Strong metal deserves a strong presentation with an equally provocative image to uphold. That’s what you’ll get with the international outfit All For Metal. Bursting onto the scene through their debut album Legends, their latest album Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon) continues to see the band pushing their heavy metal platform into more power-oriented angles – the songs chock full of sturdy musical hooks and catchy choruses designed to go down a storm live. We spoke with one of the singers Antonio Calanna about the band’s recent move to Reigning Phoenix Music, how the latest record differs from Legends, thoughts on their imagery, videos and balance between being a cliché or embracing their passion for the genre, favorite live memories, and what’s in store for the future of this group.
Dead Rhetoric: After your debut album Legends came out last summer on AFM Records, the band is now a part of Reigning Phoenix Music as a label. How did the changes come about, and what are your feelings regarding the staff, promotional team, and outlook they have when it comes to the work they are doing for All For Metal?
Antonio Calanna: First of all, we wanted to take the time to say thank you to AFM Records for letting us go on the road and release our first album for the metal scene. We are grateful for the chance that we had. The answer comes from how the band started. The band started with me and Tetzel getting in contact, we shared an idea of metal. We gave this idea to the CEO of AFM, because Tetzel with his other band Asenblut had contact with the label, so we were able to present this idea to him. In the last seven or eight months, that CEO moved to Reigning Phoenix Music, that’s why we moved to the other label. We wanted to be with him and with another production team. We all share the same music tastes; he sees a lot of potential in what we are doing. With a completely new working team, RPM is a brand-new label, and it’s born from the ashes of Atomic Fire. We find ourselves in a good rhythm and a flow, we believe that we are going to achieve a lot of great results.
Dead Rhetoric: Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon) is the second album for the band. How did the songwriting and recording sessions go for this set of material – and how would you assess the similarities or differences between this effort and Legends?
Calanna: Our debut album actually took eighteen months to be recorded. It was a long process because we were fine-tuning things and still trying to find our style. What we wanted to bring on stage and what we wanted to have as music. And also, the image – as you notice All For Metal has a strong image. We were just finding our sound in the metal music business, and where we wanted to stand. Gods of Metal (Year of the Dragon), we now know where we want to stand. The writing process was quite short, in less than six months we were able to record the whole album. The comparison between this album and our debut album is there’s harder choruses, harder songs, a bit more towards power metal than heavy and folk as it was on our first album. On top of this, we decided that we were at a crossroads. We can do the second album like Legends 2.0, or we can move forward. We didn’t mean this just metaphorically, we also meant visually. So that’s why All For Metal is a company – for every step we put in the business, the band is going to go towards new challenges. That’s why the name of the album is also Year of the Dragon. It’s a fantasy world, we keep moving forward, searching for more adventures, and these adventures will also blossom in terms of the types of music that we offer.
Dead Rhetoric: How did the special guest choices come about for this record – especially with Burning Witches Laura Guldemond and Induction guitarist Tim Hansen on “Valkyries in the Sky”?
Calanna: We started to talk with Laura on the day that we released our first album. We played together Rock Hard, a big metal festival in Germany. When I was watching the lineup, I saw that Burning Witches were playing on the same day as us. I had to ask if she was up for a collaboration. When she was backstage, she watched our show, and then after our show, I approached her, and I gave her as a present our album. I told her I really loved her singing style and I thought that her voice could fit perfectly with us. We talked a little bit about doing something for the next album – she was immediately up for doing something. When we were in the process of doing the songwriting for the second album, we hooked her up with the song that was the most correct to have her involved in. She loved the song, and it was easy to have her as a guest singer.
Regarding Tim, I met him last year at a metal concert in Hamburg. I am Italian but I live in Hamburg officially. We were chat-chatting, became friends, he needed someone to tour with his band Induction last fall – they were supporting Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius. There was a schedule conflict with their singer, so they asked me if I could sub for three weeks. I went on tour with them, I had so much fun, and it was a dream come true. For Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius, those two bands were my teenage legends. And then we just bonded a lot. When the opportunity came up to bring him on for a collaboration, that’s why when we ended up touring with Lordi there was a situation where one of our guitarists couldn’t make the whole tour, and Tim subbed. With Tim, we work together, we have great ideas together and we hope to work together again soon.
Dead Rhetoric: Beyond the album product and live show performances, it seems that the band place great importance on using the power of video to convey even more regarding your lyrical/visual themes. What are your thoughts on coming up with intriguing / interesting videos for this band – do you believe it enhances the overall presentation of the group to gain more followers as a result?
Calanna: I think this comes also from the understanding where metal music and the general music industry stand nowadays. Nowadays the fans, metal consumers, for them it’s not enough to just listen to music. They want to be entertained. For instance as examples Sabaton and Powerwolf, which are on the top of the power metal business nowadays, they are bringing a show. What we want to do with All For Metal is to entertain people. Be as catchy as possible and have fun. People will say ‘All For Metal – you are fucking cliché!’. I answer – yes, and I love it! (laughs). We have so much fun on stage, and these visuals are not just for the music videos, it’s transported to the live show. I’ve studied the music business, I have worked in a lot of theatrical productions, but my heart has always been with metal. I knew when I was younger though I needed to do other things in order to earn money. I’m bringing all my experience into All For Metal.
