AydrA

HYDRA

Origins · before Mauro arrived

Hydra was born in Falconara Marittima in the mid-1980s as a power/thrash metal quintet. Their historic rehearsal room was located in the cemetery caretaker's house, a place the band shared with Kurnalcool — an almost cinematic detail that would become part of the myth of the early line-up.

The Marche scene of that era was alive: Hydra moved in the same circuit as Strana Officina, Sabotage, Fil di Ferro and other historic Italian heavy metal bands. It was the moment when Italian metal was beginning to give itself a structure — with the first independent labels, the first fanzines, international tape-trading — and Hydra was a provincial voice growing alongside it.

Between 1988 and 1991 the band recorded three self-produced demo tapes. Long tracks (4-9 minutes), expansive instrumental intros, an attitude already far removed from the two-minute thrash canon: there was a compositional ambition that the first Hydra phase cultivated in silence, and which would become the AydrA trademark in the years to come.

Near the Graveyard

Side A: Phial of Eternity (4:30) · Cold and Sharp (4:57) · Your Evil Be Your Death (3:04) · Intimations of Immortality (5:02) Side B: Lucy Gray (8:57) · Near the Graveyard (6:22) · The Black Mountain (5:57)

Demo · 1988 · self-produced cassette · 7 tracks · 38:49

The band's debut. The longest track, Lucy Gray, comes close to nine minutes — an absolute exception for the thrash of that era. The titles were already literary and visionary: Phial of Eternity, Intimations of Immortality (a Wordsworth reference), The Black Mountain. The cassette was distributed through tape-trading and reviewed in niche Italian metal fanzines.

Sons of Rhan

Side A: Intro: The Fight (8:13) · The Havoc (5:33) · Rising Power (5:21) Side B: Cimmeria (6:46) · Sons of Rhan (7:46) · Head Out (4:26)

Demo · 1989 · self-produced cassette · 6 tracks · 38:05

Second demo. It opens with Intro: The Fight, running over 8 minutes — instrumental, cinematic in construction. Cimmeria and Sons of Rhan point to the Conan / Robert E. Howard universe, heroic-fantasy references that would shape the band's lyrical signature.

Into the Crypta

Side A: Intro (2:57) · Mr. Comics (3:23) · All Mod Cons (5:58) · Skeleton's Messangers (4:25) Side B: The Dark Knight (5:02) · Crypta (6:29) · The Havoc live 9.6.91 (5:07)

Demo · 1991 · self-produced cassette · 7 tracks · 33:21

The last demo of the Hydra phase. Shorter and more direct tracks than its predecessors, but the epic breadth remains. Explicit pop-culture references: Mr. Comics, All Mod Cons (a Jam tribute), The Dark Knight (Batman). It closes with a live take of "The Havoc" recorded on 9.6.91 — a record of the live activity in this final phase, just before the change of name and line-up.

From Hydra to AydrA

Two new members, a new musical direction, a name that falls away and signs itself anew.

Between the end of 1991 and the start of 1992, two new members joined: Mauro Pacetti on bass and vocals, and Francesco Olivi on guitar, coming from Anathema, a local Senigallia band. Gianluca Marconi left to get married. The line-up settled into a four-piece.

The musical direction shifted sharply from the power/thrash of the Hydra phase toward technical thrash/death, along the lines of Death · Atheist · Cynic · Sepultura. It was a break with the past that the band wanted to mark in the name as well.

AydrA. The new logo was designed by Mauro himself — the first of many versions he would shape over the following three decades.

Drawn by Mauro, the AydrA logo changes shape as the band's sound changes.

Line-up · 1992

The quartet that would record Demo 4 and Penance Stare.

AydrA · 1992

In the rehearsal room and out on the street — the new line-up makes its introduction.

Demo 4

8 tracks · self-produced cassette · Falconara · Tascam Porta One.

Tracklist · July 1993

Side A 1 · Revenge 2 · Pleasure Dome 3 · Worse than Death 4 · Say Your Prayers Side B 5 · Night Drive 6 · The Girl 7 · The Child Within 8 · Kids War

Credits

G. Rovatti guitars/lead vocal · F. Olivi lead guitar · M. Pacetti bass+screams · C. Di Noto drums · V. Pertosa special guest, lead guitar on "Worse than Death". Recording & mixing by G. Rovatti on Tascam Porta One. Pleasure Dome and Night Drive would end up on Icon of Sin.

J-card & flyer

The first demo under the name AydrA was titled Demo 4. The numbering wasn't random: the three previous works — Near the Graveyard (1988), Sons of Rhan (1989), Into the Crypta (1991) — had been released as Hydra, and this was the fourth demo of the same collective body of writing.

The title reflected a double movement: on one hand the desire to break and start a new path, with a new name and a new line-up; on the other, the need to maintain an artistic continuity with what had been — not a reset, but a mutation.

"Changing name didn't mean throwing everything away. Demo 4 was our way of saying: we're the same people who wrote the three demos before, but now we're someone else."

Penance Stare

4 tracks · recorded at "Falconara's Cemetery" · Tascam Porta One + Alesis Microverb III.

Tracklist · December '94 — January '95

1 · Dream's Door 2 · Penance Stare 3 · Carnage 4 · Vengeance

Lyrics dated 30-31 October 1993, recorded a year later.

Split vocals · first sign

Mauro took lead vocals on Dream's Door and Penance Stare; Giovanni remained lead vocal on Carnage and Vengeance. It was the first time vocals had been split in a structured way — an early hint of Mauro's future specialization as the main voice of the band.

