Keep The Promise
Photo: Matteo Gelatti
Extreme hardcore Italian metal group Keep The Promise self-released Mass Extinction just this past year. It’s a merciless, sonic raid on those who refuse to understand the gravity of violence against societies incited by global capitalist power.
Mass Extinction has a good and angry dose of in-your-face-passion; it’s a pure metal assault on the senses. The music is remarkably produced and has the feel of Hatebreed and old Sepultura (think Arise and Chaos A.D.) With songs like Stolen Dreams and Stupid People On Social Media, anyone totally burned out on the current climate of our world will relate.
M.V., vocalist and founder of Keep The Promise, gave an enlightening perspective of the music and the message in an interview for Elevar:
What inspired the formation Keep The Promise, and did you face any challenges coming together as a group?
Hello everyone, and thank you for this opportunity. Personally, I was the promoter of this project and it was born from the need to express the great social discomfort caused by the great global economic and financial crisis of 2009 through the hardcore-metal that I have always loved. Obviously, there are many initial difficulties when forming a band, such as finding the right people and musicians, social media promotion, to try to get the messages to as many people as possible, and searching for live shows. In the end we managed to achieve our goals, such as publishing our first album, videos, and performing many shows.
What's the energy and atmosphere like at your live shows? Are there any memorable moments?
When we play live on stage an indescribable synergy is created where everyone does their job, releasing all the energy they have in that moment and throwing it violently towards the people. I think that the greatest emotion and satisfaction you feel during a show is certainly the very passionate response of the people, and also when you have the chance to share the stage with bands that you have always considered your idols.
Your messages are pretty aggressive; what do you want people to understand the most about your music and your messages?
Our lyrics are mainly a strong denunciation against the injustices of global, national and local power. We would like to make people understand that every day our rights acquired with blood throughout history are threatened, and we must always react and fight against the institutions. Otherwise, they will fuck you mercilessly!
You guys started with live performances back in 2014... have I got that right? You've all worked really hard on this. Your new EP, Mass Extinction is self-released. What are the biggest challenges behind self-releasing music?
That’s correct. Having a band always requires a lot of sacrifices, but when you have fun and have a great passion then you will have a lot of satisfaction in terms of emotions. When you have a self-produced work in hand, the main challenge is always promotion to try to make it known to as many people as possible. Unfortunately, with the commitments we have in our private lives, we don't have the time to do a good job of effective promotion, so we rely on honest and competent professionals.
Listen to Mass Extinction (and some other really hard hitting music) on Spotify:
Follow Keep The Promise on Facebook:
