黑暗逼近，厄运降临 - 意大利Epic Doom / Death Metal乐队Swarm Chain专访

Volcano Magazine
58 minutes ago
10 min read

今天我们采访到了来自意大利的厄运金属乐队Swarm Chain。他们成立于2020年，并于2022年发行了首张全长专辑《Looming Darkness》。这张专辑既根植于传统厄运重金属，又融合了死亡金属的嘶吼，两者碰撞出了Swarm Chain的独特的音乐魅力。在前不久，乐队刚刚发行了第二张专辑《Cernunnos》，这张专辑给人的感觉则更加有现代感，旋律也比上一张专辑更有吸引力。而本次我们也联系到了乐队做一次专访。

（V: 代表笔者 P: 代表Paolo）

Today, we had the opportunity to interview the Italian doom metal band Swarm Chain. They were founded in 2020 and released their debut album, "Looming Darkness", in 2022. This album is rooted in traditional doom metal while also incorporating the growls of death metal, resulting in the unique musical charm of Swarm Chain. Recently, the band just released their second album, "Cernunnos", which gives a more modern feel and has more attractive melodies compared to the debut album. And this time, we were able to contact the band for an interview.

(V: Author | P: Paolo)

采访对象：Paolo（Swarm Chain乐队贝斯 / 歌手）

采访时间：2026.01.13

V: 你好Swarm Chain，感谢接受本次采访。在开始之前，能否请你简单介绍一下自己？团队成员是如何相识并聚在一起的？

Hello Swarm Chain, thank you for accepting this interview. Before we start, could you briefly introduce yourself? How did the team members get to know each other and come together?

P: 大家好，感谢你们给予我们这个舞台，也感谢你们对我们音乐的关注！我们是Swarm Chain乐队，演奏融合Death Metal与Gothic元素的Doom Metal。就在几周前，我们发行了第二张专辑"Cernunnos"。虽然乐队成立仅五年，但成员们相识已久。Daniele（吉他手）和我（Paolo）同龄，曾在同一座城市求学；我们因在当地不同活跃乐队演奏而结识。此外，Daniele在本地录音室担任音响工程师和录音师已有二十余年，我此前项目的录音工作以及其他乐队的作品都由他操刀。Daniele（鼓手）和Riccardo来自邻近城市，我们早有交集——他们曾组乐队合作多年。他们的专辑由Daniele操刀录制，我们也曾多次以各自乐队成员身份同台演出。而Emanuele则是随Swarm Chain乐队诞生而加入的：当时我们正寻找能驾驭低吼与尖叫的歌手，他的表现让我们彻底惊艳。

Hello everyone, and thank you for giving us this space and for the interest in our music! We are Swarm Chain and we play doom metal with death and gothic influences, and just a few weeks ago we released our second album called Cernunnos. We are a relatively young band — Swarm Chain was formed only five years ago — but we have actually known each other for a very long time. Daniele (guitar) and me (Paolo) are the same age and went to school in the same city; we met because we were both playing in different active bands in our city. On top of that, Daniele has been working for over twenty years as a sound engineer and studio technician in local recording studios, and I recorded my previous projects with him, as well as the work of other bands. Daniele (drums) and Riccardo come from a nearby city, and we already knew each other because they had been in a band together for many years. They recorded some of their albums with Daniele and we also shared the stage on several occasions, each with our own bands. Emanuele, on the other hand, joined us with the birth of Swarm Chain itself: we were looking for a vocalist capable of both growls and screams, and he completely left us speechless.

V: 首先，恭喜你成功发行新专辑"Cernunnos"。能否谈谈这张专辑背后的创作过程？

First of all, congratulations on the successful release of your new album "Cernunnos". Could you talk about the creative process behind this album?

P: "Cernunnos"的创作无疑比我们的第一张专辑"Looming Darkness"（我们的首张专辑）要复杂得多。那张专辑主要由我独自创作，因为乐队最初是围绕我的前期制作而组建的。而这张新专辑则经过了更为周密的构思，真正体现了我们所有人在歌曲创作过程中的参与。Daniele（鼓手）和Riccardo在第一张专辑录制完成后加入了乐队，所以我们迫不及待地想开始创作新的作品，有更多人参与，有更多不同的想法和影响——这正是我们所期待的。至于我们实际的创作过程，通常是从一段即兴演奏或一段或多或少有结构的Demo开始。我们一起聆听，每个人分享自己的想法并提出修改建议，一旦我们达成共识，就会继续进行人声部分的创作。如果歌曲仍然不能完全让我们信服，我们会进行最后的调整，重塑它，直到我们满意为止。这样解释可能听起来很快，但请相信我们——它绝对不快！在我们的歌曲中，我们试图让旋律部分（包括人声和器乐）与史诗般宏大而沉重的节奏部分并存并将所有这些元素融合到Death Metal非易事，因为这种音乐流派典型的缓慢节奏有时会让人难以在不变得乏味或过于重复的情况下实现这种平衡。

