Bruno Masulli feilt seit mehr als einer halben Dekade an seiner Trilogie über Dante Alighieris erzählendem Gedicht „Die Göttliche Komödie“ aus dem 14. Jahrhundert, beginnend mit “Inferno”, gefolgt von „Purgatorio“ und „Paradiso“.
Mit seiner Band IN AEVUM AGERE präsentierte er bereits die drei Werke ´Canto III´ (2019), ´Emperor Of Hell – Canto XXXIV´ (2021) und ´Darkness, Then Light´ (2024). Da Bruno Masulli immer für eine Überraschung gut ist, dürfte mit den bisherigen drei Werken vielleicht doch noch nicht alles gesagt sein.
Um uns nochmals von der gesamten Trilogie einen Überblick zu verschaffen, sprachen wir mit Bruno Masulli und seinem Bassisten Marcello D’Anna, der sich bei IN AEVUM AGERE aber auch schon für Gitarre, Schlagzeug, Mixing und Mastering verantwortlich zeichnete.
Da wir uns nicht auf Italienisch oder Deutsch verständigen wollten, obwohl Bruno Masulli auch etwas Deutsch spricht, führten wir unser Gespräch auf Englisch:
After the release of the first album ´The Shadow Tower´ and several years of releasing only EPs, IN AEVUM AGERE finally released a new full-length album in 2019. It wasn’t an ordinary studio album, however, but the beginning of a trilogy. Please, Bruno, tell us how you came up with the idea of musically adapting Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, Dante’s Inferno?
Bruno: Hi Michael! Well, it was after ´The Shadow Tower´ release, as I have said in other times, it all started from the first verse of “Canto III” of the Divine Comedy, and from the epigraph that Dante sees (together Virgilio) at the gates of Hell. Years before I started, in a more summary way, to read Dante’s opera from a beautiful volume of six books that my father bought in the 80s and has always been part of the family library. I was very interested in this, but I didn’t have the necessary experience, even though I had already composed a lot of material for I MITI ETERNI and other epic stuff on classical literature, nor a precise idea of how to set it all up. This was more complex, it wasn’t the right time and I gave up and then, years later, I resumed the argument always with greater clarity.
You said it all began with “per me si va nella città dolente…” or “through me leads the way to the city of hell…”?
Bruno: “dolente” … that’s the inscription on the gates of hell, it’s called anaphora. It’s a rhetorical figure, it’s the repetition of a word, in this case in “Canto III” the lines are: Per me si va, per me si va … per me si va. Through me you go or you pass!… “Through me .. !… Through me .. etc !… Repeated three times. “Per me si va nella città dolente, per me si va nell’etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente”. (Through me you pass into the city dolent/ suffering city, through me the way of eternal pain, through me the way to the people lost). That’s where it all started.
How many years of preparation did it take you?
Bruno: If you’re just talking about ´Canto III´, well, that was the album that took the longest to make. ´Emperor Of Hell´ and ´Darkness, Then Light´ had a big advantage, they came out thanks to the experience gained with ´Canto III´. I must also say that before ´Canto III´ two EPs were released, which served as a fundamental pre-production, a beginning! I was starting to put the first pieces together and up until ´Darkness, Then Light´ it took several years, adding that in any case, making an entire trilogy and beyond was not in my plans, in the beginning, after ´Canto III´ I had already written many other things not related to the Divine Comedy, anyway, as I already said, it took some time, but I’d say it was worth it and everything came by itself then.
Weren’t you afraid of failing at this mammoth task?
Bruno: Absolutely not, they are all very inspired songs, there is a huge amount of work and study behind them. I think that if everything that is done with conviction, inspiration and experience, hard work and perseverance, the result will always be great and never below expectations.
Are there any musical versions that inspired you or that you were determined to surpass with your work?
Bruno: No, I wanted to give a personal interpretation of the work according to my codes, if I may say so. a “modus operandi” that I had already undertaken and for this reason, I wanted the work to be taken care of down to the smallest details.
With ´Canto III´, you recreated the introduction to Dante’s Inferno before he travels through the nine circles of hell. How closely did you adhere to the original text?
Bruno: It’s a great question! I did the best I could do. I tried to be as faithful as possible to the dialogues, texts, scenes and atmospheres. Trying, among other things, to translate Dante’s verses not with a modern english but by studying and reworking sources of English authors and scholars who used a more archaic english and in verse so that the translation was more effective.
Musically, you performed the first part with bassist Piersabato Gambino and drummer Claudio Del Monaco, both of whom also played on the sequel. Were you a well-rehearsed team?
Bruno: Yes, after the great experience with ´Canto III´, Claudio and Piersabato were the musicians who also played live and especially in Austria. Piersabato was the only one from the line-up of the ´The Shadow Tower´ tour and the ep ´Limbus Animae´ and the mini European tours, who followed me for other years. The same line-up is also present in ´Emperor Of Hell´ even if the context was a bit different, especially since for various factors, immediately after ´Emperor Of Hell´ the line-up changed, starting from the live shows.
