate for tattoos, he's a tattoo artist now. Of course it was not
easy when both left REBAELLIUN, we lost shows and some opportunities with
that, but the new line-up is by far the best one, and so in the end all
those problems at least made REBAELLIUN even stronger than before... the new
bassist/vocalist, Lohy Fabiano, is an old friend of us, he actually was the
frontman of our old band, before REBAELLIUN. About the name, we chose this
different spelling to avoid other bands with the same name. Our new album is called
"Annihilation", and it's gonna be released in September. It was recorded in
Germany 'cause it's much easier and better than recording in Brazil, some
German studios, as well as other studios in Europe and North America, have a
kind of tradition recording Metal genre, and in Brazil we still don't have
this. About the songs in the album, I can tell you they are sounding even
faster and more extreme than songs from "Burn the Promised Land" or "Bringer
of War", and the musicianship was really improved till "Annihilation". And a
tour will follow for sure, in Europe and in North America as well, it will
happen as soon as possible. We are an anti-Christian band,
and this is part of our philosophy as well. However this is not the main
point in REBAELLIUN lyrics, we write against Christianity and the religions
for all the fallacy they represent, for all the weakness they preach. Their
philosophy is against nature, it's against natural human instinct, and for
centuries they have tried to stop human evolution. What more can I say? '... and the Immortals Shall Rise' is our oldest track, it was actually written when we were playing in our old band, Blessed, around '95/'96... the riffs just come when we are playing at home, when you spend a lot of time practicing the guitar, it's much easier to create music, 'cause you are more 'opened' for it. About the lyrics, in the new album most of them are written by me, Ronaldo also writes and now Lohy Fabiano, the new bassist/vocalist, is writing some lyrics as well. 'Flagellation of Christ' was an old idea, we really wanted to write an instrumental song, and I personally think it has a very dark and powerful atmosphere. And about the 'promised land', it represents the 'perfect society', the perfect idea about mankind which was created by the Christians and which will never exist.
You told me the band is relocating to Sao Paulo. Why is this? Is it because you got a lot money now or there is a better scene in SP? How is the scene in your place and Brazil in general? Tell us about a typical REBAELLIUN show? REBAELLIUN getting a lot of
money? Is this a joke? We still cannot live by our music, we don't work in
daily jobs but sometimes we have to work for a few weeks in 'black' jobs to
make some money to survive. In the current time we just make money to keep
the band existing, and that's it. We stayed around 3 months in Sao Paulo
playing some shows and doing interviews, promoting REBAELLIUN... now we are
back to our area, which is in the extreme south of Brazil. Death Metal scene
is much better in Sao Paulo, but to live there you need more money. In our
area the scene is much worse, however we have some good bands over here,
such as Nephasth and Abominattion. About a REBAELLIUN show, I can tell you
it's a powerful and strong show, we don't go on stage just to play the
instruments, that is the best moment in a band, so we just try to be the
best we can be in every performance. We started our career in Europe,
talking about REBAELLIUN... the reaction has been great, we know that we
still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve as musicians to make
REBAELLIUN bigger and more known in the Death Metal scene, but we are on the
right way. This year we played more gigs in Brazil, we played some concerts
with Incantation in their Brazilian Tour and a few gigs like headliners. The
response has been pretty good, most of the people know our music and the
albums, we just have to keep this hard work to get more fans and to make our
music more known in the Death Metal community. We still have the best football
in the world, the problem is that there's a kind of mafia behind the big
teams and most famous players in Brazil, and so the Brazilian team doesn't
work out, they are there for the money and that's it. I really enjoy
watching and playing football, but I haven't played too much nowadays, I
spend most of my time with REBAELLIUN. We went to Belgium 'cause at
that time it was the cheapest place to go, Germany would be too expensive.
However we got a great response in that country and we can say that Belgium
is our 'home' in Europe, we know most of the people involved with the
extreme scene over there, most of the bands and pubs... about Hammerheart,
they were one of the labels interested in REBAELLIUN between '98/'99, we
were in Europe with a promo-tape and so we just sent this stuff to several
record labels, some of them got in touch, and so we started to deal with
them. Hammerheart did the best offer and they have supported REBAELLIUN
pretty well on the last years, 3 years ago nobody knew REBAELLIUN and
nowadays the band is very known in the extreme scene, the label has worked
well. Regarding the results we have got on last years, of course it was not
easy, we have worked fucking hard since then, and a lot of choices were
done, you just cannot have everything you want at the same time, right now
we are really focused in REBAELLIUN, and so we just cannot have other
things... but this is what we like and so we are satisfied with the
conditions, and we really believe REBAELLIUN still have a lot to do and will
really grow a lot on coming years. About the other Brazilian bands, we know
the guys of Krisiun since their beginning, they are great. Sepultura really
did a lot in the past and they kinda 'opened the doors' for the Brazilian
Metal scene in Europe and U.S. , this is what I think. I have a Jackson Randy Rhoads
model, with Duncan Design pick-ups. This is my personal guitar, Ronaldo's
personal guitar is the same model with the same pick-ups. And we have one
more guitar for the shows, it's an Ibanez RG model, very common guitar, but
a good one. For effects, right now I'm just using the distortion from the
amp, in the rehearsals I use a Marshall Valvestate Combo, and with not a lot
of distortion... for the leads I use a Marshall Jackhammer pedal, it's not
that sound, but it gives me more gain and it's OK. Of course this is not the
perfect set, I will keep playing my Randy Rhoads, I will probably change the
pick-ups and the bridge soon, and for the effects, I wanna buy a Marshall
JPM-1 for distortion and maybe some Alesis effects for reverb and chorus.
About the tuning, we always used half-step down, in all the albums. But
after recording "Annihilation" we changed for 2 and a half steps down, it
sounds like a 7-string guitar, without the first string. I just buy some CD when I
already know the music, I'm very critical about music and so I don't listen
to any crap around. And I do not buy cassettes anymore, they sound fucking
bad... about the music I have listened to nowadays, some Death Metal bands
such as Nile, Angelcorpse, Centurian, Behemoth and Nephasth, some old-school
Metal bands such as Slayer, Morbid Angel, Judas Priest, guitarists like
Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen and Jason Becker, classical music, fusion, jazz,
etc. Most of the questions are the
same for all the interviews and so they become boring in the end, but
there's nothing to do, you just have to answer them 'cause they exist to
promote the band and to show to the people what are your thoughts about your
own project. I think this interview is a good one, but I cannot rate it, it
wouldn't make any sense... Yes, the owner is a great friend
of us, he gives us free tattoos and he is the designer of our home-page -
www.rebaelliun.com - and he also made all the layout of "Annihilation". I
have around 10 tattoos, I had some piercings before, but not anymore. |
