Interview with death metal band from Italy - CHRONIC HATE.
Recenze/review - CHRONIC HATE - Defeating the Oblivion of Life (2026):
Ave CHRONIC HATE! Greetings to the Italian underground. I hope everything’s going well over there. It should be you’ve released the third fantastic full-length album of your career this year. I have to admit, it literally pinned me to the wall. It’s dark, energetic, and cuts like a sharp knife. It’s very clear that you’ve done a great job and brought a lot of talent to the table. How do you see the new record in relation to your previous albums? Where did you want to go with it, and how do you think the recordings differ?
(Daniele) Hi Jakub and cheers to Czech metalheads! Thanks for your appreciation about our new album and also for inviting us to talk about it. As you pointed out, it took a lot of effort to compose and produce this album, we see it as prosecution of our work over the years but also a new challenge in terms of sound and composition. We always look for something new but without loosing our identity of death metal lovers.
“Defeating the Oblivion of Life” contains all the attributes of good death metal. It’s built on traditional foundations, yet it’s technical and interesting. For me personally, it’s an album I love coming back to. How did it come about? How does CHRONIC HATE compose new material?
(Daniele) Well the composition process, like in many bands, starts from riff ideas that can be brought by guitarists or bass player also. In different ways but we all take part in the composition of the songs. We usually do a preproduction at home so we can listen how the new material sounds like, then we decide if it need more effort or it's good enough. In Chronic Hate both guitarists can record at home and make some preproduction files so this fact make things a little bit easier.
Each of you also plays in a lot of other bands. How do you distinguish between “work” for CHRONIC HATE and for the others? Plus, you’re all experienced musicians who’ve left a lot of great music behind. Do you have any trouble agreeing on things? And what about concerts and recording do you have trouble coordinating schedules and times?
(Daniele) Sometimes it's not easy to coordinate between bands, jobs and everyday's life issues but somehow we always managed to do it and be responsible on our schedules. We don't play tons of gigs per year so we still have some time for our respective other bands, also recordings are organized very early and we are also lucky that we can record guitars, bass and vocals at Daniele's home studio.
About agreeing on things, of course everyone has it's own ideas and can put it into the band, so if the majority of us likes something, we keep it. We know each other quite well so we can also rely on ourselves.
I have to confirm that the sound is literally killer. It keeps making me turn up the volume on my stereo. You have a sound that’s brutal, raw, and at the same time dark and animalistic. Who handled the mixing and mastering? Which studio did you record in, and how did everything go?
(Daniele) The man behind the sound of our new album is Greg Chandler (guitarist in Esoteric band) who runs his Priory Recording Studio in the UK. He took care of guitars and bass reamping, mixing and mastering. We recorded acoustic drums at Artesonika Studio in Northeast Italy with producer Ivan Monibidin, and all guitars, bass and vocal tracks at Daniele's home studio, called Black Swamp Studio. The communication with Greg was so pleasant and he understood very soon what kind of sound we needed. Using real amps and real acoustic drums is not so ordinary anymore nowadays, but we found the right producer for what we had in mind, to sound raw but defined, consistent and thick.
An integral part of the release and a sort of bonus for fans is the CD and vinyl. You released it through Time to Kill Records, and it features mysterious artwork by Colin Marks. How did you choose the design, and how does it relate to the music on the new album? What exactly is it supposed to represent?
(Andrea) We have to thank Time to Kill for giving us the opportunity to release "Defeating the Oblivion of Life" on vinyl as well. We chose one of Colin Marks' many stunning artworks because it perfectly captured the essence of torment and anguish that permeates every single lyric on the album. Chronic Hate leave nothing to chance. The artwork was also chosen for its originality; we are a band inspired by many others, but we have our own identity, and for that reason, we never want to be ordinary.
I’ve been wandering the underworld for over thirty years now, and when it comes to music, I go to Italy for a sure thing. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I really like your bands and follow your scene closely. Maybe I even envy you a little we only have a few death metal bands here that are worth checking out. How do you explain that death metal is doing so well in your country? How do you perceive your scene, fans, and labels?
(Daniele) Very interesting question. I also listen to extreme music and follow the scene for about 30 years now, and speaking about death metal, Italy has earned respect and has emerged from the underground only in the last 20 years I think. For sure we had many good bands also in the 90's but the fact to be italian was a hard step for emerging and being considered at the same level as foreign bands. But in the end things have changed and now we have gained a good reputation in the international death metal scene, showing also growing fan bases and with more professional and reliable (most of the times) labels.
