SawThis's Michele the Egod of Thrash Metal!


Modern thrash metallers Sawthis once known as Sothis began releasing material years ago and now that they have gone on to release their latest album, "Egod" there is no stopping them! They have more material  shows, and so much more for this year it's crazy! Drummer and vocalist Michele Melchiorre discusses this with us.


1. So how did the band get the name, Sawthis does it represent or mean anything to the band?

Michele: Our old moniker was Sothis and has benefited from a decade of advertising (in fact "Fusion" issues with that name).  But after a dispute with a Californian band of the same name, we had to change in Sawthis. You know very well that if you change name it's impossible to replace a promotional work last long with news through webzines. This is what we had to do close to the release of "Egod”. We chose "Sawthis" as the name simply because, after all this time, we would not be able to hear us call in a different way on the stage. So we opted for a name phonetically similar. So remember: Sawthis not Sothis! Ahahahahahahahahaha

2. What type of band are you?

Michele: We are a band that follows the feeling. Without struggle our music doesn't exist. For example: on the stage we love the contact with people and we have an “easy” and instinctive attitude. Our genre is clearly a mix of thrash and death metal, but also hardcore, heavy and much more. In summary I think it's very personal but undoubtedly metal. Metal has this characteristic: it can be contaminated by various influences and other musical genre with always a different result.The metal itself is born from a mix of hard rock and punk, and if you think about it, the most important metal album of the last 20 years it's a crossover of many genres outside the metal that have revitalized and renewed and projected to the present day.

3. Tell us the brief history of your band.

Michele: Sawthis born in under the name of Sothis and between 2000 and 2003 records 2 demo, “The Seven Lies” and “Instinct” and shares the stage with many great bands such as: Lacuna Coil, Entombed, Impaled Nazarene, Shaman, Konkhra... In 2003 Sawthis sign a record deal with Temple Of Noise records and in the April of 2006 their debut album "Fusion" is out throughout Europe. This throws the band towards a new massive live activity campaign (this time with Destruction, Anathema, Vader, Sybreed, Impaled Nazarene, Extrema, Sadist, Necrodeath and Assassin) and publishing the first video clip of the song “Beyond The Bound”. In 2009 the band enters the studio again for the recording of the second full-length named "Egod" and signs a deal with Scarlet Records. After the album release, the band start the Egod tour in Eastern Europe, having been chosen by legendary Polish death metal band Vader as their opening act. During the summer, the album promotion continues sharing the stage with The Haunted, Primal Fear, Bulldozer, Cattle Decapitation, God Dethroned and publishing the video clip of the song “Act Of Sorrow”. The live activity continues in 2012 supporting Sepultura during the Est European Kairos Tour, in Italy with the Triumvirhate Tour and playing at Spirit Of Burgas Festival with Korn.


4. Who are your musical influences?

Michele: Let's say that when we were making "Egod" in the studio, at the production level, give ear to Black Label Society, Disturbed, but also the "Black Album" (still the top of the productions), Machine Head, Slipknot , Lamb Of God. But none had the features we were looking for our album. Don't get me wrong: the bands that I had mentioned are all legends and listen to their album was a useful exercise, but only for understand the current productions. But then, "your" disk, it must play in a unique and personal way. At the end, our idea was mix the instruments around the drum sounds, to have a compact and powerful sound and then make louder of stringed instruments in post-production and mastering.

5. What are your dreams and goals?

Michele: We would like live with music because we can live without it! We love every aspect of music, from the path of composition, in which ideas are turned into notes and notes in songs, life on the road and live performance which allowed us to know people around the world who otherwise we wouldn't have known and that instead have become part of our lives. So, it would be a shame if this important and totalitarian universe for our artistic needs, remains only a hobby.

6. Who writes the songs, what are they about?

Michele: The songs you hear in "Egod", both in lyrics and musical component, are all made by me.
I think that working alone has influenced the final result drying our formula and pushing a "song form" more direct. The songs of “Egod” instill in a clearly way their quality. We have expanded our sound working on the arrangements rather than on intrinsic melody of rhythm guitars that have been designed to increase and ensure the impact of the songs. Each score plays a specific and defined role and doesn't come into conflict with the whole work, but rather emphasizes the characteristics making them more obvious. This approach has made "Egod" an album apparently "contaminated" and very little canonical.

7. How do you describe your music to people?

Michele: Fat & Bad Music!!! Hard- earned. Carnal, human, because it develops always evolving musical archetypes and then suitable for all. We love music that has feeling. Ours is a layered sound: powerful, clear and direct but not elementary. For “Egod” didn't want an univocal use: therefore, with the "ethnic" device we tried to balance a different kind of emotion. In this way all coexist in anger and sadness, happiness and holiness, eroticism and death. "Egod" aims to stimulate and activate multiple emotions at the same time trying to shake the listener. If a song doesn't move it's not worth a damn!

8. What image do you think your music conveys?

Michele: I do not know. Although I'm curious. I'd like to ask you! I think our music instill strength, anger, pride, but it is also, at times, very introverted and reflective. But I do not like to talk about us in these terms: I can tell you what my goals when I compose a song but I do not pretend to believe that I can reach them. This is up to the public to say.

