Black Capricorn was grown on salty soil of Sardinia. This extravagant psychedelic doom trio consists of two ladies on rhythm section (Virginia – basss, Rakela – drums) and frontman singing guitarist Fabrizio, they work together tirelessly since 2008 making their best on dark path. After two full length albums “Black Capricorn” (2011) and “Born Under the Capricorn” (2013) the band has slightly changed direction and turned to more dirty and dark aspects of Capricorn on their third release “Cult of Black Friars”. Where do they turn their feet next time? Can we predict it? After hours of meditation we done this telepathic interview with Fabrizio, and I received some answers on my questions.
Ciao Fabrizio! How are you? What's new in Black Capricorn family?
Hey Aleks, good to hear from you again ;) We are still alive and we have a couple of gigs in the nexts weeks ahah
Black Capricorn has a new record - split album with Bretus. And there's a new song "The Hound of Harbinger God", did you record it exclusively for this release or is it left after "Cult of Black Friars" album?
It was written for the split with Bretus, when our friends asked to do a split we have already records the album but I had some more riffs so it was good to record for the split.
Songs for such small releases must be strong ones as the band has to show it's best with limited space of just one song. So can you say that "The Hound of Harbinger God" best of Black Capricorn in this moment?
I don't know if it's the best at the moment but it is for sure one of the highlights for Black Capricorn
What's this song about? And what are main influences we could hear there?
Mainly it's about of a fantasy/horror story when a sort of a harbinger God (not christian or muslim or israel or other) decides that humans must be destroyed so he dispatches his Hounds to planet Earth to exterminate the mankind. Basically I like to put together themes from history, astronomy, mithology and mix together and contrive to a kind of sci-fi novel.
Man, there are few songs on "Born Under Capricorn" album which strictly connected with this sign of zodiac. Why did you take Capricorn as the band's symbol?
Was an idea of me using so much connections with the zodiac sign on that album. I really like the name of the band that come once in the past so when I propose this to the girls of course they said yes (both of them born in january ahahah).
What's about you? Do you believe in zodiac?
Not at all but I' m really interested in why (not what) people believe to something that is from out of our world and not in something that is in this world. I think is a sort of legacy from the ancient culture that nowadays seems fighting with the hi-tech evolution of our species.
Yes, you have song "Hammer of the Witches" on "Cult of Black Friars" album, and two ladies – Virginia and Rakela play bass and drums in the band. What is a role of female element in Black Capricorn music?
All of us we are free to put our own personality on the music, I' m just coming with some riffs and an idea but the girls play what they feel. Sometime they are really witchy ahah.
Don't you fear that one day you'll come in rehearsal room and find there third girl with guitar and microphone standing on your place?! Don't you fear that you're a victim of witching spell who goes straight to an altar?!
Ahahah if this will happen I firstly laugh a lot but at some point I realize this is the true and l will feel doomed and the primordial fear will come over me and I will burn of a blue fire as a damned soul!
By the way, Fabrizio, do you know Krownn band from Venice? Their line up has same structure as you have in Black Capricorn, did you ever play with them on one stage?
Yes I do. I was in contact with Michele for sometime to do something together. Living in Sardinia sometime is a pain in the ass it's not easy take a car drive play and come back but I think we can do something together Krownn in the future, nothing is already written and I' m sure it could be a good stuff to co-operate.
How do you usually work over new stuff? Do ladies make your ideas softer or do you all put heaviness in your music in equal measure?
I have the ideas and riffs and I show these to the girls and normally we do rehearsal to see what happens then also the ladies put their stuff, but man, for sure, Virginia and Rachela don't do softer ahah trust me!
How would you describe Black Capricorn sound evolution from album to album? And do you already have an idea how will your next album sound?
Well, I think we are spontaneous about that, I mean we don't calculate before how to make our sound, just simply evolve or change because we don't play the same song and now we are playing 7 years together. I think our sound is recognizable but I' ve realized that all the albums sound a bit different each other. About new album/songs I think we are becoming slower but also this is not studied before... it's just happening. So expect heavy slow songs.
I would say that "Born Under Capricorn" sounds more psychedelic as last record "Cult of Black Friars" is harsher and heavier as you've said. What's your ideal sound for Black Capricorn now?
As I said there is not a specific idea before doing our music. I think depend on the feeling of the moment we start doing new songs. At the moment we are writting new stuff that sometimes are doom and sometimes are psychedelic and sometimes both, sometimes are heavy and sometime rock, may be it will be cool if both side of the Moon at some point become a only one side, a good mix for all the songs but may be in that case we could lost our freshness.
Does “Cult of Black Friars” have some overall idea? What was on your mind when you record this album?
When "Born Under the Capricorn" has been released I' ve already written 7 of the 9 songs of "Cult of Black Friars"(Atomium and To the Short of Distant Stars were a sort of improvisations during the recording sessions). In that period we were a little bit angrier, that's probably why that record is havier than "B.U.T.C." as you' ve noticed before. About the lyrics I wanted to come back to the idea of the first record so you can find in history, mithology, astronomy and fiction and also a lot of references to movies and books. We really love Cult of Black Friars!
How would you characterize general conception of the band? Does your goat bears "satanic" message or is it because of stock rising and agriculture stuff? :)
Ahaha agriculture is always the most important thing! ahaha Oh well we are not satanic in the way may be are for example black metal bands are, we' ve just met the Prince of Darkness once in the crossroad close the train station and we made a deal together ;)
I know bands from central Italy, from Northern region and from Sicily. Black Capricorn are from Sardinia, does it differ from other Italian regions? How is it to live there?
The only difference that I' m sure is our sense of isolation that for some reason we have as a ancestral heritage, I mean most of us first think we are sardinians and after italians. Also because we are quiet far from the mainland, this means all the cultures from the past arrived here, stay here because there is no directly connections with other regions. How is to live here? Well I think half of the population will answered "good" and the other half will say "bad"... I think is good and bad at the same time.
Did you take Capricorn as a band's symbol because of that? Sardinia is surrounded by sea and zodiacal Capricorn is a half-fish and half-goat.
Could be, I mean Sardinia has a very old culture that is a mix of all the culture we find in the mediterranean area since the pagan era (before Roman Empire and Catholic religion). In Sardinia there is a lot about archaeology from old population that comes from the east part of the Mediterranean so what is in astronomy/zodiac the Capricorn before was the Pan then become Baphomet and so means Satan. These connections that change or evolved that belong to a past culture intrigue me a lot and Rachela that studied archaeology give me inputs about that.
What’s your plan for Black Capricorn in the foreseeable future?
Or well at the moment we have 2 gigs fixed in september here in Sardinia then we stop to play live to do some new stuff for may be to release some split next year (with Krownn? ahah it could be great, we' ll see). We are in contact also with some other cool bands/friends but at the moment nothing is already fixed. For the next year we are invited to play the Hell Over Hammaburg Festival in Hamburg on march. We are a resonably busy ahah.
Thanks for this interview Fabrizio! Send my best regards to ladies and well – talk next time when Black Capricorn have something new for listeners! Good luck mate!
Thank you very much Aleks. It's not easy for me talk about who we are or what we do so I/we prefer that is the music talking for ourselves but I ' m really happy to have this discussion with you. When Rachela and Virginia finish to make their new poison I will forward your regards ahah.
I wish to thank also all the people that in these years listen our music and enjoy it, this really means a lot to all of us, thank you.
INTERVIEW BY: Aleks Evdokimov
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