The first gig that we played, I was a little bit scared because I didn’t know how metal people would react to such a theatrical show. But they loved it, the more we go on, the bigger the show will get. The bigger the posers we may be, with more show elements – fire, dancers, what we will bring it on stage. The people want to really be entertained, and for that hour to an hour and a half, it’s really difficult to keep the attention of the audience if you just play music. We have costumes, and there is a fine line between being really cool and being ridiculous. I imagine the music that we are doing with myself and Tetzel, if we were unfit, we would sing badly, how would this band look from the outside? It would look like we are trying, but we can’t do it. The bodies that Tetzel and I have, it’s not something you can buy with money. It has taken years of training. When we stand on stage half naked with abs and muscles the image that we portray with everyone from the band, we sing the hell out of this for every song, we may not have invented anything, but the audience thinks it’s really cool what we’ve brought out on stage. This is something that no other band has brought out as much in the metal business.
Dead Rhetoric: A lot of the themes within your approach definitely emphasize specific power, unity, battle-tested elements that for some may border on the ‘cheesy’ / over the top side of things. Are you conscious of what you want to convey and understand that the approach can have strong reactions to both the positive and negative because of this?
Calanna: Yes. We are aware of everything that it might bring, pros and cons. Pros – people having a lot of fun, waving their hammers or hands in the air, screaming and singing with us. Cons – if there is no controversy, there is no music at all. There will always be someone that is going to hate you. And those are the people that I love the most – there is a little bit of envy. We are not here to invent a new type of music, we are here to enjoy music, to celebrate together, to join together and have fun with all the metal fans. Metal fans are really special people, they love to celebrate, to drink, and to have fun together. They are always going to be the people that are going to be like ‘well, this song is really simple, it’s super cliché’. That’s the controversy that we have.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you compare the records to what people experience live with the band? What have been some of the more memorable festival or touring excursions for the band so far- including your recent shows opening for Lordi?
Calanna: I would like to say we’ve been on the road for only a year, but we’ve played more than seventy shows already. We are truly blessed that we have a lot of memories to share, and that I have the ability to think about what I like the most and what I didn’t like. For me, the first festivals were amazing because they were the start of something. The first Wacken was unforgettable, especially because of the bad weather situation that year. The most special festival was our last one in Italy, when we were co-headlining with Rhapsody of Fire. It felt amazing, we played for 75 minutes and the people were really enjoying it. We are starting to get back everything that we put out from the last year, something really special to see. We are still a baby band, but getting these kinds of reactions has been amazing.
Dead Rhetoric: How important has band chemistry been to the success or impact of the group? Are there specific areas that certain members are better at taking care of than others when it comes to other business or social media responsibilities outside of the music activities?
Calanna: Let’s say I take care of most of the things regarding social media. We try to divide as much as possible other jobs, with the work of everyone else we can all shine together. We try to divide tasks as much as possible. Every one of us has amazing skills. Tetzel has great charisma, when he walks on stage the people start applauding. He brings something really special to the whole production. As long as the mixture is positive, we work towards the improvement of what we can improve, then everything is going to be good.
Dead Rhetoric: What have been some of the best fan interaction stories that have happened so far?
Calanna: I’m really excited from our album release party, which is going to be held in Hamburg. We have planned our release party, and all the tickets were sold in one month, so we had to add another show on the following day. It will be on a boat in a river. People are traveling all over Europe to watch this headlining show. It’s the All For Metal cruise. It makes us feel blessed to have these fans.
Dead Rhetoric: You mention in the background information a love of classic metal launching the creation of this act – especially the work of an act like Manowar. What factors do you believe create the invisible bonds and connections that seem to happen so passionately for this genre? Do you believe it’s more of a lifestyle and less of a ‘phase’ when it comes to the support from the followers into this music?
Calanna: It’s really difficult to answer this question. Of course, we pay homage to Manowar. They are one of the best bands ever to walk the earth. I think they haven’t gotten back as much as they should – for me, they should have been as big as Metallica. They are so great, such great ideas, such original ideas to give to heavy metal. Eric’s voice is such an amazing thing. There was a lack of these bands nowadays, it’s the time to get this type of music and image back. We are more of a power metal band versus a heavy metal band as Manowar are. We want to portray it as a fantasy world, muscular guys, adventures in fantasy. Metal fans, they really love fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, all these kinds of movies. Video games as well. We wanted to take all these targets and move towards these directions.
It’s not a phase. It’s not nostalgia. The people who like fantasy, they like metal music. They go together.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see heavy metal in the current marketplace? Do you believe there is a good balance between the classic bands and the newer, up and coming bands to headline the bigger festivals when those bigger bands retire?
Calanna: I think that metal music goes more towards electronic and other types of sounds rather than heavy metal and power metal. I like bands like Falling Into Reverse, and these are the types of bands that are headlining, and this is the future of metal music. There are still a lot of great power metal bands – Sabaton, Powerwolf, that will headline when the classic bands finish. I really hope All For Metal is going to be one of these bands.
Dead Rhetoric: What would surprise people to learn about the members of All For Metal as far as personalities and what you enjoy doing away from music that they may not experience?
Calanna: Music for me is not just my passion, it’s also my job. I’m working as a professional singer, following my dream. I’m trying to make this work as much as possible, in order to just live with All For Metal. It may take a while, but I hope this will happen sooner than later. We all hope at some point that our dreams become true – which is playing just for All For Metal.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the agenda for the next year or so with All For Metal as far as promotion and live concerts are concerned? Where would you like to see the band develop in terms of a following at the end of this album cycle?
Calanna: I can say what I hope and what I expect, they are two different things. I hope this album will give us the boost to establish ourselves for a strong following into the metal business, which into 2025 will bring us more tours, more festivals, and better positions. Which will be like a snowball. We are dedicated to this album, if this album works out well, I think people will like the new music.