You play old school influenced death metal. These days, a band can’t really avoid comparisons, but I’d be interested to know how the idea to form CHRONIC HATE actually came about, who your role models were and are, and where you want to take your band? Are you tempted by big international festivals, for example, and would you be willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
We come from the 90's scene so our biggest figures were bands like Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse, Dismember and those kind of monsters that ruled the death metal scene during those times. Me (Daniele) and Marco the bass player were already friends in the late 90's and we were trading tapes and suggesting new bands to listen to each other. In early 2001 we met at a Morbid Angel gig and he came to me like „hey why don't we start a band? I know a drummer“ and that's how Chronic Hate started just few months later. We do not have a precise plan about where to take the band, of course we want to go on with passion and dedication, playing live and writing new music, but I feel we don't have this „hurry up“ sensation anymore, instead we take our time to make things in the best way possible. Big international festivals are cool of course, but they are not our main goal, maybe we prefere smaller but more passionate situations, filled with people that are there for the music first. Same idea about going on tour with some more famous band, that would be nice, but we need to find a good situation where we feel 100% into it.
When I started my website ten years ago, my vision was to support bands that I felt weren’t getting enough attention. To let the world know about them. I think I’ve been pretty successful at it, at least judging by the feedback. How do you approach promotion? Do you leave it up to the label, or do you send out CDs for reviews yourselves? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. How about you? Are you also fans who like to support your peers? Do you go to concerts? Do you party?
(Daniele) We love the old-school approach to music, so yes, we buy cds and vinyls, we go to concerts and we party with metalhead friends, like it should be everywhere! We think this is the main step, enjoying the scene as much as possible. Your website and people doing the same kind of promotion are very important for bands like us, when promotion is never enough let's say. Our label is doing a great job and we also do some minor self promotion through our direct and personal channels. But we are so happy to see that someone here and there likes what we do!
On the one hand, a band starting out today has plenty of ways to get their name out there, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of bands, and fans get lost in the crowd. A lot of people just download MP3s from the internet and, instead of going to a concert, prefer to spew venom on Facebook. How does modern technology influence you as CHRONIC HATE? What do you think about downloading music, Google metalists, streaming music, etc.?
(Andrea) Every situation is a mirror of society. If you like wallowing in shit, don't complain if you end up smelling. People who have always bought records will keep doing so; those who started with Napster or the like will keep spewing venom—probably because they listen to music superficially and have never spent a dime, yet, they act like know-it-alls behind a screen.
Unfortunately, we’ve had to adapt to all this, too. Everyone is free to choose whether to listen to music at the right volume, with the right sound, and so on... What we have to do is play, record our ideas, and headbang.
I like to ask musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it—is it more of a philosophy and lifestyle for them, or “just” a way to unwind? What does it mean to you? How do you perceive and experience it?
(Daniele) In my personal view, death metal is both a philosophy and a way to unwind. I mean, when you are so into a music style and you have enough time to listen to your favorite records and discover new great ones, then your mind is satisfied and you can relax doing what you like the most, like spinning a vinyl or pressing play on the cd player.
Finally, a classic but important question. What does CHRONIC HATE have planned for the coming months? Where can we see you in concert? If you have a message for fans, labels, or promoters, this is the place…
Our main goal now is to play as many gigs as possible to promote the album. In June we had the great opportunity to play supporting Possessed on both Italian gigs they made, we also played in Slovenia and in Milan at the Hellbrigade Fest with Tsjuder and Asagraum. We played also Eresia Metalfest with Jungle Rot and Desaster (and many others), few other Italian shows in the making and something in Austria also coming soon. We have been a few times also in Czech Republic and Poland over the years and we would like so much to play there again, let's see what the future will bring! For fans, labels and promoters we have something easy but very important, keep promoting real good music! Death Metal never dies!
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish your new album every success, and I hope your fan base grows as much as possible. I look forward to seeing you live somewhere, and I wish you all the best both musically and personally. I’m going to blast “Defeating the Oblivion of Life” again!
Thank you Jakub for this interview and support, hope our paths will cross one day, cheers from Italy!
Recenze/review - CHRONIC HATE - Defeating the Oblivion of Life (2026):
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