J-card · tracklist & credits

Live shows · 1994-95

Festivals and dates from the Demo 4 / Penance Stare era across the Marche region.

An encounter that mattered

At the "Sound from the Dark" festival in Camerata Picena (17.09.94), Nicola Raffaeli was playing drums in Aegosoma. That was the night AydrA and Nicola met for the first time: an encounter that would soon reshape the line-up.

Palasport Senigallia · 27.05.94 — Osimo cinema concert · 01.04.94 — Palasport Senigallia · 24.04.95 — Villa Ajello Macerata · 14.05.95 · "Sincrodevastation tour"

Osimo · 1.4.94 — a contest with over 30 original-music bands: AydrA came in first.

Corrado leaves

After "Penance Stare" the drummer departs: the demo is left at four tracks.

After the Penance Stare sessions, Corrado Di Noto left AydrA. The band's original plan had been to put six tracks on the demo, but Corrado's departure made it impossible to finish the work as intended: in the end only four made it onto tape.

For Corrado it was also a choice driven by a different musical hunger. At that point he needed to push toward more extreme territory than the thrash/death AydrA were playing at the time. Soon afterwards, in fact, he joined Beyond Redemption, another Ancona death metal band.

Nicola joins

An almost legendary drummer: "he plays the whole of Reign in Blood".

Meanwhile, in the local scene, the name of a drummer rumoured to be formidable was making the rounds with growing insistence: Nicola Raffaeli. People said he could play the whole of Slayer's Reign in Blood from start to finish — a detail that alone was enough to turn him into a near-mythic figure for anyone looking for a drummer who was fast, precise and aggressive.

As it happened, AydrA crossed paths with him at a gig: Nicola was playing with Aegosoma, a freshly formed heavy metal band. He too, however, was drawn to more violent sounds and already knew AydrA. When the band's call came, he accepted enthusiastically: in that group he saw the chance to express himself with more freedom, experimenting on exactly the kind of musical terrain that excited him most.

David Lenci Sound Machine Rec

The meeting with the sound engineer who would change the band's trajectory.

The meeting · 16 July 1994

At the "Dark Side of Thrash" show at the Coop Senigallia — Saturday 16 July 1994 — David was at the mixing desk as the sound engineer. AydrA played alongside Arcana. Lenci was struck by the band, and at the end of the night he proposed they record an album. From that meeting was born Psycho Pain Control (1996) — the first real AydrA record, and one of the first three albums ever produced by David.

Sound Machine Rec · first 3 albums

1. AydrA — Psycho Pain Control 2. Three Second Kiss — For Pain Relief 3. One Dimensional Man — Pier Paolo Capovilla

Capovilla would go on to front Teatro degli Orrori. AydrA, Three Second Kiss and One Dimensional Man are the founding trio of Lenci's career as a producer.

Red House Recordings · 1999 → 2010

In 1999 Lenci founded Red House Recordings, the studio that would make his name. In over ten years more than 250 artists passed through it. The studio became a reference point of Italian independent rock: productions rooted in noise, post-rock, math-rock and indie underground.

Among the historic collaborations: two records produced together with Steve Albini (Uzeda with Stella, Alix with Good One), the first record by Pier Paolo Capovilla's One Dimensional Man — You Kill Me — and the Three Second Kiss debut, For Pain Relief, confirming the early line that had started with AydrA.

The friendship with June of 44

The closest tie was the one with June of 44, the Louisville post-rock band dear to the American independent scene. A long friendship that came to a head in 2020, with the record Revisionist — reinterpretations of tracks from In The Fishtank 6, Four Great Points and Anahata — recorded at Survivor Sound in Oakland.

David's bands

Beyond his role as a producer, Lenci is also a guitarist and singer. He co-founded Red House Blues Revue with Sean Meadows (guitarist of June of 44): two albums between 2002 and 2004 — Red House Blues and Essential Ordinary Revolutions. Later he formed a band under his own name — David Lenci & The Starmakers — psychedelic blues in sound.

At the start of his career as a producer stand AydrA, Three Second Kiss and One Dimensional Man — three bands that emerged from the Italian underground of the mid-1990s. It was in that small studio in Pianello d'Ostra that Lenci built the sensibility that would soon lead him to work with the international names of independent post-rock.

The proposal

After the 16 July 1994 show, David Lenci offers the band the chance to record an album.

The decisive meeting took place on the evening of 16 July 1994, at the Coop Senigallia. AydrA were playing the "Dark Side of Thrash" show, alongside Arcana. At the mixing desk as sound engineer was David Lenci — owner of the small Sound Machine Recording studio in Pianello d'Ostra. Lenci was struck by the band, and at the end of the night he proposed they record an album.

The band accepted. 1995 became the year of pre-production: the line-up gathered in the rehearsal room to rearrange material from the Penance Stare demo (1994-95), adding new tracks and pushing the sound toward a more structured technical thrash/death. The influences of the moment — Death, Atheist, Cynic — became increasingly evident.

The plan was ambitious but realistic: a five-track mini-CD, recorded professionally, to be pitched to Italian independent labels. For the first time, the band would enter a real studio — no more Tascam Porta One in the rehearsal room. It was the first leap in quality.

For Lenci, at the same time, AydrA were one of his very first projects to follow as a producer. His Sound Machine Rec studio was just starting out: AydrA would be one of the three debut albums of his career as a producer, alongside For Pain Relief by Three Second Kiss and the first One Dimensional Man record (Pier Paolo Capovilla, the future Teatro degli Orrori).

