I would like to start this interview by showing my gratitude for the band to take your time to answer my questions. I also would like to congratulate you for the new album, Agony, which is, in my humble opinion, an outstanding example of Depressive Black Metal. Please, I ask you to introduce yourself to our readers.

Adimere – Thanks to you for letting us join this with you, and thanks for the good words about Agony. Afraid of Destiny is an Atmospheric/Depressive Black Metal band born to spread to the world all of the worst feelings from which mankind suffers from. We’ve released up to now two demos, one EP, two full-length albums, and other three splits. Two of these splits should be considered as some sort of unofficial releases, because of some problems with the bands involved in those splits.

Let’s talk a bit about Agony. I heard the album and, as I have stated before, it truly is a beautiful piece of atmospheric/ suicidal/ depressive music involving such a passionate style that is Black Metal. It took four years for you to release a new full-length record. What inspired you to create this album, what has influenced you and which is the thematic of this release?

Adimere – This album took this long mainly because of the line-up changes during 2015 and 2016. We had a vocalist earlier, Ayperos, from Gibraltar, who recorded the vocals on the EP, but he later left the band because he felt he wasn’t suited for the genre anymore. Now we have a more appropriate line-up which features R.F. from Solitude Project and Catechon with the role of vocalist and M.S. from Catechon as the lead guitarist.

Talking about “Agony” itself under the highights songwriting, inspirations, and everything music-wisely about it, I have to say that the title speaks for itself. I took all of the bad things I experienced and I “converted” them into both music and lyrics. That is what I always do with this band, or at least that is what I try to achieve while writing material for this band.

Instrumentally the recording process changed radically from our previous works, and also it gave the opportunity to express way better the emotions that had to be transmitted. I think that if the recording process we had would had been maintained, the “atmosphere” factor would have been decreased by 90% or more, and it would have been way worse than what it is now. We used a lot of reverb and delay throughout the album, but we also added a lot of keyboards in the songs. In our older releases we had 3 songs which included synths and keys, but on this release of 8 songs, 5 of them has strings and stuff. Lyrically I had the time to experiment with a couple of different new themes, such as dreaming and nature, while holding the previous themes such as depression, sorrow, worthlessness, etc etc.

Connected to the previous question and now more lyrical oriented, I would like to ask you what generally inspires your lyrics, being them from Agony or your previous releases as well as your other projects. Do you feel that you have to be in a special state in order to compose them?

Adimere – As I said, I tend to take my bad experiences and I write them down on paper as soon as I can. I used to write down what happened, and then when I feel I am in the right mood for it, I extend the text by fulfilling all the ideas I had left behind. The inspirations in “Agony”, or in all of our other releases, came from very different sources. In the previous releases I used to write what I think it was more claustrophobic content. I wrote the lyrics on my desk during cloudy or rainy days, so it has, at least to me, the feeling that it had been written inside of a grey, cold, room. Since I was writing the lyrics for “Agony” I started to write down the lyrics even on my mobile phone and I think it helped me by having the possibility of seeing different backgrounds that could have helped me with the moods and also I can write more natural and sincere content, but as I said before I usually write down what happened and then I evolve the thing. It depends on the moment I think, so yeah I think you have to be in a certain state to write certain content and not sounding like it had been forced or whatever.

I ask you to tell us a bit about the recording process. As far as I know, Afraid of Destiny was (or is) a one-man band. How does this affect positively and negatively (if so) your compositions? When talking about Agony, were there any other musicians involved in the recording process? And if so, how has been “selected” to become a part of Afraid of Destiny?

Adimere – Afraid of Destiny was a one-man-band, and it had been also at the time of “Agony”. Its pros are that whatever you write it’s 100% yours, so you can write whatever you like without being judged, if I may say so, by other people, but its cons are that the musical influences can lack sometimes. This barely happens when you have to deal with other musicians who listen to other bands or even other genres of music, and that is why I aim to have a complete band which can help with song writing, production, and whatsoever.

In “Agony” the only band member it is me, but in the recording process I got helped with the vocals by R.F. and Atom Krieg from Anti and Darkmoon Warrior. They both did a great job in this album indeed. I know R.F. since we began the high school period, and he has been in black metal longer than me, so it has been easier to work with him, as we met to record and I could have helped him by providing him everything he needed to know, also he was one of the few vocalists I knew at the time that has been suitable for this band.

With Atom Krieg it has been different the approach. I knew him for his work in Anti, and I tried to contact him for asking him to be the guest vocalist on one song called “Autumn Equinox”. He accepted and after that we began to talk about what he could have done in the song. He had been a very professional musician and a very respectful person indeed. It is unusual at the moment to find people like this.

You will be playing a live concert, or already played, depending on when this interview will be published… well, you’ll be sharing the concert with another band that I also admire, which is Imperium Dekadenz. Speaking of concerts, how do you prepare for them? Also, what can the fans expect from your concerts and what do you expect from them?

Adimere – We played a couple gigs already, the most important was at Revolver Club in San Donà di Piave with Vargsheim and Imperium Dekadenz, also another memorable show had been at Verona Nera while opening for Vanhelga with another local italian Black Metal band, Catechon.

