UN: Ensoph will probably be a new name to a lot of people within the scene. Could you possibly run through a history of the band bringing us up to the current date?

Zenone: Me and Giuliano started to play together in 1997 after Endayminyon experience (the band in which some Ensoph’s members previously played) ended. Our goal was melting together gothic metal, folk and prog into a theatrical frame useful to be the right musical place in which expressing our philosophical and esoterical interests. Till now we have realized a MCD (“Les confessions du mat”) in 1998, a full-lenght CD (“Bleeding womb of Ananke”) in 2001 and two promos: “Ananke or the Spyral-Trinity beyond Alpha and Omega” in 2000 and “Sophia” in 2002. The band is actually composed by six elements: Giuliano, guitars and programming; me (Zenone), drums; Nicholas, vocals; Massimo, bass; Leonardo, keyboards; Anna, flute. We have had some changes of line-up during the seven years of life of the band, and our musical style grew in maturity, becoming nowadays an unusual blend of influences from electro-industrial, gothic, prog, extreme metal. Our last album, “Opus dementiae - Per speculum et in Aenigmate” is out for Cruz del Sur Music from Rome.

UN: Was the bands initial sound similar to that of the new album, or has there been a progression over time? Are you pleased with how the sound has evolved overtime?

Zenone: As I said before, our sound has evolved into something quite different from our debut MCD. The idea remains the same: melting together a huge range of emotions and influences into a un-conventional extreme-metal frame, but our sound is actually more industrial and extreme metal oriented. We just select and put together the best pieces of our past productions to create something new and better, something that could represent our present taste at 100%. We are pleased with how our current sound has evolved because it is simply how we are nowadays and it could not be different.

UN: I think the best description I could come up with to describe Ensoph would be unorthodox. How exactly did the bands sound come together? It’s obvious you guys are drawing influences from pretty much everywhere possible. Is it safe to say that pretty much everything goes for Ensoph?

Zenone: We are six individualities completely different; we have different musical roots and different listenings. Extreme metal is simply the common field in which we find a place where our experiences can talk together ad create something. We do not try to put everything we want into a song to impress someone with something never heard before, but simply we do not put cages to our creativity when we compose. It is something really different.

UN: Let’s talk about the recording of the new album for a bit. With music that has so many layers, did you guys have everything pretty much planned out before going into the studio or did some of the layering just come out of experimenting in the studio?

Zenone: We leave nothing to improvisation. Everything we have recorded is simply what we have planned out to. It is not possible to control improvisation in the studio, and this is a factor that must be considered if you play with electronical bases. The only parts of our work that could be improvised in studio are keyboards and piano’s solos, but we usually study them in every detail before starting the recording sessions.

UN: Did you guys record the album in Italy or did you travel outside of the country to record? Who produced the album? I have to say that it sounds phenomenal, and nothing gets lost in the mix which is amazing considering how much is going on.

Zenone: The album was recorded at the HeartBeat studio, in Italy, that is a professional studio managed by a society in which is involved Leonardo (our keyboards’ player). It is in the same building in which we play every day; we did not travel outside our country, we did not travel at all! I think the sound quality is really good; we did our best to make the most professional recording possible, and the result is quite amazing...

UN: I was hoping that you could help shed some light on the cover art and what it represents. It’s one hell of a striking album cover, how does it work into the concept of the album title?

Zenone: The cover of the album has been realized by Ohkaunit, one of the best italian graphic stuff specialized in extreme metal artwork. All the graphic concept, that recalls the album one, is played around the symbol of the pair of scissors, that, as you can see, can take the form of a cross... Ohkaunit has an idea of artwork that includes the principle that it must demand all the care and attention of the one who see it and wants to understand what’s behind the images; I promised to the graphics that I would not say too much about the secrets behind this work, leaving the last word to the one who buys our record.

UN: One of the main drawbacks of having music so original is that some people might not get it. I’m sure you make music firstly for yourselves, and aren’t out to make a quick buck. Do you guys ever think that your music might just be a bit too much for some people? Or is that what you’d rather do, appeal to the select few that understand what the band is trying to do and have a fan base built of true fans, not just people into the band because it has a trendy sound?

Zenone: It is not a problem. We don’t think about a possible listener of our music, and we don’t compose thinking to please a scene or a tribe. We simply do what’s good for us, in the moment in which it’s good for us. We’ll probably never live of music, so be gratifyied by what we play is our major goal. Someone has written that we are trendy, because we melt together some un-metal influences, someone says that we are not; our music remains the same, no word adds or deducts something to it. One thing is sure: when we play live in front of a un-metal audience we receive more gratification and energy than when we play in metal gigs; I think that our music is not so difficult to listen to...

UN: Is there anything you haven’t explored yet with the music that you’d like to in the future? Any instruments you haven’t dabbled with that you think might add something to the bands sound? Are you guys constantly moving forward and looking for new things?

Zenone: We will probably enrich our sound with more industrial elements, tons of death rock, hardcore, extreme metal influences and, why not, something like a cynic taste of glam self-irony. I think that we will increase the energy, but the way still remains the same. We are not searching something new, but new way to express what we have always been.

UN: One element of the band that I think really stands out, is that you can go from very extreme to very slow and everything flows very well. You can play a riff that’s almost gothic or new wave sounding and then explode into a blast beat and it simply just works. Do you guys take a lot of time making sure that the structures of the songs work? Everything just always seems to be in the right spot.

Zenone: Composing one of our song is not so difficult as could seem. I think that if you pass too much time on a track, something in it is wrong, and it’s better to re-start with something else. All must be natural, to preserve energy and freshness; if not, something goes lost. Our songs are as you could hear because this is the only kind of music we can play nowadays; surely not because we spent all our time thinking how to make an amazing arrangement. Our music deals much more with instinct than with reason.

UN: I was curious to ask what initially inspired you guys to include the flute in the bands sound? You hear it in some black metal, but usually only in intros to songs and the odd time throughout songs. It plays a more prominent role in Ensoph and it sounds amazing. Do you think it helps the bands sound stand out even more?

Zenone: It’s part of our prog influences. We started to use flute at the beginning of our experimentation, and until now it remains one of our most beloved torture instruments. We have found a good equilibrium between this component of our sound and the others, trying to use it in an unconventional way. We think that a mix between electronics and acoustic instruments is a good way to start re-thinking some common place of metal music.

UN: Would you say that the metal community is more open minded then it has ever been in the past? If you think back and if a thrash band from the 80’s had had a flute or electronic drums they probably would have been beaten to death, but now experimentation is much more accepted. Do you think it’s an exciting time to be a musician?

Zenone: I think is great when you fell the thrill of playing a note that someone has never played... Strike the common sense; could you dare a new beginnig?