Sound Machine Recording

David Lenci at the desk, AydrA in a real studio for the first time.

The sessions took place over the course of 1995. The band recorded five tracks: three from the previous year's Penance Stare demo — Penance Stare, Carnage, Dream's Door — one from Demo 4: Revenge — plus a new track composed for the occasion: Psycho Pain Control, the title track.

Psycho Pain Control was also the first track Mauro had written as both lyricist and composer — a step change in the band's writing, marking the start of a new creative balance alongside Giovanni Rovatti.

On drums, Nicola Raffaeli joined the line-up, replacing Corrado Di Noto: it was the first line-up change of the new AydrA phase. Lenci handled production and mixing. The studio was small, but the sound was — by the standards of 1995 Italy — at a professional level.

Cryptic Soul Prod the Rieti misadventure

The label that was supposed to press the album turns out to be a waste of time — but from that disappointment a network of friendships is born that will last.

While AydrA were wrapping up the recordings, the first concrete offer came in: Cryptic Soul Production, a small independent label out of Rieti, showed interest in the album. The band — facing their first contact with a real label — accepted. But things didn't go as planned: months passed, deadlines slipped, promises failed to translate into action. Cryptic Soul turned out to be a waste of time.

The disappointment was twofold: it wasn't just the album sitting in limbo, it was also the energy and trust the band had poured into the negotiation. It was AydrA's first run-in with the fragility of the indie system: small labels promising too much and delivering too little.

The network born from disappointment

In those same months, two other Italian bands — Natron and Undertakers — were going through exactly the same experience with Cryptic Soul. When AydrA discovered they weren't alone, an exchange began: phone calls, letters, tape swaps. The three bands got to know one another, played together in Bari (Natron's home turf) and later in the Marche. It was the birth of a network of friendships that would hold solid for years.

Dawn of Sadness Alex De Socchieri

The Sardinian label that steps in after Cryptic Soul and finally brings PPC to the market.

The takeover · De Socchieri style

De Socchieri was a well-known figure in the scene for his work with Scream From Italy. While the Cryptic Soul negotiations stalled, he reached out to the band for the Screams From Italy II compilation. From there it didn't take long for a contract offer to follow, and Psycho Pain Control came out in 1996 as D.O.S. CD03 — the label's third official release, after its first two compilations.

Alex co-founded Dawn of Sadness in Sassari in 1993 (with earliest activity from '92), to give Italian black, death, doom and grindcore a reference point in Sardinia. He built a distribution network that took the national scene out to the European extreme metal market. The historic Screams From Italy compilation series (five volumes, 1994-1999) became a real-time snapshot of the Italian underground scene — and AydrA appeared on the volumes released around the time of their own debut.

Giovanni leaves

The last survivor of Hydra moves to Milan for work.

Giovanni's departure

Right after Psycho Pain Control came out, Giovanni Rovatti — the last survivor of the Hydra line-up still in the band, on vocals and guitar since 1986 — moved to Milan for work. It was an inevitable departure, but a symbolically heavy one too: with Giovanni gone, the direct thread of continuity with the Hydra phase was cut. The band, in effect, became fully "post-Hydra" for the first time.

Giovanni remained in the Psycho Pain Control credits: the writing on four of the five tracks (Carnage, Dream's Door, Revenge, Penance Stare) was his. His imprint would linger in the band's sound long after he left.

Enter Marcello

Marcello Lammoglia, guitarist from Senigallia, completes the new line-up.

Marcello's arrival

In Giovanni's place came Marcello Lammoglia, a metal guitarist from Senigallia and a close friend of Francesco Olivi. His approach was more rhythmic and more modern, complementary to Francesco's lead playing — a balance that would become the trademark of the next line-up. Together they worked on the band's first new piece, destined for the Scream From Italy 2 compilation. It was the start of the path that would lead to Icon of Sin (1999).

Discographic foreshadowing: already on Psycho Pain Control, Marcello had recorded a clean guitar part — a premonition of the line-up change about to become reality. In effect, Marcello entered the record before he officially joined the band.

Lorenzo Luzi

The artist. Lorenzo Luzi, Italian painter. [ Year of birth and city — to be inserted. ]

The work. The PPC artwork was drawn from original paintings by Lorenzo Luzi — not illustrations conceived for the record, but pre-existing canvases the band selected as front and back covers.

The style. The composition openly echoes the Italian Metaphysical painting of Giorgio De Chirico — sun-bleached architecture, faceless mannequins, geometries suspended in deserted piazzas — fused with echoes of Salvador Dalí's surrealism: warped objects, dreamlike atmospheres, that sense of perceptual disorientation that is exactly the conceptual core of the album.

A dialogue with the music. An iconography of restless stillness that converses with the sonic content: just as in De Chirico's canvases reality appears motionless but profoundly altered, so in AydrA's compositions the technical thrash/death folds in on itself — distorted, introspective, off-axis.

Psycho Pain Control tracklist & credits

Tracklist · September 1996

1 · Psycho Pain Control · lyrics & music: Mauro Pacetti 2 · Dream's Door · lyrics & music: Giovanni Rovatti 3 · Revenge · lyrics & music: Giovanni Rovatti 4 · Carnage · lyrics & music: Giovanni Rovatti 5 · Penance Stare · lyrics: Giovanni · music: Mauro 6 · (outro) Heart Control · instrumental closer

Recording line-up · Sound Machine Rec · 1995

Giovanni Rovatti — guitar, vocals · Francesco Olivi — guitar · Mauro Pacetti — bass, vocals, screams & growls · Nicola Raffaeli — drums (AydrA debut, replacing Corrado Di Noto)

+ Marcello Lammoglia — clean guitar on Psycho Pain Control (a premonition of the line-up change: Marcello would replace Giovanni a few months later).