The composition of Cernunnos was definitely more complex than our first album. Looming Darkness (our debut) was mostly written by me alone, since the band was initially built around my pre-productions. This new release, instead, was much more thought-out and truly saw the involvement of all of us in the songwriting process. Daniele (drums) and Riccardo joined the band after the recording of the first album, so we couldn’t wait to start working on new material with more minds involved and a wider range of ideas and influences — and that’s exactly what happened. As for our actual writing process, it usually starts with a riff or a more or less structured demo. We listen to it together, everyone shares their thoughts and suggests changes, and once we reach a solid balance we move on to the vocal parts. If the song still doesn’t fully convince us, we make final adjustments, reshaping it until we’re satisfied. It may sound quick when explained like this, but trust us — it’s anything but fast! In our songs we try to make melodic sections (both vocal and instrumental) coexist with epic, massive and heavy rhythmic parts, blending all these elements into doom metal. This is not an easy task, because the slow tempos typical of the genre can sometimes make it difficult to achieve this balance without becoming boring or overly repetitive.

V: 与2022年的专辑相比，你认为这张新专辑是创新还是延续？这张专辑和上一张有什么不同吗？

Compared with the album in 2022, do you think this new album is an innovation or a continuation of the previous one? Are there any differences between this album and the previous one?

P: 正如我之前提到的，这张专辑的制作更具集体性，歌曲和整张专辑都得益于一支真正的乐队共同合作而成。虽然我仍然认为"Looming Darkness"是一张优秀的专辑，也是乐队历史上重要的第一章，但"Cernunnos"无疑更进一步。它让我们巩固了乐队，更好地表达了我们的声音，实际上，我们的声音变得更加黑暗和邪恶。与其说这是首张专辑的延续，不如说它是一个新的篇章，我们希望它能成为我们第三张专辑背后理念的起点。

As I mentioned before, the work on this album was much more collective, and both the songs and the album as a whole benefited from being shaped by a real band working together. While I still consider Looming Darkness a strong album — and an important first chapter in the band’s history — Cernunnos is definitely a step forward. It allowed us to solidify the band and better articulate our sound, which in practice has become even darker and more malevolent. Rather than a continuation of the debut, I’d call it a new chapter, and we hope it will act as a launching pad for the ideas behind our third album.

V: Swarm Chain歌词的主题是什么？你能和我们分享一下你歌词的灵感来源吗？

What is the theme of the lyrics of Swarm Chain? Could you talk to us about the sources of inspiration for your lyrics?

P: "Cernunnos"是一张概念专辑，探索了原始人在面对自然力量时的反应。每首歌都聚焦于一个不同的发现：火、水、天空、动物…如今，这些对我们来说都是再寻常不过的事物——我们了解它们，我们研究过它们——但是，一个对周围世界一无所知的人会如何解读这些元素呢？我们的答案是，他会将它们视为神祇，视为超越他理解的力量，强大到足以随心所欲地塑造他的生活。在最后一首曲目"The Shaman"中，男子站在一位萨满面前——这位萨满与他一样是人类，但通过自然的力量，能够作为通往来世的桥梁，与人类已经学会敬畏的灵魂和神灵沟通。

Cernunnos is a concept album that explores the reactions of a primitive man when faced with the forces of nature. Each song focuses on a different discovery: fire, water, the sky, animals… Today these are completely ordinary things for us — we know them, we’ve studied them — but how would a man who is completely ignorant of the world around him interpret these elements? Our answer is that he would see them as deities, as forces that transcend his understanding and are powerful enough to shape his life at will. In the final track, The Shaman, the man stands before a shaman — a man like himself, yet capable, through nature, of acting as a bridge to the otherworld, to spirits and deities that mankind has learned to fear and respect.

V: 你参加过演出吗？在你为数不多的表演中，有没有哪一刻给你留下了深刻的印象？

Have you ever participated in a performance? Among your few performances, was there any moment that left a deep impression on you?

