Stigma: Track By Track

So here I am with the last part of this track by track walk through “When Midnight Strikes!“, we’re just back from a killer show as openers for the mighty Sick Of It All, which followed a short tour on the island of Sardinia… Great times!!

Today I’m going to tell you more about the last two songs of the album, so here we go with “Walking The Fields Of Apocalypse” and “Sons Of Midnight“.

The first one is the most epic song on our release, this is why we wanted our good friend and metal master Mike from Dark Lunacy to add his very unique and moving way of singing to this anthem. The song starts with a drums introduction, then a very blackish riff comes in twisted with my and Mike’s vocals. The chorus is very sinister and epic at the same time, and it’s proved by people singing it quite often when we play this song during our live shows. Anyway the best part of the song for me, it’s what comes after the second chorus, because there’s a first short breakdown and suddenly a super fast pure evil blackish riff surrounded by high screams and a fast drumming, and then oooh shit, sing a long breakdown which live litterally destroys everything, just try it and you’ll get what I mean!! 

The second one is “Sons Of Midnight“, first lyric I wrote for this release it’s the anthem of the undeads, so we decided to put it as opener of our live set! The structure of this song is very simple and riff driven, there’s a good breakdown and some gangsta vocals in the end, just making it even more suitable for live armageddon! So bad we didn’t have the chance to feature Mr. Bredahl on this one, because I still think his vocals on the chorus should have fit perfectly! 

I’m not going to tell you about the bonus tracks, you’ll have to buy the album to check them out ahah, I can just say they’re evil, sooo evil!!

Thanks to all the people who spent some of their time to read this blog, I really hope you enjoyed it and discovered something more about Stigma and their music! Keep on supporting Revolution Music, cause they’re great and hard working guys! See you on tour!

Vlad & Stigma

Here we are again, this time I’m going to introduce you to “Blood, Your Precious Blood” and “A Call For Vengeance“, which are very different from each other and definetly the more particular songs of the album.

The first one is a mid tempo song, first attempt ever for us to do something not going like crazy ahah, and it has become one of our favorite live songs, because of the great grove and headbang rhytms. The song starts with a long and dark bass riff, wrapped with atmospheric sounds and a dark voice reading parts of “Nosferatu”, lyric is about an old vampire explaining the meanings of his breed’s life and need of power to his young son.

This song was finished just a couple of weeks before entering the studio, cause it was our first attempt with a mid tempo and we wanted it to be suitable with the rest of the tracklist, keeping the atmosphere as well as letting the audience to have a short breath before listeing to the last songs of the album, hope you’ll dig it!!

The second one is definetly the “evil song” of our debut, because it’s fast, have high screams to deep growls vocals, many different rhytms and riffs and a super evil lyric!! The song starts with my vocals and quickly run into a breakdown which is usually floor for moshers during our live set, then there’s some fast riffing again, a bridge and a whole big slow part, which usually is the time when we set up the wall of death! After it there’s another fast part, with a particular scheme that brings previous riffs in a different order, finishing on a killer drums pattern with a sweet guitar solo. With “Silver Bullets And Buring Crosses” I really think this is definetly one of the die hard songs of our setlist, we have a very grimmm and dark looking live video of us playing as support for The Black Dahlia Muder and Job For A Cowboy featuring the wall of death and last part of this song on our YouTube channel, check it out!!

So next time I’m going to tell you more about the last two songs, hope you enjoyed this blog so far!! Keep safe!

Vlad

Here we are with the third part of this blog, which is totally focused on tracks featured on Stigma’s debut album “When Midnight Strikes!“. Today I’m going to tell you more about another two songs, so prepare yourselves for “Flesh Ritual” and “Beneath The Crown Of Eternal Light“!

The first one features one of the first riffs we wrote for this album, it’s a really heavy and catchy song, based on a very unique style of drumming, considering the chorus is basically a transformed samba pattern!! The scheme of the song is very linear, as well as the break in the middle, which is perfectly suitable for live mayhem! Lyrics, as the title should suggest, are once again focused on the vampiric theme, this time there’s a legacy of vampires craving for blood, a sort of ancient ritual described through the song, mostly inspired by a mix of classic “Dracula” and Bava’s “A Dinner With A Vampire”. At the moment this song as well as the next one are not featured in our setlist, hope to put them in after summer touring cause I think they’re both very good ones!