On the sequel from 2021, the second part, ´Emperor Of Hell – Canto XXXIV´, bassist Marcello D’Anna was also featured. How did this personnel change come about, Bruno?
Bruno: As I was saying, there were some changes during the making of ´Emperor Of Hell´, Claudio was the only fixed member and he appears on the album, Piero started to have more and more work commitments, and family commitments, above all and he could give his availability only for the recording of some songs, and in fact I recorded the bass parts of some songs. I was missing only one bass part on ´Allegorical Images´ and I had to spend my time to other things related to the album and I asked Marcello to record the song, he also likes to play bass and I like his style.
Does the musical journey on ´Emperor Of Hell – Canto XXXIV´ then lead directly through the circles of hell, or do we land directly in the center of hell with Canto XXXIV?
Bruno: ´Emperor Of Hell´ takes its inspiration from the last canto of hell, precisely, canto XXXIV which inspired me to write a song,. It’s when Dante meets Lucifer, and although it’s without dialogue, Satan is described by the poet as an inanimate figure, it’s no less impressive than the previous canti, Dante’s description is really impressive and suggestive. The rest came like an avalanche, a river in flood! There were still many circles and figures that I had not yet considered and they took their form “The City Of Dis”, “Phlegyas” and all the others. I can tell you that each album does not have a precise order. It has a main thread, a main topic to start from. Moreover, it has become a characteristic of this trilogy dedicated to the Divine Comedy.
What stages do we pass through on our musical journey in this work?
Bruno: I think that a characteristic of the IN AEVUM AGERE style although the effort is to be as faithful as possible to Dante’s Opera is the personality. The modus operandi of the writing of what has become a real saga, is to describe a particularly important canto and then gradually, offer an overview in no particular order, with the intent of attracting the attention especially of those who know little about the Divine Comedy.
I believe the second part emerged from individual musical ideas that were only later combined to create ´Emperor Of Hell – Canto XXXIV´. Did the musical implementation for the sequel to the trilogy become more difficult at this point?
Bruno: As I told you before, there is no specific order in the track list of each album. Everything moves around a particular song. But with ´Darkness, Then Light´ things start to change, because from the inferno we move to purgatory with a very specific order and the same thing will continue with the new album. There is a song in particular that gives the title to the album but almost everything will be based on Purgatory, the Earthly Paradise, after the Purgatory and up to the Empyrean (Paradise), leaving hell forever.
Nevertheless, you were able to complete the saga, originally conceived as a trilogy, with the third installment, ´Darkness, Then Light´, in 2024. Was the musical realization just as difficult as with the second installment?
Bruno: As for the previous album, which was born from some ideas, then developed into a whole album, ´Darkness, Then Light´ was born as a closing EP to the trilogy, but the label (“Metal On Metal Records”) was only interested in a full length and I’ll tell you the truth, I just need to be stimulated, every impulse, motivation to do better gives me new ideas and inspiration. After a while we already had 4 new songs to add to the rest already composed.
Where are we lyrically moving at this point, in which circle of hell? And how close do we stay lyrically to the original?
Bruno: With the new album, as I mentioned, the discussion will move from the last canti dedicated to Inferno towards the topic of Purgatory and Paradise, remaining as faithful as possible to Dante’s work.
With bassist Marcello D’Anna and drummer Michele Coppola, you’ve found a lineup that will endure beyond this point. How did this, currently final, lineup come about?
Bruno: It’s a band that was born mostly live. For the live shows abroad, Michele and Marcello replaced the previous members first temporarily and then permanently. officially, the band still consists of three members, at least for now there is a second guitar again. Salvatore Romano, who played with us in the last concerts.
Marcello, you were the first sound engineer on IN AEVUM AGERE’s legendary 2007 demo ´From The Depth Of Soul´, a true masterpiece. Do you still remember that time and the recordings?
Marcello: Oh yes, Bruno asked me if I could help him to record a demo for a doom project inspired to CANDLEMASS. At first we worked on drums parts. Afterwards Bruno recorded guitar and bass in my room, while for vocals we worked at Bruno’s home, because I lived on a busy street and we didn’t want a noisy scooter or an ambulance siren leaked into the mic during recordings. Bruno was and is a great performer on all instruments and vocals, so editing took very few time. I mixed and mastered the tracks at home, with my PC and my HiFi’s speakers. That was my first direct experience in mixing and mastering. Previously I only assisted to mixing and mastering that a friend of mine made for my death metal band. So, before starting the process, I red a book on the maters, because I like to try make things with awareness and care. So ´From The Depth Of Soul´ demo was a complete home recording project and Bruno and I never imagined that it woud be so appreciated and even “legendary”.
