Was it based on personal experience or simply passive observation?

What happened in the recording studio or on stage to make one song sound different from the rest?

These are just some of the question bands and musicians attempt to answer in Line 'em Up - the newest page of The Power Of Metal.Dk.

This is where your favourite bands comment on their albums, track by track, because as someone once said, “Ideas are the building blocks of ideas”.

Enjoy!

Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your new album “Year of the Hunger”.

But could you please start off by introducing the readers to The Moor? 

We are a four-piece band from the north of Italy, three members of the band, me (Enrico), Davide and Massimo had another band in the past called Bleed In Vain, we released two studio albums with this band and the genre was way more extreme. We found in Alberto (Businari, drums) the perfect drummer for this band, we released an EP in 2011, then we had found in Lion Music the perfect label for our music, they released our debut EP in February 2012, and now our first full lenght “Year Of The Hunger”. It’s hard to define our musical style, but progressive with alternative and extreme influences should fit pretty well.

 Could you please give us some info on the album: Where did you record the album and who has produced and mixed it? 

We recorded the album in my own professional studio, Flameout Studio, between Venice and Padua. I produced and mixed the album as well, while the mastering process was the result of Jens Bogren’s work (Opeth, Katatonia, Paradise Lost, Soilwork...)

And now onto “Year of the Hunger”… track-by-track, what inspired you, and what do what to express with this song etc.

PART I – Noble Truth of Suffering

01. Hyperuranium

This is song is very eclectic, it starts with no intro, and I start singing from the first second, the first part is a bit stoner-oriented, there’s a bit of Mastodon-ish influence here, then the mood change and the chorus features some blastbeat drums with clean melodic vocals over it, passing through a jazzy interlude (I love Davide’s work on that solo), and in the end of the song there’s a cool neoclassical solo, always by Davide Carraro.

02. The Others

This song is about jealousy, the main riff is very epic and it’s the only song of the album with some true death metal vocals, in the first verse, together with a massive rhythm section; Opeth-fans will love this song.

03. The Road

This is one of our oldest song, everything follow a particular vocal pattern, it sounds very alternative but in the same time progressive, while the chorus is straight, melodic and very catchy. This is song was inspired by the novel “The Road” by American writer Cormac McCarthy.

04. Covered

This was the opening track of our self-titled EP, you can hear some thrash metal influence in the verses... thanks to the great riff written by Davide. Also these lyrics were inspired by a novel, “Blindness” by J.Saramago.

05. Year of the Hunger 

The title track is a pretty short, instrumental tune, but full of personality and influences, there are no guitar virtuoso or fast things here... but we tried to create a particular ambience, based on feelings like anxiety, pain but also salvation and hope. This was entirely written by our guitarist Davide Carraro.

PART II – Path of Liberation

06. Clouds and Shales

This is one of our favourite songs, this is not a fast song, the rhythm patterns are very close to some alternative rock/metal stuff, and the main riffs were written by Davide, very nice melodies here! I have worked a lot on vocals for this one, to find out something outside the guitar parts... while Alberto (Businari, drums) worked with me to find out a good tempo for choruses, very catchy.

07. Before Abigail

We are a young band, but if we have to choose our “classic” song, this is the one. This was the first song written for The Moor in 2009, and here you can listen to its final version!

08. Liquid Memories

This is one and “Clouds and Shales” are the “matched pair” eheh, the main riff sounds very “swedish” and it was written in far 2006 by our bassist Massimo Cocchetto, we’ve found it on some hard drives backups, and decided to make a song with that part at first glance! Again the help of Alberto Businari was essential especially  for the solo part, which is the most progressive thing in this song.

09. Antikythera

In the EP this song featured some vocals from a friend of mine who sing in a Motorhead tributer band, this time we decided to put it in the right shape to fit with the other songs of the album, and here it is, maybe this is our heaviest song, and just to be sure of this.. we have putted some blastbeats on the pre-chorus part!

10. Venice

This is the flying-bra and underwear song: romantic, a bit sad, melodic but with feelings... It’s not properly a ballad, but our fans call it a ballad so we are ok with that definition. We have to thank Massimiliano Lombardo (our first drummer) for all the orchestra, violins, cellos.. piano... that you hear in this song. He did an awesome work, we are proud of this result.

11. The Arising of Volition

This in the last song (except the bonus track), and it’s instrumental, but you won’t miss vocals at all here... we have worked a lot to transpose our feelings on tape here, feelings of hope and resignation; you can hear our love for Pink Floyd, especially for Davide’s solo, very Gilmour-ish sounding!

12. Venice (instrumental version)

As I said before the orchestra parts were too good that we decided to put this version in the album, there are piano parts that aren’t featured on the normal track, to get more space for vocals, but here you can listen to he original work of Mr. Massimiliano Lombardo.

Tell us a bit about the artwork – who made it etc. and how important do you feel it is to have a cool artwork?

When we were talking about our ideas for the artwork we all agreed for a real painting, to get a natural approach to the music, just like the way it was recorded, very natural sounding. I found a great artist on the web... a Romanian painter, Gyuri Lohmuller, and the agreed to give us the rights to use his artworks for our album. I think it’s important having an artwork strictly related to the music inside the box.

Any last words you want to round this interview off with?

Thank you for reading and for following us, thank you Power Of Metal!

We will be in UK, London area, at the end of March, follow our upcoming tour dates and upcoming video clips on www.themoor.org, rock on!

Kenn Jensen, February 2013