P: 尽管现场演奏有多难——至少在意大利是这样——我们还是举办了几场演出和音乐节来推广第一张专辑。其中一些夜晚特别有意义，因为我们与乐队同台演出，这些乐队虽然仍在地下，但拥有强大的追随者和我们的充分尊重。我们有幸为Forgotten Tomb和Left to Die开场，这是一支以90年代一些原创成员为特色的死亡翻唱乐队。当然，我们喜欢和每个人一起玩，我们一直很幸运能与才华横溢、真正伟大的人同台竞技。

Despite how difficult it is to play live — at least here in Italy — we played several shows and festivals to promote the first album. Some of those nights were particularly meaningful, as we shared the stage with bands that, while remaining underground, have a strong following and our full respect. We had the honor of opening for Forgotten Tomb and Left to Die, a Death cover band featuring some original members from the ’90s. We enjoy playing with everyone, of course, and we’ve always been lucky to share the stage with talented and genuinely great people.

V: 你有最喜欢的乐队吗？或者你认为你的音乐受到了许多乐队的影响？

Do you have any favorite bands? Or do you think your music has been influenced by many bands?

P: 每当被问及我们最喜欢的乐队时，我总是很难回答——这真的取决于那一刻的心情…。因此，为Swarm Chain命名一个最喜欢的乐队几乎是不可能的。我们每个人都有不同的品味和影响，从硬摇滚到死亡金属，再到黑色金属和更“经典”的重金属。然而，如果我们谈论影响我们声音的乐队，那么“Sacred Monsters”肯定会出现在我们的音乐中。评论家们还指出了主要的Doom和Gothic式乐队，尤其是Paradise Lost和Candlemass——第一个主要是器乐旋律，第二个主要是声乐和我们更史诗般的部分。

Whenever I’m asked about our favorite band, I always struggle to answer — it really depends on the mood of that Moment….. So naming a single favorite band for Swarm Chain is practically impossible. Each of us has quite different tastes and influences, ranging from hard rock to death metal, passing through black metal and more “classic” heavy metal. If we talk about bands that influenced our sound, however, the “sacred monsters” can definitely be heard in our music. Reviewers have also pointed out references to major doom and gothic bands, especially Paradise Lost and Candlemass — the 1st one mainly for the instrumental melodies, and the 2nd for the vocals and our more epic sections.

V: 2026年你还有其他计划或意图吗？例如，参加表演或发布新作品？

Do you have any other plans or intentions in 2026? For instance, taking part in performances or releasing new works?

P: 2026年，我们将发布专辑中的第二首单曲以及一段合适的音乐视频。顺便说一句，对于那些还没有看过它的人来说，我们强烈建议也看看Cernunnos的视频——在我们看来，这真的很值得！我们也将再次开始现场直播，以推广这张专辑。我们已经确认了几个日期，我们很快就会宣布，我们希望还会有更多的日期。与此同时，我们也希望开始创作新的素材——就我个人而言，我已经有了一些想法和小演示，我迫不及待地想和乐队的其他成员一起创作。

In 2026 we will release the second single from the album along with a proper music video. By the way, for those who haven’t seen it yet, we strongly recommend checking out the Cernunnos video as well — in our opinion, it’s really worth it! We’ll also finally start playing live again to promote the album. We already have a few dates confirmed, which we’ll announce soon, and we hope many more will follow. At the same time, we also hope to begin writing new material — personally, I already have a few ideas and small demos, and I can’t wait to work on them with the rest of the band.

V: 感谢你接受本次采访。我真的很喜欢你的音乐，期待你的更多作品。那么在面试结束时，你还有什么想对大家说的吗？

Thank you for accepting this interview. I really enjoy your music and look forward to more of your works. So, is there anything else you would like to say to everyone at the end of the interview?

P: 我们再次感谢你给我们这个空间。在社交媒体上关注我们，了解我们正在做的事情和未来的版本。我们还有一个Bandcamp页面（swarmchain.Bandcamp.com），你可以在那里购买CD和商品——你在那里的支持对我们来说意义重大。如果你还没有这样做，而这次采访激发了你的好奇心，请查看我们的两张专辑，让我们知道你的想法！我们总是很乐意与听众互动，他们花时间深入我们的音乐并分享他们的想法。期待很快与您见面！

We’d like to thank you once again for giving us this space. Follow us on social media to stay up to date with what we’re doing and with future releases. We also have a Bandcamp page (swarmchain.bandcamp.com) where you can purchase CDs and merchandise — your support there really means a lot to us. If you haven’t done so yet and this interview has sparked your curiosity, check out our two albums and let us know what you think! We’re always happy to interact with listeners who take the time to dive into our music and share their thoughts. See you soon!