Stormlord

With a career spanning over 20 years, four full-length albums released and hundreds of live gigs performed worldwide, Stormlord is one of Italy’s most celebrated extreme metal bands.
Founded as a death metal trio in Rome during 1991, Stormlord started off in 1992 with a self-titled demo, coming back on the musical scene the following year with the “Black Knight” promo tape. In 1997 Stormlord cut the three tracks EP “Under The Sign Of The Sword” and toured regularly Italy and Germany, sharing stages with acts such as Atrocity and Overkill. After dispensing with their death metal roots on 1997's EP, Cristiano Borchi (vocals), Pierangelo Giglioni (guitar), Francesco Bucci (bass) began establishing their future sound, self-classified as "Extreme epic metal", on 1998's “Where My Spirit Forever Shall Be” EP. Signed to the German Last Episode Productions, Stormlord unleashed their first full-length debut album, “Supreme Art of War” – nowaday considered as a cult album in the epic black metal genre – in August 1999 and, with new members David Folchitto (drums) and Simone Scazzocchio (keyboards) in tow, set out on more European gigs supporting Mystic Circle, Graveworm and Suidakra on the "Infernal Gods Of War Tour" in late 1999. The year 2000 saw Stormlord moving to Scarlet Records for the release of their “The Curse of Medusa” EP, and, along with 2001's second album “At the Gates of Utopia”, these established Stormlord as top metal contenders across the Italian boot, earning them appearances at many major festivals in the process (“Un Dia De Leones” 2002, ft. Soulfly, Arch Enemy etc., “A Summer Day In Hell” 2003, ft. Prong, Annihilator, Lacuna Coil, Virgin Steele, Opeth, Type O Negative, Blind Guardian etc., and more…). After touring Europe together with Ancient and Thyrane in late 2001, the additional guitarist Gianpaolo Caprino (Chthonian Nemeton, Perfidy Biblical, Run With Wolves, The Legend Of The Sleeping River), was brought on-board for ever-increasing touring engagements. In 2002 Stormlord shot their first videoclip, “I Am Legend”, now turned to an incredible success with almost 500.000 views on You Tube.
Following a short break, Stormlord delivered their third album, “The Gorgon Cult”, in 2004, performing a huge live promotion featuring two appearances at the world famous “Gods Of Metal” festival 2004/2006 (ft. Alice Cooper, Testament, Motörhead, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P., Sodom, Naglfar, Dragonforce, Stratovarius etc.), several other open air festivals and shows all over Europe and, of course, Italy. Later this year, the band gained attention after the release of the "Under The Boards" music video, which featured large amounts of blood and gore. The clip was banned from most TV channels but, once again, it gained popularity due to massive internet downloads.
Stormlord severed ties with keyboard player Simone Scazzocchio in June 2005, drafting an immediate replacement in former DGM keyboard player Maurizio Pariotti. In June 2006 the band conducted the first shows oversea, headlining a tour in Canada. These shows were filmed for the Dvd “The Battle Of Quebec City: Live In Canada 2006”, released in 2007 via Scarlet Records.
Their sucessfull fourth album, “Mare Nostrum”, was released in 2008 for the Spanish label Locomotive Records and shown Stormlord’s Extreme Epic Metal at its best, innovative yet loyal to the roots. During The following months the band was busy playing all across Europe, storming the stages of several Italian and international festivals featuring Destruction, Axxis, God Dethroned, Ensiferum etc., then attending once again to the “Gods Of Metal” 2008 together with acts such as Slayer, Carcass, Meshuggah, Testament, At The Gates, Dillinger Escape Plans, Between The Buried And Me and more. On November 2008 the band had the privilege to headline the 2J Rock festival in Tunis, playing for the very first time in Africa: due to the outstanding feedback shown from the crowd, the band was also requested to headline Tunis’ “7ème Festival Méditerranéen De La Guitare” on March 2010.
In the meanwhile, the band parted ways with Pierangelo Giglioni and Maurizio Pariotti, welcoming guitarist Andrea Angelini (Withate, Stick It Out, Outbreak) and conservatory classical piano/keyboards player Riccardo Studer (Opus Maledicta, Lord Vampyr) as new members.
In September 2013 the band was back in the saddle releasing the fifth full length album, titled “Hesperia”, for the German Pagan metal label Trollzorn Records: based on the “Aeneid”, the epic poem written by the ancient Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) between 29 and 19 BC., “Hesperia” is the first concept album in the Stormlord career and it takes their Extreme Epic Metal sound to its full development.
The overwhelming feedback from both the music press and the crowd led Stormlord to hit the road touring all across Europe between 2013 and 2014, playing at several open air and indoor festivals like the world renowned Ragnarok Festival (with Satyricon, Finntroll, Manegarm, Borknagar etc.), DarkTroll Festival (Heidevolk, Obscurity etc.), Boarstream Festival (Hate, Aborted etc.), Metalcamp Sicily (Alcest, Korpiklaani, Marduk etc.) and more.
So far, all their albums have been licensed worldwide (Japan, Taiwan, South America, North America, Canada, Europe, Russia etc.).