Seventh Genocide is a post-black metal band from Rome. They are currently touring and we managed to catch them right before their departure. We got them to answer a few questions regarding important topics, such as being in a band, self-organizing, spreading a political message through art and of course—DIY zines, bands, and gigs.
Check out their tour dates below and catch them live if you have the chance!
Hi there, and thank you for taking the time to answer these questions while on tour! Tell us a little bit about the story of Seventh Genocide—who’s in the band, how long have you been running and where this journey has taken you so far?
The band was formed back in 2006 as a hobby by Rodolfo and Stefano, we were both very young at the time and it was just a way to make our free afternoons more inspiring and constructive. Things started getting seriously around 2010 when we started to compose music with the idea of releasing it and play live shows. As of now, we have recorded two studio albums and a few minor releases played shows in many European countries and shared the stage with several bands from all over the world.
What do you like the most about DIY touring? What’s the best story from your current tour, or from past ones?
There are a lot of things we like so much about DIY touring, of course making our own path and visit many places we’ve never been before is one of these, but also playing in DIY spaces usually means to meet new friends and organizers who shares our same passion for underground music and the same DIY punk values and ethics.
Regarding stories, there are a lot of nice ones on every single tour day.
Your band’s name strikes some thoughts, what is the message behind it and why you chose it to represent your collective?
According to the academic book “Century of Genocide (2004)” the most atrocious genocides of the last century were six. The name Seventh Genocide is a metaphorical identification of modern capitalism’s extreme exploitation of resources as a genocide toward our natural environment and man himself. The harmony between man and nature is an important point of the band’s philosophy, so that’s why we chose a metaphor based on such topics for our name.
We love scene reports and we would love to learn more about the situation in your country and city!
In Italy there is a good scene regarding underground music, even if not so much into our genre, we can surely confirm that there are many strong outputs here. The only negative thing we have to say is that here in Rome (our city) people are a bit lazy about going to support DIY shows, we know this very well since a part of us forms the collective Sycamore Shows. But there is still a good variety of events every night and we feel lucky to live here.
How important do you feel it is for musicians, artists, or writers to communicate political topics and themes through their art?
Of course, politics and art have always been very close, during 70’s the best part of rock music was a strong mean to spread messages of solidarity, freedom, equality and anti-discrimination. We still believe in that idea of music/art and we think that every real artist should embrace such values.
What makes music still exciting for you? What do you do as a band and friends to keep the flame alive?
We’re very close friends and we know each other by a long time, we share a lot of things and we have very similar music tastes and artistic inspirations, that’s why we’re still putting all this passion and efforts into this project.
Any good DIY bands, venues, collectives, zines, etc. that you would recommend?
We have met a lot of great guys and brilliant people from bands/collectives/venues during our adventures on the road and we’ll surely do also this time. A very few recommendations that come to our minds are Kluizenaer, Medicine Noose and Sore that has become close friends of us during our last tour, the venue Venster99 in Vienna where we’ll play again next May 25th and the awesome guys of LMA Collective from Cluj Napoca, Romania.
Thank you very much. Anything else to add, maybe some final thoughts?
Thanks to you for the interview! We’ve been glad to have space on a platform that shares our same idea of music and values, DIY Conspiracy is doing a great job.
Seventh Genocide tour 2019:
12.05 – Tirana, Albania
14.05 – Sofia, Bulgaria
15.05 – Istanbul, Turkey
16.05 – Xanthi, Greece
17.05 – Karditsa, Greece
18.05 – Athens, Greece
19.05 – Larissa, Greece
23.05 – Pescara, Italy
24.05 – TBC
25.05 – Vienna, Austria
19.07 – Rome, Italy