For a while, you also played second guitar live. Approximately when was that?
Marcello: At first IN AEVUM AGERE was a one man band, but after the great interest rised around ´From The Depth Of Soul´ demo, Bruno decided to recruit a live line-up, for starting playing gigs. So he asked me, if I was interested to play second guitar. I accepted with enthusiasm and I played guitar with the band from about 2008 until the end of 2014.
Why did you then switch to bass? Did you really want to play with Bruno permanently?
Marcello: At the end of 2014 i didn’t play any more with IN AEVUM AGERE. But in the summer of 2020 the bass player, Piersabato Gambino, left the band, so Bruno asked me to replace him, for a forthcoming show. I was happy to accept. It was the opportunity to improve and test myself on an instrument that I had only played sporadically, especially for recordings, but never in a live show. So I switched to bass because the band needed a bass player. After all Bruno, I and Michele feature the stable and tested core of the band and we played as a trio for long time. You asked me if I’ll permanently play with Bruno: I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I will definitely do it as long as I have the time, energy and pleasure to play with Bruno and IN AEVUM AGERE. By the way, for some time now, I also play bass in a new Heavy Doom project, called ANTETENEBRAS, with Bruno and other friends.
You’ve been involved in the studio as a permanent band member for several years now. How routine has your collaboration become?
Marcello: I met Bruno about 30 years ago and during this long time I collaborated with him on various projects and with different roles, sometimes as sound engineer, sometimes as drums and keyboards programmer, sometimes as italian-latin traslator for lyrics, sometimes as live and/or recording performer. When IN AEVUM AGERE is in studio, in addition to recording and editing bass parts, I’m usually involved in mixing supervision and final mixes/masters critical listening.
Because this lineup is also playing the upcoming sequel, ´Ptolomea Canto XXXIII´, surprisingly another installment in the Dante saga. When did you decide to turn the trilogy into a tetralogy, a four-parter, Bruno?
Bruno: As for the previous two albums, the idea starts from recording a celebratory EP but as time went by, I decided to dedicate some songs to the rest of the Divine Comedy developing what I had started with ´The Mountain Of Purgatory´ that is to go forward and push myself to Dante’s paradise. What at the beginning were two or three new songs, shortly they became enough songs for another album to close in style the entire work and the long ´Cammino Dantesco´.
Did you really want to tell further stories from Dante’s Inferno, or did numerous musical ideas on this topic suddenly flow from you?
Bruno: In this new album which will be titled ´Ptolomea´ there is still space for other “infernal topics” but as I mentioned, everything will move away from the infernal context and will deal with Purgatory and Paradise in the last canto, that is, the empyrean.
Through which places of hell will ‘Ptolomea Canto XXXIII’ lead us? Is it even the story of Count Ugolino, who gnaws at the head of Archbishop Ruggieri?
Bruno: Thank you for your question and congratulations on your preparation. Well, this topic will be covered in the title track song ´Ptolomea´, it’s an instrumental song that describes, in a very special way, the places where traitors are punished. But then it will be there that the narration of hell will be interrupted.
Marcello, what are your impressions of the new, upcoming album so far? Do you see any changes compared to the previous one?
Marcello: The upcoming album continues the exploration of Dante’s universe. So the overall style and sound of the album are in the sign of continuity, but, as Dante adjusted his language and style to the different places he described, the same happend here. Farthermore we chose to mix it in a slightly different way towards the previous albums, with the aim of adapting the overall sound to the different topics covered.
Accordingly, Dante’s Inferno still has many stories in store. Will the saga perhaps become a pentalogy, a five-part series, in 2026 or 2027?
Bruno: No, I don’t think so, also because with ´Ptolomea – Canto XXXIII´ the subject will be definitively closed. For the future I already have a lot of material ready and although it will continue to be imprinted and developed on a purely theatrical path, it will deal with something completely different.
And now for something completely different: where else will Dante’s Inferno lead IN AEVUM AGERE?
Bruno: Towards the end of this extraordinary journey.
IN AEVUM AGERE
´From The Depth Of Soul´ (2007) – Demo, self-released
´Labyrinth Of Emptiness´ (2009) – Single, self-released
´MMXI´ (2011) – EP, self-released
´The Shadow Tower´ (2012) – Full-length, Pure Steel Records
´Limbus Animae´ (2014) – EP, Pure Steel Records
´Fugit In Solitudine´ (2016) – EP, self-released
´Gaudens In Domino´ (2018) – Single, self-released
´Canto III´ (2019) – Full-length, Metal On Metal Records
´Emperor Of Hell – Canto XXXIV´ (2021) – Full-length, Metal On Metal Records
´Darkness, Then Light´ (2024) -Full-length, Metal On Metal Records
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