9. How does Fusion and Egod differ and compare to one another?

Michele: "Fusion" was an album very heterogeneous because it is made in a long time: a kind of collection of all our most significant compositions written between 1999 and 2003. Stylistically was very varied but close in a style that we can define thrash / death. We are still very proud because it was an album that opened many doors and that we still play on stage. “Egod” instead is a thoughtful album made in a year or so that, even in its setting, we loaded with aims to be met. We wanted in “Egod” always an instinctive. We have exasperated the Hardcore component that has made the thrash genre basically live, we have isolated the heavy component, enriching phrasing, scores and ethnic instruments to amplify the harmonic versatility we have used our death component and seasoned with a great deal of violence. Ahahahahahahahaah. At the end, the result was dry and direct and this has very satisfied. I think "Egod", beyond the tags that can be used to describe it, is essentially a “musical” album. Very calibrated.

10. How has the band’s sound evolved from Fusion to Egod?
Michele: The evolution / involution (depends on your taste) between the two albums is the result of an unavoidable factor: time. When we released "Fusion", we wanted to put all our experience in an album that situate us and make us stand out in a vast, fragmented and scattered scene like the Italian one. "Egod" has wider prerogatives: it aims at a world market, thanks to the global distribution of our label, and a "concept" that configures it as a piece of art: it has a message to spread and a characteristic and uniform style. This is only possible with time and hard work.

11. What inspired the album title? Is it a concept album?
Michele: We wanted to give the appearance of "manifesto" to the themes of the album with an impressive title "carnal" and "sacred." The choice was "Egod" because it is a word that has great evocative power and a multi-purpose sense neither positive nor negative (it can mean so many things: "The ego of God," "I:God," etc. ... ). In "Egod" feelings such as ambition, narcissism, and (of course) the ego, regain dignity itself as the true archetypes of human actions. The ego, in particular, is seen as the feeling that makes it more like Man and God. So, Man dies when it ceases to  its ambitions, dreams and desires because the ego is the key to its vitality. The cover expresses this concept: the Man who becomes apple of desire turns into God.

12. Your signed with record label Scarlet Records how did this occur and are you satisfied with what they have to offer?

Michele: When we entered the studio to record "Egod" we lose any link with our previous staff and did not know how and when it would come out. We were ready to release it as a self-production but we knew that this eventuality would be limiting in terms of exposure. So, we passed around the promo of "Egod" between experts, with whom we have simultaneously tried to establish a dialogue. As a result there are a number of offers including that of the Scarlet Records. It' s a professional reality and established in many markets where we knew we would have been able to improve our work. This is why we welcomed with great enthusiasm their interest.

13. What are your expectations for the CD?

Michele: Expand our audience and travel all around the world playing our music. I know every band says the same, but I think "Egod" should only be listened to. It' s an album with a great possibility, it will have something to say and doesn't leave you indifferent. This happens with all the heartfelt album, created to urgently expressive and full of experiences that each person has tested, at least once in their lives.

14. When it comes to shows, how do you promote your band and shows?
Michele: To promote "Egod", we have collaborated with Alex Azzali and its management Alphaomega, which has done an excellent job for all that concerns the Eastern European and Asian market. We played more abroad than in our country: after all, if you live in Italy is inevitable. In Italy, the metal is dead and doesn't make sense to record an album if you won't to push abroad. From this point of view we were really pleased with Alex' work. Thanks to him we have faced two major European tours (first with Vader and then with Sepultura) and in other important stages including that of the Spirit of Burgas in Bulgaria, where we shared the stage with Korn. Let's say that our "feel of stage" has no limit but we can be satisfied! But, for what concerns the tours, our motto remains the same: "Again"!

15. Can you describe your show, visual and musically for us?

Michele: In our show see five people jumping and moving. As I said, we are very physical and we try constantly the contact with the public. Many bands play on stage as if they were rehearsing, just turn to the audience totally ignoring the scenic aspect in favor of the executive. We also play live as in the rehearsal room: indeed destroy even the rehearsal room! Ahahahaha There are nights that without the audience response I could not play. It' s on those evenings that you discover how the feeling can positively influence your performance. It's the public response that will transmit the adrenaline of which need a great show. We can only do our best to return to the public a very small part of the feeling that every time we reserve! This honors us. Thanx Brothers!

16. What advice would you give to fellow bands?
 Michele: If you are not willing to sacrifice and to task, and if you are not self-critical and extremely demanding with yourself and if you are not able to accept criticism, if you cannot solve any of the problems that happen during a live performance, if you believe that making an album is a goal and not a starting point as all the things you do, if you think that being musicians it's behave like Axl Roses, forget it! Music is a sublime, dark and beautiful monster that devours you! And he wants everything! Not be enough ever! But if you are willing to follow him, you will live your life more beautiful than you can imagine, because music is the top! There are things that cannot be described with words or pictures, worlds that can only be accessed with the notes at the right place at the right time.

17. What inspires you to do what you do?
 Michele: Love! Hate! Life! The music allows you to express yourself, to take an event and tell. And the problem will be behind you. It 'a method of mind's purification from everything that stops you, makes you heavy, dirty and negative. There are things that make you go forward, and then you write a song, and you've already passed. For me, it is a fundamental practice of life, like brushing or eating.

18. How does music affect you and the world around you?
Michele: A lot: without music I would be a serial killer or a bum! The music allows the opportunity to vent my negativity in a constructive and fruitful way.

19. Is that your final answer?
 Michele: These are the links where you can find info, music, videos and news on Sawthis:


Visit us and leave your comments, your thoughts, your insults and all that comes into your head.
Follow updates of our shows and come to our live: we'll drink a few beers together and spend  the time doing the most important thing you can do in life: breathe music! Finally, thank you NATALIE of  NATALIE'S WORLD for this nice chat: it was a pleasure. See you around! SAWTHIS RULEZ, "CHECK YOUR HATE"!

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