Giovanni "Gio" Berserk

The Modern Age Slavery

Death Metal was never a simple thing. It's musical specialness was always something that kept it back of the stage and it's bands carrying the underground label more than any other metal bands. But what happens when a new band appears and shows the ability to marry the traditional pure brutal sounds with an alloy of a few great modern elements? THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY and Giovanni are here to explain us how they became an honest yet stylish proof that Death Metal never expires.

By Rena Karam

• January 3, 2009

Hello Gio and welcome to our Temple! As a beginning we'd like to let you briefly describe your music, the band and the general identity of THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY.

THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY is really a very young project...we were born as a band one year ago. More or less, November 2007. On the other hand, 4 out of 5 of us, we shared the same stage many times with our former band BROWBEAT. Actually that same band went through a lot of changes in the line-up and finally came to an end in July 2007. The 5th missing element of THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY, sYm (an old friend of ours) joined the band in November 2007 as I said. Our clear intention is to create extreme music in the most intense, brutal and genuine way possible. I'd define my band as a Death Metal band with a clear and visible Hardcore attitude that finds its climax during our live shows.

Your debut album Damned To Blindness is going was released on November the 28th, yet you already have some pretty good reviews from pre-listeners. Was the recording process something you would like to repeat soon or you believe that this is something that harms the band in a physical or economical way? Do you find all those good reviews as an award to this step that lightens your way to a selling success?

We'd like to get in studio again before the end of this year. It's always hard to meet your deadlines when you are a musician so we prefer to push ourselves for ambitious targets. The good things we've done in the past, were born when we were rushing to meet our goals. The song The Modern Age Slavery was written the week before we got in studio and it's a fantastic song. Basically I find myself more productive when I'm going crazy...it harms us physically for sure, but as you can read on our bio, the need for the sweat is our eternal condemnation...ahahah! I hope this album will be a selling success, some reviewers said it's a piece of art, some other reviewers were more critical. In my opinion, when they talk about you either in a very bad or in a very good way, it means you have something to say: that is my real award.

You are one of those lucky new formed bands who make their first steps under a label's contract, something everyone would wish to experience. But we do not always hear good impressions about record companies, so we'd like to know if Napalm Records is a helping hand of relief for you and gives you the proper attention.

Napalm Record's guys are amazing! They work perfectly and we couldn't expect more. I never met them in person but I hope I will. We worked hard to get here, and now we are honored to be within the Napalm Records ranks. Hopefully we'll make them proud of their first Italian band.

Before THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY you all together had another band named BROWBEAT, again with the same members (all except Simone Bertozzi). Did you ever have any bad moments that were forcing you to part your ways and split the band? If yes we would like to hear your story.

Every member within THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY would have its own story. This question is not an easy matter. This time it happens I'm doing this interview so I'll tell you my story. BROWBEAT were a Hardcore band born 8 years ago. The very first time I've listen to them I was part of the crowd, not of the band, back in 2000. After that I left my country for personal reasons and went working in other countries for few years. I came back to Italy three years ago when I received a call from my actual guitar player, because BROWBEAT were looking for a new singer. We stayed together 2 years, had an amazing time, played everywhere in Italy and in some other countries then something happened. The 5th BROWBEAT member was going through a tough period and decided to leave the band. That guy was the founder of BROWBEAT and the only leftover member from the original line-up.

As a matter of respect for him, we decided to change the band's name and start a new project. It has been a harsh decision I have to say. Musically wise, THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY are a natural evolution of the last things we were composing with BROWBEAT but, remember, this is a very different band. Obviously what you have in your background you can hardly change. You'd see the same hardcore attitude during our shows: that indeed is still there. Besides that, and here I speak for myself, this is MY band. It is a team and the guys are amazing. I was born as a singer with THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY and I'll always keep this in mind. BROWBEAT are the past.

From the very first moments that someone listens to your cd, there comes in mind an ABORTED influence, isn't it? Who else influenced you at the beginning of your career?

We do listen to a hell of a lot of bands and we have different influences within THE MODERN AGE SLAVERY line up. ABORTED and JOB FOR A COWBOY are excellent bands that really leaved a deep sign of their presence in the music scene. Cocco (the guitar player) listens to a lot of Death Metal bands from the 90s like SUFFOCATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, MORBID ANGEL. I do agree with him that they are a must in the musical background of bands like us...they've never lost their brutal and genuine attitude throughout the years. I like as well some modern bands like the aforementioned JFC but I would add THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, THE RED CHORD and DECAPITATED.