Hi there!! We are fine!! Happy new year! Yes, it is, let's go!!

THE RITUALstarted as a cover band, playing METALLICA and DEEP PURPLE's songs, but what you don't know is that Marco Obice and Luca De Vito were only twelve, the music was their play time. Over the years they have grown along with their passion, and started to write their own songs. When Marco Pastorino joined the band Then THE RITUALstarted to write songs with a twist of Heavy Metal and Core. His creativity and vitality encouraged Marco and Luca to attach themselves to the modern sound. Finally the circle was completed when I joined the band three years ago. I think that THE RITUALis a whole band, because is consists of a really determined crew.

We worked on "Beyond The Fragile Horizon" for two years, from 2008 to 2010. When we went to the studio in April/May 2010 all the songs were finished. We had yet a clear idea of what the songs would become on the album, working with a clear mind without risking a leap into the void. "Beyond The Fragile Horizon"proves that we are a band for all purposes. I think it's an heterogeneous album but not contradictory.

Yes we are! We haven't thought about changing a thing ever, because if we have done so something on the album might have turned to the worst.

I listen to many different genres from Dent and Progressive Metal to New Age and Psychedelic music, but certainly my favorite and inspiring genre is Jazz. In fact, I came from Jazz and Fusion studies. In THE RITUALI searched to mix these different genres to make an unusual sound without leaving the "core" canons behind.

You know, today the music is a business where the competition is atrocious. The time of the great bands like LED ZEPPELIN and ROLLING STONES is dead and gone, because music industry and bands search only for the single and not for the masterpiece; On the one hand the music industry works on it to get only earnings and on the other hand the bands work on it to get a few moments of notoriety: The fifteen minutes of fame. This is destroying the credibility of the music and the talent of the musicians. So it's more hard for a band be credible than reaching the top.

At the moment there will be no tour in Europe, because we are working on the songs for the new album, but in the future, why not?

We have many famous Power Metal bands like RHAPSODY OF FIRE, SECRET SPHERE, DGM, BEJELIT, etc.  Nowadays, Metal is on the verge of leaving the underground, but the cultural situation in Italy rests suffocated. I think that Italy needs a cultural revolution. We have many formidable musicians but most of the public does not understand. I'm not talking only about the "Metal" genre, I'm talking about that people consider the art as an addiction of life. The art is emotion; It reminds us that we are human beings. We must destroy the mechanism and just open our minds.

For the New Year we want to work on the promotion of the band, we will definitely work hard on it. Certainly we will go on the local stage as much as possible.

Thank you for this interview and for your support! Rock N' Roll, guys!