Production · mastering · distribution

Produced by David Lenci & Mauro Pacetti · recording & mixing: David Lenci & AydrA · studio: Sound Machine Rec (the future Red House).

Mastered by Giovanni Versari at Officina Sonica, Bologna · Versari would go on to become one of Italy's most awarded mastering engineers (Grammy 2022 with Måneskin).

Art by Lorenzo Luzi · distribution by Dawn of Sadness · catalogue numbers LUNCD01 / DOSCD03 · released September 1996.

Scream From Italy Vol. II

D.O.S. CD002 · 1996 · curated by Alex De Socchieri.

The new track recorded with Marcello

It was on this compilation that AydrA debuted as a band with a track recorded with Marcello Lammoglia, who had recently joined the line-up in Giovanni's place. The piece wasn't included on PPC but went straight to the compilation — the first sign of the band's new compositional trajectory with the Mauro/Francesco/Marcello/Nicola line-up.

On the tracklist sat 14 bands from the 1996 Italian death/black/extreme scene: Vladimir, Frantic, Eternal Sleep, In low Spirits, AydrA, hatred, In Sorrow, Emmorarge Corpse, Lacrima Christi, Mortifier, Eternal Funeral, Crus Maleficio, Athana, Iblis. A real-time snapshot of the scene.

Scream From Italy Vol. III

D.O.S. CD05 · 1998 · contains the primordial version of "Icon of Sin".

"Icon of Sin" · primordial version

SFI III featured the primordial version of "Icon of Sin" — the track that would give the 1999 album its title. Lenci recorded the song for the compilation, and would later propose a second full-length to the band — in effect, this was the starting point of the journey toward IoS.

On the same tracklist also appeared Mad-Die — one of Mauro's side projects (with Phil, Spaider, Marco). The Dawn of Sadness catalogues became a meeting point for the Marche underground network.

Promo poster

The official poster for the Psycho Pain Control launch — local sponsors, line-up portrait, the record's visual identity at full size.

PPC promo flyers

Four photocopied flyers distributed through tape-trading and fanzines — the underground network in action.

"AYDRA: A New Interesting Band! Brutal Thrash/Death Metal in this Debut MiniCD. NO Trendly, NO Alternative Inside! Only £16,000/11$ (P&P encl.). Distributors Are Welcome." — 1996 promo flyer · AydrA contact c/o Mauro Pacetti, Monte S. Vito (AN)

"P.I.F.E. — PRODOTTI ITALIANI FOTTII ESTEROFILI. The impact unleashed by this mCD will leave you speechless. So go listen to: Psycho Pain Control, Revenge, Carnage… and if you really don't like it, get stuffed and go listen to Ramazzotti & company." — fanzine review, 1996-97

Fanzine interviews

From Metal Shock to photocopied fanzines — Mauro talking about AydrA, Sound Machine Rec, Death/Sepultura/Megadeth as influences, and the Italian underground scene.

"DEATH METAL FOREVER, shout the Ancona-based AydrA, who, after twelve years of musical and line-up evolution, came out at the end of '96 with their debut mCD Psycho Pain Control." — Metal Shock · interview by Laura Archini · 1996

Live shows · 1996-1998

Dates from the Psycho Pain Control era — from the debut of the Cryptic Soul network in Bari (Jan '96) to opening for Sadist at the Blaster (Mar '97) and the reunion with Kurnalcool (Jun '98).

1997 · Italian Assault Part II · opening for Sadist + Detestor + Necromass

Blaster Pub, Monsano (AN), 15 March 1997 · "Italian Assault Tour — Extreme Death Metal Night". Headliners: Sadist, Detestor, Necromass — three historic names from Italian death/avant-garde. Special guest: AydrA. One of the most important opening slots of the PPC era, at their home venue, the Blaster in Monsano. The bill positioned AydrA alongside internationally recognized bands: a confirmation of status that the release of PPC the year before had consolidated.

1998 · Festa della Birra · back to the roots with Kurnalcool

Saturday 27 June 1998. AydrA + Kurnalcool together on the same bill — the launch show for the Kurnalcool CD "Bumba Atomika". A circle that closes: Kurnalcool were the band that had shared the historic rehearsal room in the cemetery caretaker's house in Falconara with Hydra (and later AydrA). Twelve years on from the start, still together on stage — and the local Festa della Birra hosted the celebration.

Stage companions

Friendships, shared stages, road trips and ties: the scene AydrA grew up inside.

AydrA's journey wasn't only made of records, gigs, demos, studios and reviews. Above all, there was a network of human, musical and underground relationships that walked with the band from the 1990s onwards: friendships, shared stages, road trips, label misadventures, unforgettable nights, and bonds that, in some cases, have stayed alive many years later.

Among the closest bands were without doubt Emicrany: neighbours, brothers, friends and stage companions right up until their break-up. With them the bond went beyond simple collaboration between groups: it was a daily sharing of scene, rehearsals, gigs, dreams and difficulties.

