Leon: We discovered “Mutala” in a horror comic of Dylan Dog. He’s a mythological African legless vampire who goes round in villages at night looking for his killers. Mutala also depicts the evil side of no baptized children soul. However we chose Mutala because it sounds good and we’re very close to African culture.
Who has produced and mixed your new album?
“Cloning Wicked Minds” has been completely produced in Bari at Cubed Sound by Antonio Tafaro. We took a lot of time for the recording because we live in different cities because of our jobs, so we could meet only during the week-end or holidays, so you can understand how the passion for this music and our friendship was very important in this situation. After recording, we sent the CD to various labels, and very early the Italian label Sweet Poison Records answered us, and we accepted their very good and efficient collaboration. They’re spreading our music around the world, by working in very professional way, and, believe me; it isn’t too easy to find such label in Italy.
How would you describe your music to any of our readers who may not have heard of you before?
Leon: Mutala plays death metal at 360°! Whoever loves old school death metal, technical brutal and melodic influence can enjoy our music. We like playing the best part of technical Floridian brutal death metal with a lot of melodic riffs typical of European death metal. We like to define our music “Mediterranean” only to specify our southern origin, our open attitude to various influences and cultures.
My favourite tracks could very well be “My Sarcastic Point of View” or “Psychoinfibulation”.
Are there any songs on the album that are special to you?
Leon: The big success of “My Sarcastic Point of View” is for us very amazing. This song is an idea of Stefano Pomponio (actually guitar player in Natron) and it has been arranged in few hours and now it’s one of the most appreciated songs of “Cloning Wicked Minds”. We love “It Bleeds by Turning”, that even has been completed during the recording session. For our music style, fundamental is the opener “Small Corpses’ Unit”, where you can listen to that death metal mix I told you. Different situation is for “Psychoinfibulation”, we wrote it in 2001, but we still love playing it and people consider it a very modern song.
How long do you need to practice to feel comfortable with your songs before you record them?
Leon: So, how you can understand from the previous answer, we don’t need so long time to feel comfortable! All Mutala’s songs are very spontaneous. Mutala members are 4 very different people for character and musical taste, but they express big synergy when they play together. We never argued for a guitar riff, for the lyrics or drums. Big respect for all ideas of the members and we take into consideration all possible solutions.
What tasks presently lie ahead for Mutala?
Leon: Now we want to play more gigs to support our new album! For the previous album “Carnivorous Disposition” we had the opportunity to play some gigs in Germany and Slovenia, so we hope to make other shows far away from Italy.
Let's speculate - you have been granted a free slot on a tour of your own choice - who would be your ideal touring partners?
Leon: My dream is to share a wandering death metal festival with some big bands such as Carcass, Suffocation, Cephalic Carnage and other less known such as our friend Tsubo (Italian grind band) and Death by Dawn (old school death metal from Germany).
What albums or bands do you believe have had the greatest impact on the history of Metal?
Leon: Is very difficult to answer this question… There are a lot of albums and bands, starting from the sixties that are fundamental for metal music! It’s a little bit easy to find those albums that converge to our sound, such as melodic death metal albums “Necroticism” and “Heartwork” by Carcass and “Slaughter of the Soul” by At the Gates, brutal death albums “Pierced from Within” by Suffocation and “Black Seeds of vengeance” by Nile, technical death metal albums “Spiritual Healing” and “Human” by Death, old school death metal albums “Left Hand Path” by Entombed… and many more!
Looking ahead, where do you want to be five years from now?
Leon: We are all thirty-years-old, we don’t dream about success and money… we will only play our fucking songs for wicked guys! Next year we will celebrate ten years of activity and I think that within five years we will prepare to celebrate fifteen years of Mutala!
I thank you very much for participating in this interview and sharing this information and your thoughts with us - these last lines are entirely for you. Any final words you would like to round off with - a tip, a recommendation or a thought for the future?
Leon: Thank you Peter for the interview. I will only recommend supporting the underground death metal scene… all the bands go ahead only with the passion for this music!!! Finally I will invite you all to visit our internet site to hear what Mutala are about!
