Photo Credit: Tommaso Barletta, Claudio Falconcini
Wind Rose’s new album, Warfront, has finally arrived on June 10th via Napalm Records. We caught up with guitarist Claudio Falconcini to discuss the record.
What was the process like recording Warfront?
Hi! Claudio guitarist here. We started recording Warfront in February 2021 with the drums, recorded at Domination Studio in Italy. Right after, me and Francesco spent more than 1 month recording all the vocals, which is the toughest part in our albums, because of all the different lines. Another tough thing back then was actually going to the studio, because Italy was in full lockdown and every week we had to check on the new rules and find out how to reach the recording room. We could even manage to get our trusted baritone singer Tommaso Corvaja record the lower vocal lines he sings in our albums since 2015. The guitars and bass were recorded at home and then re-amped by Lasse Lammert who also mixed the album. For the keyboards it’s much easier because we already record them during the writing of the songs.
How would you compare the new album to 2019’s Wintersaga?
Warfront is not that much different from Wintersaga in terms of overall sound, but what we did differently is that we wanted to show the tough side of the Dwarves, not the mining, not the drinking, but their mighty aspects in battle and at the forge. For this reason the songs still have the feeling of brotherhood, standing all together, but the approach is more metal and more concentrated on the songwriting.
How has the pandemic influenced the writing for the new record?
I think that the pandemic is one of the reasons why this album sounds a bit more dark than the previous one, because we didn’t experience having fun on stage with the crowds for a long time. We also had to meet on Zoom instead of in person for writing the songs, I don’t know how this affected the final result but I’m sure it somehow did.
This year marks the tenth anniversary for the debut album, Shadows over Lothadruin. How have you guys evolved over the last ten years?
In 2012 we were still a mixture of genres because we had different musical influences, Francesco came from power metal and aor, while the others were more into prog metal. What we had in common was the love for the lord of the rings, in fact we wrote a fantasy metal album with power, progressive, symphonic and folk aspects. In the years we developed our sound into a more powerful and more compact one, until we realized that our music could really be represented by the dwarves, both music and vocal wise.
Can you talk more about the songs “Fellows of the Hammer” and “One Last Day?”
“Fellows of the Hammer” was not easy to write, we had the pre-chorus and the chorus but the rest was a bit weaker, so it took many months to come up with the strong opening riff, and that riff was ripped out of another song that we didn’t use. Here I would like to give a shout out to the genius of Federico, keyboard player, who’s really brilliant at writing melodies and making them fit together.
In “One Last Day” we got inspired by the movie 300, and we thought of a dwarf legion being sent to slow down the advancing of a huge orc army, with really small chances of surviving. The song has a nice impact and the bridge with all the epic vocals is my favorite part.
What was your experience creating the video for “Together We Rise?”
It was a great experience because it was the first time that we worked with a real cinema production, and also the first time that we shot a video in another country. The best part was when we shot the forging scenes, with viking music as background to get pumped, and then looking all together at the shots and trying to figure out how they would look in the final version.
Do you have any plans for this year you can share with us?
The touring plans that we have for 2022 are massive, but the only thing I can say right now is that we will do Europe as well as other continents, and we are incredibly excited for that. Another good thing that will happen later this year is the release of our first 2 albums, remixed and remastered.
Is there anything else you want to say or add about the new album?
Our new album Warfront is our best one to date in my opinion and we are preparing great things to bring it all around the world, come see us at the shows!