A special bond also grew with Vortice Cremisi. Their genre was very different from ours: they moved in more stoner territory, far from AydrA's technical thrash/death. And yet, precisely because of that, the mutual respect was always huge. We played together countless times, sharing nights, audiences and stages, in a climate of real esteem.

With Undertakers too there were several shared gigs and meeting points along the way. With their singer Enrico Giannone a solid friendship took shape, built on respect, contact, collaboration and a shared belonging to the same Italian extreme scene.

With Natron the relationship was also marked by a shared misadventure: the one with Cryptic Soul. Both bands ended up tangled in a complicated situation, but out of that experience grew a kind of solidarity. It's no accident that AydrA's first real road trip was straight to Bari, on their home turf: an important moment, because stepping out of your own zone meant truly beginning to measure yourself against a wider scene.

A special place is held by Detestor, one of the most influential and important bands for us. With them, and especially with Alessandro, there was a deep friendship. Sadly Alessandro is no longer with us, but he remains a figure tied to a fundamental period of the scene. That bond carries on in spirit even into the present: Mauro will appear on the Crystal Sun album, alongside Sadist and other bands, as further proof of a musical and human network that was never really broken.

With Necromass we shared gigs and later moments too, including the Cremona date. Over time we drifted a little, as so often happens in the life of bands, but what stays is the memory and the value of beautiful nights spent together, inside that underground metal community that bound together groups even very different from one another.

Among the tightest bonds, the one with Kurnalcool deserves a special mention. The connection wasn't only live gigs and friendship: Mauro also produced their debut CD, confirming just how intertwined AydrA's story was with that of so many other realities in the Marche and Italian scene. Kurnalcool embody perfectly that climate of collaboration of the time: different bands, often with different attitudes and languages, but united by the same urgency to create, record, play and leave a trace.

With Sadist the relationship was always marked by loyalty, mutual respect and esteem. There was never any sterile competition, but rather the recognition of two paths that were different and at the same time close inside the story of Italian technical metal. The fact that Trevor placed Leave to Nowhere among the ten best albums of 2024 is an important acknowledgement for us, precisely because it comes from a central figure of that scene.

Cassette · 1996

The cassette edition of Psycho Pain Control released by Dawn of Sadness — promo version, "Only For Radios, Zines, Mags Underground!!!".

D.O.S. Krohnik Series · the promo cassette

The Krohnik Series are the cassette editions from Dawn of Sadness: limited runs, hand-numbered, distributed exclusively as promos to fanzines, college radios and underground magazines. The PPC cassette is stamped "Only For Radios, Zines, Mags Underground!!!" — the formula that identifies these promos as not for sale.

Copy #149 of N° 06 of the series is a small cult object: AydrA landed this way in the hands of the international tape-trading circuit, which in the '90s was still the main network for spreading underground metal — long before the Internet, MySpace and Bandcamp.

Malaysian reissue

PPC reissued on cassette in Malaysia — AydrA reach Asia through the international tape-trading underground network.

AydrA · 1999

The line-up that recorded Icon of Sin: Francesco · Marcello · Mauro · Nicola. Same line-up as PPC, transformed sound.

Icon of Sin is "the AydrA album of a lifetime" — Mauro's words. It comes out in 1999 on Square Squid Production, the in-house imprint of David Lenci's Sound Machine studio. It's hailed as "the most devastating album of 1999" and cited by several American webzines among the year's best technical death metal records.

The era lasts four years and crosses three line-ups: the historic formation that records the album, the touring quintet with Mastro joining, the stripped-down quartet when Marcello leaves — the story unfolds across the following pages.

The recording

Sessions 1997-98 · new material + two reworked tracks from Demo 4.

Composition 1997-98

The sessions begin after PPC (1996). The band looks back at its own past and recovers two tracks from Demo 4 — Pleasure Dome and Night Drive, written by Giovanni Rovatti — rearranging them for the new technical death language. Added to these are the new pieces: Icon of Sin, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, No One's Tale, Reflect and Desist, The Day of the Wedding, Xavier's Dream, Lost Time Fury.

Primordial version already on Scream From Italy III

The title-track Icon of Sin appears ahead of the album as a primordial version on the compilation Scream From Italy III (Dawn of Sadness, 1998).

Square Squid & Nuclear Blast

Lenci's in-house imprint · the missed opportunity with the German giant · the Kick promotion.

Square Squid Production · the producer's label

Square Squid Production is the in-house imprint of David Lenci's Sound Machine Recording studio. Icon of Sin therefore comes out on the producer's own label — semi-self-released in editorial terms but on a real label. Dawn of Sadness, which had released PPC, does not return for this second work.

Nuclear Blast America · Nuclear Blast Germany

Before the release on Square Squid, the band receives interest from Nuclear Blast America in Icon of Sin. The deal stalls at the German headquarters: the European parent blocks it out of xenophilia. "An Italian band wasn't of interest to NB Europe." The album returns to the independent road.

Kick Promotion · Enrico Giannone

Promotion is entrusted to Enrico Giannone (of the Undertakers), who at that time is launching Kick Promotion Agency. The Italian underground network responds — reviews, interviews, coverage in American fanzines.

The cover by Eugenio Morganti

A sculpture as an icon — the face as a symbol of sin and idolatry.

Eugenio Morganti · the artwork

The IoS artwork is born from an original sculpture by Eugenio Morganti — not an illustration, but a plastic face that becomes the very icon of sin. The cover rejects the classic death metal iconography (monsters, gore, infernal symbols) and relies instead on a fixed, symbolic image, almost religious in its stillness. It is the visual manifesto of the entire album.

