AD PLENITATEM LUNAE interview online

I Interviewed Ermes Buttolo from AD PLENITATEM LUNAE about the album, and more. 

01. Your first album entitled « Tempus non est iocundum » will be out this December 29th and if I am correct, that title means “Time isn’t joyful” so I wonder, what is the album about ? Is it about the hard times of Europe facing economic crisis or is it something else like one reference in opposition to Carl Orff opera’s part from “Carmina Burana” so called Tempus est iocundum” (Time is joyful) ?

Yes, it's an opposition to "Tempus est iocundum", which is a medieval song from "Carmina Burana". We chose this title to describe the life of the people in our region, Friuli (north-east of Italy), from 13th to 16th century. Life here has always been hard, until the Industrial Revolution, and we wanted to give voice to the people that could have lived here in those times. We didn't want to celebrate war heroes, kings or great men, but  rather the people you can consider "normal": here he have peasants, ancient rural cult believers, deserters, artisans and mothers obliged to witness their daughters dead, with all their positive aspects, but also the negative ones. Our heroes are both noble and coward, frail and cruel. 

Ambiguity is part of human nature, and we want to celebrate this humanity. It's not wrong to think that our songs are about our present situation, though. For example, "1511, 27 di Fevrâr" is a song about the revolution of "Crudel Zobia Grassa", when the noblemen of Udine were slaughtered by the peasants, tired to see their rights constantly violated, but it's also a reflection about the bubbling discontent of the people in our country in these last years, and the catastrophic consequences that could derivate from it.

02. How long did you work hard on the album? How things happened ?

Well, things happened quite naturally. We wrote our songs, played them on stage, polished them over and over again, wrote another couple of songs, repeated the process, until we felt ready to put them on a disc (we also waited to have the money we needed to record the album.. 'cause it's still self-produced). We worked very hard on this full-length, but it was pleasant work. We're very satisfied with the final result!

03. Could you describe that artwork ?

The artwork represents the four horsemen of the apocalypse (War, Pestilence, Famine and Death), in the act of begging for a crumb of bread. It's the last part of the title-track, the four horsemen arrive in a grotesquely poor town and they find themselves with nothing to do there, because all sorts of misfortunes already crushed the place. Downhearted and "without a job", they have to beg, like the people they came to subjugate. We liked the idea of this scene very much: it's almost comic, but tragic at the same time. Oh, and War is also a portrait of one of the guests in the cd, can you guess who?

04. …And the songs ?

The songs are about our land. We take a particular moment of Friuli's history or something interesting about religion and mythology and we put it into music. For this album, we tried to focus mainly on three aspects: wars (most of the time stupid and senseless), the people living in medieval cities like Venzone, Gemona, Udine, Palmanova.. and religion. I think it would be to long to explain each song in this interview, for that, you can take a look at our Facebook page, in the "lyrics" page. We'll also upload translations and a brief explanation for each song here in Sword Chant Forum soon!

05. Your lyrics are made of one old Italian language from the north east of the country, the Friulan language. Earlier in this forum, you said you want to keep this local tradition alive. Why ?

First of all, we sing in Friulian because we like the language. We think it's perfect for metal! It can be sweet, epic, rough and brutal at the same time. Also, it was a natural choice for us: we wanted to keep our land's history alive, so what better choice than Friulian to do so?

06. Nowadays, many old languages are threatened to disappear because the national language is there or because some thoughts by the people… That fact we meet in most regions from most countries… What are the thoughts of the Italians refusing Education of the Friulan language for their children ? What do you want to say to these people against the living of these languages ?

Here in Friuli the situation is a little bit different. Lots of people still speak Friulian to their children and the language is still quite alive. But it's still consigned only to certain fields. Friulian isn't dying, but it's kept frozen. Take the music for example: lots of musicians think that this language is somewhat  gross and "uncool" and they choose to sing in English, even if they speak Friulian, because "it's cool" and you can reach a lot more people (see also sell more cd's) with it. In part they are right, probably, but we wanted our music to be more personal.

07. Davide CICALESE from FUROR GALLICO will share his vocals in the last track “La Strie” of the album. How did you meet together ? How things came? Tell us everything!

It was at Gods of Folk 2011 (Gods of Folk is an italian folk metal festival), I went there with our singer, Nakìa, and it was the first time we saw Furor Gallico live. And they were kicking some serious asses on the stage! Seriously, those guys are amazing!

After the gig we met Davide and we gave him our demo. We chatted a while and drank a couple of beers. A couple of days after he wrote, telling me that he really liked the songs. The same year we played at Fosch Fest, and he went to see us and after that we kept in contact via web. One evening, we were speaking about "La Strie" and I simply asked: "Dude, do you want to sing La strie on our new album?" And he said: "Sure!". That's pretty much it, he came here for a couple of days and we recorded the track.

08. Why “La strie” song was chosen and not another one ?

Simply because Davide likes that song, and it's my favorite too. It really was a natural choice.

09. Sword Chant has been one of the firsts to reveal the content of the very first FUROR GALLICO demo by one review, do you agree with that review ? Also, what do you think of the album reviewed, but before anything, how do you like their demo & album ?

Well, the reviews are good and well written, and I love the album. their demo is good, but the album.. man it's kickass!! I love it. It sounds brutal and melodic at the same time and Laura is an AMAZING violinist, the best one in italian folk metal, in my opinion.

10. What are your next plans for AD PLENITATEM LUNAE in a near future ?

After the release party, we're planning future live shows, and maybe we'll look for a label. We also have some stuff we'd like to use for a new disc, but that's quite far from now.

Thank you for your time! 

Thank you!  Sword Chant is a great forum, and we really want to support it. 

Mandi a ducj (which is "bye to you all" in Friulian)!