CARMELO ORLANDO

NOVEMBRE

Carmelo Orlando is a guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist (occasionally) in one of the greatest Italian doom metal bands NOVEMBRE. The band is currently working hard on the follow-up to fantastic "The Blue" from 2007 but fortunately Carmelo found some time to talk to Metal Portal about his favorite classics. Well, the older of Orlando brothers seems to be extremely open minded person. His musical taste is rather wide, ranging from pop from the 80's to extreme grindcore...

I. THE CURE - "Pornography"
The darkest and most depressive album ever released. No matter the effort u take, you won't find such suicidal emotions anywhere else. Not in other Cure's albums, nor in any other album.






II. DURAN DURAN - "Duran Duran"
First album of one of my fave bands of all times. I think I listened to them since I was 10. So overlooked band. Their amazing skills in songwriting and athmospheres have been shadowed by their "boy band" reputation. Just give a change to "Planet Earth" or the instrumental "Tel Aviv" and tell me..





III. SLAYER - "Reign In Blood"
Well, that's the most brutal album of all times par excellence. Being myself an extreme listener, I used to dare my ears with those 28 minutes of Hell, all day long, not understanding a single riff of what's being played. I barely understand something today.. It really shook my boyhood.





IV. NAPALM DEATH - "Scum"
That's where the edges were totally torn apart. The album that, once accepted and enjoyed, turns yourself into a real outcast of this society. The themes of the lyrics and the devastating noise it's made of, are nothing but a decralation of war to anything aroung yourself. Towards anything "normal"...




V. RADIOHEAD - "Hail To The Thief"
One of the few non-metal bands worth being saved out of this pile of shit the 90s and the 00's delivered. They really influenced my latest music. Intrigate, obsessive, sad, violent, sociopath, rebel. That's the abum of theirs I prefer even if I love most of them.





VI. SUZANNE VEGA - "Days Of Open Hand"
She's probably my main source of inspiration during the first 10 years of my career. Her ability for unforgettable tunes, arpeggios, and lonesome moods is staggering and "Days of open hand" is a stand-out album.






VII. IRON MAIDEN - "7th Son Of A 7th Son"
That's the opus magna of the greatest Metal band of the world. This album is a masterpiece that brings you in a timeless place. It set the basis for what we're playing today. The blueprint of some songs in this album are pretty much alike to some of ours..





VIII. VOIVOD - "Nothingface"
This band is unbeliavable. Piggy's riffs (R.I.P.) and Away's lyrics, visuals, and beats, recreated a whole another dimension. You start listening to this and you're soon thrown into a strange world where normal objects tend to gather and organize themselves into a living and thinking organism. 5th dimensions and hypercubes are included. It really enters your bones...




IX. PESTILENCE - "Consuming Impulse"
Devastating Death Metal at its best!!! It influenced me for its ultra fast and sick songs. But also for Van Drunen's "from beyond the grave" voice and cynically descriptive death lyrics. His ways to describe death, seemed to come out of some book of medicine. Musically, it already beared doom elements that later on developed into what we play today.




X. PARADISE LOST - "Gothic"
This album changed Death Metal forever. Before it was released, no one has ever dared so much in terms of gothic (indeed) and classical melodies into a Death Metal context. No female vocalists, keyboards, violins, Victorian dresses, and deep poetry without them.. It's one of the albums I had listened to, the most. It's like a Messiah album; The year Zero of the Gothic-Doom Metal.




CV:
Real Name: Carmelo Orlando
Born: 06.11.1973
Function: guitar, vocals, keyboards
Associated: NOVEMBRE, CATACOMB, NOISEGORE