The booklet · pp. 1+2

The booklet · pp. 3+4

Eugenio Morganti

Luxembourg, 1973. Contemporary artist, deeply tied to Corinaldo (Marche) where he lives and works. Conceptual and minimalist painting, warm and intense colors, messages about life, the soul, and attachment to the land. Main technique: oil and acrylic on canvas.

Recognition in Corinaldo. In 2016 he creates the official artwork for the Palio della Festa del Pozzo della Polenta — «Scaena Virtus…Amor» — which celebrates Corinaldo as the «Stage City». Solo exhibitions at Palazzo Cesarini Romaldi; participation at the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona (Exibart circuit).

The work for Icon of Sin. The artwork is born from an original sculpture — not an illustration, but a plastic face that becomes the very icon of sin.

The visual choice. The cover rejects the classic death metal iconography — monsters, gore, infernal symbols — and relies instead on a fixed, symbolic image, almost religious in its stillness. It is the visual manifesto of the entire album.

The three line-ups of the IoS era

Four years, three line-ups: the album, the live quintet, the stripped-down quartet.

F1 · the line-up that records Icon of Sin · 1997-1999

The same line-up as Psycho Pain Control matures a more labyrinthine and cerebral technical death sound, and records Icon of Sin at David Lenci's Sound Machine. Mauro is still on bass + vocals, a double role already road-tested on the AydrA demos and PPC. Francesco Olivi on lead guitar, Marcello Lammoglia on rhythm guitar, Nicola Raffaeli on drums. The quartet is the one that wrote the record together — the compositional balance has been consolidated over five years in the rehearsal room.

F2 · the live quintet · 1999-2001

Right after the recordings, Mauro drops the bass to dedicate himself solely to vocals. Andrea Mastromarco "Mastro" comes in from Infernal Poetry, an acquaintance from high school. The line-up becomes a quintet and reaches the highest point of AydrA's live career: opening slots for Napalm Death, Sadist, Infernal Poetry, Dark Lunacy, Disease. It's the two-year stretch in which AydrA leave the local scene and enter the European death/grindcore circuit.

F3 · the stripped-down quartet · 2001-2002

At the end of 2001 Marcello leaves the band to play with Gunfire. The technical death sound of IoS had become too complex, too cerebral for his more direct sensibility. AydrA decide not to replace him right away and continue as a four-piece: Mauro on vocals, Francesco as sole guitarist, Mastro on bass, Nicola on drums. The line-up tours this way for about 18 months, between 2001 and the end of 2002 — the leanest phase of AydrA's live career.

The gestation of Hyperlogical Non-Sense

Without the second guitar the sound becomes more frontal, more aggressive. Francesco is forced to cover the entire harmonic front on his own, and this leads him to develop a new guitar language — more layered, more vertical, with intensive use of delay and tapping. It's here that the first riffs of what would become Hyperlogical Non-Sense begin to emerge. Composition of the third album starts in these months, even before the arrival of Alessandro Marcelli in 2002-2003, who would bring back the second guitar but on a sonic base already completely transformed.

Mauro frees himself for vocals

Right after the recording of Icon of Sin, Mauro makes a decision that changes the band's live face: he drops the bass and dedicates himself solely to vocals. The IoS sound has become too complex, too cerebral to handle as a musician-singer at the same time. The vocal writing on the new album demands full attention — interpretation, dynamics, stage presence. Mauro keeps writing bass parts, but he passes them to the new member of the line-up.

Mastro on bass

Mauro drops the bass to focus solely on vocals. Andrea "Mastro" Mastromarco — bassist of Infernal Poetry — joins AydrA. The most solid two-year live stretch in their history begins.

Mastro · from Infernal Poetry

Mauro calls Andrea Mastromarco, nicknamed "Mastro". They've known each other since high school. Mastro is the bassist of Infernal Poetry, a technical death band from Ancona that is rising in the same circuit as AydrA. His technical sensibility and his desire to join AydrA do the rest: he accepts with enthusiasm. The prior acquaintance guarantees immediate chemistry.

The live quintet · 1999-2001

With Mauro as a pure frontman and Mastro on bass, AydrA become the most solid live line-up in their history. It's the golden two-year stretch: opening slots for Napalm Death (15.12.2001 at the Mamamia in Senigallia), Avulsed (Gorespattering Tour Europe), Sadist, Infernal Poetry, Dark Lunacy, Disease. The circuit is no longer just Italian — AydrA enter the European death/grindcore flow of the 2000s.

Live manifesto

The official photographic poster of the golden two-year live stretch — AydrA logo at center, live scenes fading into dark purple tones, the visual identity of the Icon of Sin era.

Napalm Death + AydrA

15 December 2001 · Mamamia Senigallia · 22:30. One of the most important opening slots in AydrA's career.

The unexpected opening slot

AydrA join the bill at the last minute in place of Huge Baby, who pull out. It is one of the most internationally significant opening slots of the post-IoS era. The night is held at the Mamamia in Senigallia, a central venue of the Marche extreme metal scene. For the AydrA quintet, it's the highest point of the 1999-2001 stretch: the IoS sound in front of an audience used to pure grindcore. The band holds the stage — the definitive confirmation.

The Last Day + live IoS era

19 May 2001 · Blaster Monsano. Undertakers + AydrA + PLP — Mauro plays in two bands the same night.

Marcello leaves

The last dates of the IoS quintet before Marcello's departure, and the first concerts of the stripped-down quartet.