M.S. – Until now we had live drums, but we now play with a backing track for since we had to part ways for personal reasons with the person who was behind the kit, and as you can imagine it’s hard to find people with the right attitude to play this genre of music, especially in the barren wasteland that is the italian underground scene. Right now we are rehearsing following the already cited drum and bass backing track, which helps us be tighter than ever and lets us experiment a bit with the instrumental parts to give the show a different feel then just playing the songs as if they were on the CD.

R.F. – I don’t like so much when a musical genre like DSBM is shared with people by a living experience. I don’t like people and I don’t like them watching and listening to me singing about our emotions. I think that people need to know situations such as depression or melancholy, because TRVE BLACK METAL PEOPLE’s trends want that is for emo kids or other shitty stuff, so some stupid whitepainted scum being at our exhibitions maybe will begin to know and respect something we talk about.

It’s quite clear that when you play a musical style like yours, you are not seeking fame or fortune. It is much more about the feeling, the passion. However, you spend time and money in your compositions. Anyways, the musical business is indeed very hard for quite some time. It has already been stated that, in these days, people has everything in a click away and all that matters are the first thirty seconds impression. I’d like to ask you how you feel over this and what can a band do detach itself from this problem as well as to distinguish itself from many others?

M.S. – We believe that nowadays the only way to reach an audience is to offer them something that makes them feel involved with the project they are backing, although as you pointed out our music isn’t made for a big audience but that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to find a core following that will be always there to support us. The best way to reach this goal is in our opinion that of keeping our feet on the ground and to keep producing music, while avoiding petty confrontations with people who spend more time writing essays on what is “trve” black metal on Facebook of all places.

Adimere – One single step is at the core of a “correct detachment” from the so-called scene. Stop boosting your ego on the social media contemplating your own shit.

R.F. – DSBM is not about money, but about emotions instead. Nothing more to say. If you want to sell some stuff in this stupid “Black Metal” scene put your life behind a PC monitor and record some shit about Satan or the antichrist, then tell to people that you play since 1996. Have fun doing that.

This is a question I always ask the musicians I interview, among other ones that are a must in a conversation, of course. And I think that, with everything that is going on in the world, and your musical style, this question truly is relatable and essential in this small chat we are having. We are living empty lives. There’s no social contact anymore. And worse, the world is living a terrible, atrocious crisis. How do you feel about this? Where do you see society heading to?

M.S. – Yeah life feels pretty empty nowadays, when you see how the way of relating with one another changed in such a small span of time. Now you gotta post selfies on facebook and instagram to let everyone know that you went to take a dump, and in the end you do this just to get a couple of likes that give you that high that your brain is now programmed to enjoy. But then at the end of the day you aren’t a better person even if you get a thousand likes per post. We think that society is going down a black hole made of shallow desires of the now, and everyone is just trying to forget how this existence really has no meaning, we were born to survive until our time comes, we just made it more comfortable along the way.

R.F. – I think the Bible was right, soon Armageddon will happen. But all of this is just because of the human beings. I hope nature is going to kill everyone for saving herself or that every stupid person goes to commit suicide but I think I am hoping to a happy utopia. If you’re human, you’re stupid. If you’re human but not stupid, you’re an asshole. If you’re human but not stupid and not asshole, you get depressed. Too much difficult to live with them.

Adimere – In one simple word: downhill. I think this can say it all.

Another question I enjoy asking; about you, your life. And, obviously, nothing too intrusive. Tell us some of your favourite activities…anything from outside the music world. Be them about cinema, authors, trips/ travels, drinks anything that you’d like to share with us. I am a huge fan of Italian cinema, from the classic, beautiful movies to the zombie z-grade flicks. What do you think about them?

Adimere – Basically what I do in my spare time is studying or working. I am involved in graphic design at both school and work. I also listen to a lot of music of every kind, spacing from Neil Young to Deafheaven as well. I have almost no boundaries on it. Also I watch lots and lots of funny movies, such as “Zoolander”, which is my favourite, “The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy”, but also more serious movies such as “The Cube” or “War Lord”, “Requiem for a Dream”, and so on.

M.S. – Well music could take an answer for itself seeing how much shit I listen to but then people would see how I’m not trve kvlt for listing a couple bands I like. As far as other interests go I like trashy horror flicks too, “Evil Dead II” is my favourite, also tv series like “Twin Peaks” and “Rick and Morty” as well as mangas like “Berserk” and “Bastard!!”.

R.F. – Every sensitive person loves art. Nothing more to say.

Afraid of Destiny itself, not counting the Vitam Nihil Est year, is completing five years of existence in 2017. It’s quite a young band, but, at the same time, it is also very experienced. Could you tell us which were the lessons that you have learned in these years and what do you expect for Afraid of Destiny in the future?

Adimere – We have planned a split with another Italian band called Eyelids, but other than that we have no actual plans. We also don’t expect something from the future. It might come something one day, I can’t deny it or say that I wouldn’t be glad if something comes, but also I don’t say I want it to happen. If it comes I am fine, and if it doesn’t I would be fine anyway. Since the birth of Afraid of Destiny I’ve learned to trust no one, and it might be linked to one of the questions you asked before. There are so many unreliable people who others worship that can easily fall in ten seconds.

M.S. – I learned that the less people in a band the better you play, fuck metal drummers man, they need to learn what a click is instead of rushing all the time.

Alas we reach the end of this interview. Again, thank you very much for your time and answers. As always, I would like to wish you the best, both personally and professionally. Any last words for our readers?