The second song I’m going to tell you about is “Beneath The Crown Of Eternal Light“, which is another catchy song, with a very melodic and aggressive riffing, matched with epic and blackish riffing in the opening and some very deep breakdowns as well as a sweet lead after the break. This one has a good lyric, mostly influenced by two movies which are totally out of the time frame I used for the concept, infact the title is inspired by the beginning of Coppola’s “Dracula” and in the middle there’s a very famous feature from “Army Of Darkness” one of the modern horrors we all love. A lot of people asked us to play this song live, as I said for “Flesh Ritual” we’ll try to add those two songs in our setlist after the summer, maybe we’ll play them at our release party, so you better come to Italy July the 2nd if you want to listen to them before any other ahah! 

Ok, next time I’ll tell you about the second part of the album, keep your eyes peeled and don’t forget to ask for “When Midnight Strikes!” in your favorite music store!

Here we are with the second part of this cool blog, I want to thank the guys at Revolution Music for giving us the chance to tell you guys more about our music, it’s really cool to go deeper than any interview telling you some “behind the scenes” goodies !

This time I have other two songs to introduce you, the first one is “Silver Bullets And Burning Crosses” and then we have the legendary “To Be Really Dead… That Must Be Glorious!“, which is definetly one of the best tracks of the album.

The first one is my favorite live song, because of the sick guitar riffing, which is perfectly suitable for cirlcle pits, and that groundbreaking part in the middle which lets everyone just go f***king insane every time we play it! The lyric shall be considered as a short plot for a B-SIde movie, because tells about a young husband who lost his life trying to save his beloved from the evil Count. One of the best things in this song is the structure: atmospheric part at the begining, evil riffing madness suddenly after and all of the typical Stigma elements!

The second song I’m going to tell you about is “To Be Really Dead… That Must Be Glorious!” and, as I said, is definetly one of the highlights of our debut, because of the perfect mix of all of our influences and the deep lyrical tribute to the almighty “Dracula” starring Bela Lugosi. This is the last song we wrote during the songwriting session and listening to our newest and yet unreleased music shall be considered as the step between old and new Stigma! This song features two guests, Albi and Ivan from italian death metal finests Slowmotion Apocalypse, and their parts are pure awesomeness, just listen to the choruses and to the insane solo in the end of the song and you’ll get what I mean!

This is usually the last song we play during our live sets, and it really works perfect because of that super epic ending ahah!!

On a side note, “When Midnight Strikes!” is finally in stores everywhere, go in your favorite metal shop and buy one, don’t be shy! ahah!

Well, as the first chapter of this Track By Track Walk Through I want to give you lads a short brief on what “When Midnight Strikes!” is about and introduce you to the first steps into this black and horrorific opus! First of all, this album is a concept based on 30’s horror movies, so mainly everything between Murnau’s “Nosferatu” and Classics featuring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, with some accents to B-Movies cinema. So, if this is a concept there will be a story going on from the first track till the last one, right? No, this is not that case, infact this album is just a tribute to the main characters and aspects of that era, and this is why there are many references to different aspects, but not linked with them directly!

The first song I’m going to introduce you is the intro, which is called “Walpurghis Night”, and shall be considered as an introduction to the album itself, but also to the feelings and way of transmit fear that is one of the main and most beautiful aspects of that cinema. A lot of creepy sounds, which are typically horror, drives the listener through a crescendo, which suddenly stops with the evil laugh of the Count, who present himself with…

“I Am Dracula”! This is the first song and the first single taken from “When Midnight Strikes!” and shall be considered as a musical manifesto of our sound, including melodic death parts, twisted with high speed typical death incursions and “core” parts. The title is obviously inspired by the infamous part in the Lugosi’s “Dracula” when the Count introduces himself, and, in my opinion, one of the best aspects of this song is the insane vocals fight between me and Tim Zlinsky from the South Carolina death machine The Classic Struggle, who incarnated the evil vampire at his best, letting the whole song become one of the highest peaks on this release. The lyric itself is a short summary on the legend around Count Dracul, and it’s one of the first I wrote for the album. Another cool part is the solo added by Andrea in the second part of our studio experience with Ettore Rigotti, just because even if it’s very simple gives the right shape to that part and sounds killer!

As I told you this song is also the first single, so I think you’d have a look at the video we shooted here in our hometown of Mondov-Hell, featuring also a broootal partecipation from belgian break dancer Metal Girl and many good friends of ours, including my art teacher at the high schools as zombies and Count Dracula himself! Hope you’ll enjoy it… Next chapter in the upcoming days!

Safe

Vlad

Welcome to the Track By Track blog of Stigma’s new album “When Midnight Strikes”.

Hope you will enjoy it.Best regardsRevolution-Music.dk