Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? Ancient Dome, a name conceived by our first drummer Syra.

How was the band formed? 3 friends those wanted to play original heavy metal, after the split up of the previous cover band Emblema, and a drummer found with an ad in a metal fanzine.

Can you tell about your band? Thrash metal in the vein of Bay Area thrash monsters... everything else is well explained in our website, www.ancientdome.com

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? All members come from North Italy, near Saronno, the city of the famous "amaretto", have you ever drink it?

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Just to find the right dimension for our project, and maybe a little indie label to publish our work. In October, our brand new album "Cosmic Gateway To Infinity" will be out for a great Italian indipendent label, Punishment 18 Records, and this is the third album under its flag, we cannot ask anything better!

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? As previously introduced, we play thrash metal mixed with a bit of US Power, so a melodic way to play this genre.

Where was your first gig? Too many years ago, a little place in a little town always in the north of Italy... it was 2001, and the only survivor to that line up is me, Paolo...

Where was the latest gig? Last July at Rock Inn Somma, one of the best underground summer festival in the north of Italy, or better, in the whole Italy!

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Once I was the only songwriter, up to now almost everything you can hear is from my head, while now Jerry (new vocalist) is writing tons of material, so expect to hear a lot of songs from him in the next future! Lyrics are now Jerry's field, I'll write just a little in the next future...

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about?

It's natural, isn't it? It's years we are playing thrash because we need to play this genre, there's not a particular reason among our passion.

Our songs talk about how our world is going to an end, basically, but it's better for you to read our lyrics to understand our point of view...

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Of course! "Human Key" in 2009, "Perception Of This World" in 2010 and "Cosmic Gateway To Infinity" in 2014, plus other demo, ep and promo that you can check at our homepage, as usual!

How old are you?/What got you started in music? From 26 to 32, and it's almost 14 years that Ancient Dome exists!

What year was the band started? 2000

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? Some gigs around our hometown, but we're always trying to play some gigs in Europe, maybe a little tour... every kind of help will be highly appreciated!

What are the plans for the rest of the year? To play everywhere, maybe in location we've never been before, to support our new album!

Where do you usually play? Pubs, summer festivals, these are our trends...

What are your goals with your music? Probably we already reach our goals, first of all to record and publish not just one album, but three! Of course, it's always a pleasure to reach new supporters, so the new goal everytime we publish something is to get more and more supporters.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Older bands, they create the sound we get the inspiration from; we're trying to "preserve" the past, but at the same time to "personalize" our proposal... just listen to our music and tell us if we reached this goal, we appreciate every kind of feedback (except for the stupid ones).

What are your sources of inspiration? Too many to mention, but we can try to name a few of them: Death, Heathen, Coroner, Annihilator, Megadeth, Control Denied, Toxik, Dark Angel, Death Angel, Atrophy, Realm, Overkill, Artillery, Deathrow, Forbidden... and so on!

What's the first step when making a new song? Ideas come from a guitar riff, then I create a general song draft with a midi, then during rehearsals the song starts to see a shape...

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? It's a great help to young people to discover new bands, but it's not the right path. There's not a real support in downloading albums, it's a sort of disposable way to see music. To think to ear "Oh, do you remember when I downloaded those mp3s..." instead of "I can remember like it was yesterday when I got into that record store to buy the album that changed my life..." is really sad.

What would be your dreams for the band?  To continue to realize albums until we'll be too old and decrepit to do it!

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Progressive metal, prog rock (international and Italian, one of our pride), standard heavy metal, and in some cases also pop rock, soft rock, nothing really related to the music we play.

What would be your greatest fears for the future? To reach situations those bring a band to split up.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? To play bad and be insulted from followers!

Have you been in any other bands? Our vocalist Jerry has his own band, Nameless Curse, they play a mix of heavy, power and melodic death metal; the same for our bass player Dave, who is Ultimate Holocaust leader, thrash metal in the vein of the German movement.

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Normal occupations: from the sound engineer to the environmental engineer, passing through 2 entrepreneurs and a laboratory tehnician.

What would you do if there was no music? Be really sad!

How important are your fans? They permit you to continue with your "dream", so they're fundamental! I mut say that ours are followers, fans are for the great bands!

How often do you rehearse? Once a week.

Where do you rehearse? At our drummer's home...

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment?

Empire Of Lies

Cosmic Gateway To Infinity

from our new and upcoming album...

What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Difficult, a lot of bands were incredible... up to now I would say Kansas, saw them one month ago and it was really amazing!

What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? Passion? The feeling that their music could be their work? But beware, you must be really brave, especially in a country like Italy... we're not so brave, unfortunately.

Do you have any webpages?

For sure:

www.ancientdome.com

www.facebook.com/ancientdome

www.reverbnation.com/ancientdome

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Probably we have a lot to learn from other bands, not the opposite! Anyway, go on against all problems, music is the soundtrack of life, one of the most beautiful thing we have!

Describe your show, visually and musically We don't have any special effect, we just reach the place and start to play with the same t-shirt we were wearing before going out (no "stage cloths", to let you understand), and we play as fast and raw as we can!

How do you view the music industry of today? Nothing new than what was music industry some decades ago. For sure, now investments are less than before, self production is normal way to work, money is just for the few bands those reached their goals years ago... I can't see a brilliant future for metal, related to music industry, in the next future; but be sure the the underground movement will keep the faith alive!

What advice would you like to give other bands? Keep strong, don't let anyone destroy your dreams or your goals!

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? People's indifference, even when you're a great act: this is the biggest obstacle!

What is best/worst with playing the clubs? No problem in playing in clubs for us, but it's really irritating when club owners don't pay the fee: an offense to every band's engagement.

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? 3 gigs here in the north of Italy, as previously said: why should you be at them? Simply: we're promoting our new album and you'll have fun!

How would you describe your sound in one sentence In your face, but melodic at the same time.

Do you have anything to add?Support underground music, your country's underground movement and all over the world... we need you, everyone of you to keep the metal faith alive! Cheers!