Distorted Metal Day · 21 June 2003

The most important date of the stripped-down quartet is the Distorted Metal Day in Senigallia, Saturday 21 June 2003. Headliner: Dark Lunacy — at the peak of their rise with Devoid (2000) and Forget-Me-Not (2003). AydrA open as a four-piece.

With Dark Lunacy the bond is forged on the stages of the 1999-2003 stretch. The Cremona band — pioneer of Italian melodic death with symphonic influences and doom atmospheres — crosses paths with AydrA on several occasions, in particular at the Distorted Metal Day on 21 June 2003 in Senigallia. Same Italian death circuit, different sensibilities: AydrA on the technical side, Dark Lunacy toward the melodic-symphonic — but the same mutual respect.

With Disease we share the very idea of Italian technical death: layered structures, odd time signatures, cerebral riffs — a common language born in the same years and matured on the independent stages. Opening slots and shared dates during AydrA's golden live stretch (1999-2001). A band that, like AydrA, helped define the Italian technical scene of the early millennium — outside the major labels, inside the underground network.

🇲🇾 Malaysia

The cassette edition for Speedrawk Records & Distribution of Malacca — the same label that had already reissued Psycho Pain Control.

Speedrawk Records · Malacca

Speedrawk Records & Distribution — Malaysian label from Malacca, already the editor of the Psycho Pain Control reissue. Cassette edition for the Southeast Asian underground circuit (mail-order, local fanzines, international tape-trading).

🇮🇩 Indonesia

The cassette edition for Dahmer Rec — Indonesian label tied to the Jakarta death/grindcore circuit.

Dahmer Rec · Indonesia

Dahmer Rec is an Indonesian label tied to the Jakarta death/grindcore circuit, active in the period when Icon of Sin reaches Asia through international tape-trading.

Here too the format is cassette — the dominant medium of the Asian underground at the time.

Russia + Panama

The 2016 and 2017 editions in CD/digital format — the second life of Icon of Sin in the post-tape-trading era.

🇷🇺 Magik Art Entertainment · Russia · 15 March 2016

The Russian label Magik Art Entertainment from Rostov on Don releases Icon of Sin Anthology in digital format (Bandcamp, MP3 + FLAC 16-bit/44.1kHz). It is the first time that PPC, Penance Stare and IoS are gathered in a single official international release — 20 tracks: 10 from IoS (with bonus No R.M.X), 5 from PPC + outro Heart Control, 4 from the demo Penance Stare 1994-95. Magik Art roster: Russian death/black/extreme scene.

🇵🇦 Bluespoon · Panama · 2017

The Panamanian edition comes out on Bluespoon in CD format — Icon of Sin + Psycho Pain Control together, one year after the Russian anthology. The Central American label handles the physical packaging with dedicated artwork and a redesigned booklet. It is the most recent edition available in traditional physical format, before the announced future release on Rude Awakening Records (label of Leave to Nowhere, 2024).

Music Scene International #23

The AydrA interview for the American fanzine

Flash Metal: Icon of Sin · 100/100

One of the most in-depth reviews IoS received — on Flash Metal, stamped "new comer" and given a full score of 100/100.

Enter Alessandro Marcelli

After 18 months as a four-piece with Francesco's lone guitar, AydrA return to two guitars — the quintet reassembles.

2002 · the arrival

After auditions with various guitarists that go nowhere, AydrA meet Alessandro Marcelli, a young guitarist from the area — very skilled but still raw for the band's technical level. Alessandro accepts Francesco as a mentor, and in one year he matures visibly. In 2002 he officially joins the line-up.

The new line-up

Mauro Pacetti · vocals Francesco Olivi · lead guitar Alessandro Marcelli · rhythm guitar (new) Mastro · bass Nicola Raffaeli · drums

The sound that's changing

Alessandro doesn't write the first riffs — the only exception will be the instrumental Prelude to…. But he is a top-level arranger and soloist, dialoguing with Francesco in the two-guitar passages. The new influences: Meshuggah and Gorguts — irregular meter, dissonances, cerebral writing. The first pieces — Vortex of Desire, Hyperlogical Non-Sense, Inside the Insane Man — already carry the sound of the new record.

Photo book · the quintet

MEI Faenza & Frank Andiver

The MEI 2002 concert never happened. But the meeting with Frank Andiver — that did.

The cancelled show · MEI 2002

In 2002 AydrA are scheduled at the MEI in Faenza — the Meeting of Independent Labels, the main institutional event of Italian independent music. The posters are already up. But a few days before the event Francesco has to leave for Greece: the concert is cancelled.

The band goes to the MEI anyway. They stop by the Rising Works / Xtreme Rising booth and leave a 4-song promo — the first of the material that would become Hyperlogical Non-Sense.

The missed crossing

Frank Andiver at that moment wasn't at the booth: he had gone to hear AydrA live, having seen them on the bill. When he returns to the booth, he finds the promo. Andiver is already a fan of Icon of Sin: he directly offers to produce the new album. The deal is closed in a few days. AydrA will go to Lucca to record.

Frank Andiver

Drummer of Labyrinth, founder of Zenith Studios and Rising Works.

Frank Andiver · profile

Drummer, composer, producer, photographer · born in Lucca 1970. Founding member of Labyrinth (Italian power/progressive metal) on drums for Piece of Time, No Limits, Return to Heaven Denied. Also in Wonderland, Oracle Sun, Shadows of Steel. Since 1990 he runs the Zenith Studios in Lucca: Skylark, Arthemis, Mesmerize, Skanners and many others.

Rising Works · Xtreme Rising · label

Rising Works is an Italian independent label specialized in heavy, progressive and power metal, founded and run by Andiver as an editorial extension of Zenith Studios. Xtreme Rising is the extreme metal division — death, thrash, technical death — where Hyperlogical Non-Sense comes out.

The recording at Zenith Studios

Late 2003 — early 2004 · Lucca · Frank Andiver producing · the band's technical apex.

Zenith Studios · Lucca · late 2003 — early 2004

AydrA relocate to Lucca to record the new album at Frank Andiver's Zenith Studios. The sessions last several weeks, spread across late 2003 and early 2004.

The technical level is the highest point reached by the band: 11 tracks, 38 minutes of music, cerebral writing, irregular meter, constructed dissonances. Andiver brings a new production quality into the sound: layered guitars, three-dimensional drums, bass that emerges from the mix. Hyperlogical Non-Sense is born here — the technical and compositional apex of AydrA's career.

Hyperlogical Non-Sense tracklist

Tracklist · 11 tracks · 2004

Loretta Militano

Rimini. Multifaceted visual artist active in Rimini and the surrounding area. Her output ranges from clay sculpture and raku ceramics to drawing and painting. Her artistic research is focused on the female figure, reinterpreting traditional canons to explore the identity and vital flow of women.

Manifesto NeoSim. She is a signatory of the neo-symbolist movement Manifesto NeoSim. Important cycle «Brave Women»: historical figures like Hypatia of Alexandria connected to geometric and natural symbolisms. Exhibitions at the Galleria No Limits To Fly and the Cinema Fulgor in Rimini.

The work for HNS. Conceived by Mauro Pacetti and drawn by Loretta Militano: a naked and despairing man in an asylum room. On the floor, a book: the pages torn out and pinned to the walls tell his past and his future.

Mise en abyme. The cover of the book drawn within the artwork is literally the same as the CD's: an impossible time loop. The 6 pages of the booklet are hers too: handwritten, as if torn straight from the book on the cover.

The booklet

The inner pages of the CD booklet · artwork and photographs by Loretta Militano · 2004.

The cover concept · time loop

The image depicts a naked, despairing man in an asylum room. On the floor, in front of him, a book: the pages have been torn out and pinned to the walls. The book tells his past and his future, and in the pages stuck to the walls you can see scenes that actually came true after the album's release — in one of these pages the man breaks a mirror, and the mirror in the room is already broken.

The cover of the book drawn within the artwork is — literally — the same cover as the CD's: a visual mise en abyme, an impossible time loop the character cannot escape. Seeing the book that tells his life, reading the future in the torn-out pages, and realizing that future is already the present.

The concept extends to the physical object: the entire inner booklet is handwritten, as if its pages had been torn straight from the book pictured on the cover. The CD booklet isn't just the album's packaging — it is part of the artwork.

Conceived by Mauro Pacetti · drawn by Loretta Militano · Xtreme Rising 2004.

The paradox of logic

When rationality becomes so extreme it turns into absurdity.

Hyperlogical Non-Sense · the concept

The concept of Hyperlogical Non-Sense is philosophical, not narrative. The hyperlogical nonsense is that state in which the mind, pushed to a level of analysis that claims to capture every detail of reality, ends up losing contact with the real itself.

The lyrics — mostly written by Mauro, in three cases by Mastro — move between religious and ideological dogmas ("your temples ooze their blood for eternity"), identity splits, obsessive paranoias, mental anarchies. Musically: irregular meter, dissonant riffs, unstable dynamics.

The logo evolution · 2004

On the HNS cover a new evolution of the AydrA logo appears, also designed by Mauro: more stylized, more angular than the IoS logo, in continuity with the calligraphic aesthetic born in 1992. A third visual phase of the band, after the initial Hydra/AydrA logo of the demos and the "calligraphic" signature of the IoS era.

"Your temples ooze their blood for eternity." — Hyperlogical Non-Sense A line that condenses the record's gaze: dogmas that devour themselves, logic that produces horror.

Between the release of Icon of Sin (1999) and that of Hyperlogical Non-Sense (2004) the Italian metal press goes through a radical transformation. In five years the historic print magazines empty out: they close, reduce frequency, or migrate entirely online. The audience shifts to the webzines.

AydrA, focused for years on writing HNS, cross this passage without noticing. When the record comes out in 2004, the reviews arrive from a completely new editorial landscape: Metalitalia, Metal.it, Heavy-Metal.it, Truemetal, Metallized, Metallus, Metalkimia — all webzines. Distorted Magazine is one of the last Italian print outlets to review the album.

HNS live manifesto

The official poster of the Hyperlogical Non-Sense tour — visual identity of the 2004-2005 golden live stretch.

Official poster · HNS tour

The poster that accompanies AydrA on the most important shows of the Hyperlogical Non-Sense era:

Nicola leaves

The band's historic drummer — since 1995 — announces he's stepping away. AydrA find themselves without their rhythmic engine.

The 2005 split · a complicated phase

Just as the album comes out and with only 2 concerts played, while the HNS tour is still under way, something breaks. Nicola Raffaeli, the band's drummer since 1995 — on the demos, on Psycho Pain Control, on Icon of Sin, throughout the entire post-IoS quintet tour, up to Hyperlogical Non-Sense — is going through a complicated personal phase. He announces that he's leaving.

It is a heavy fracture: Nicola had been for ten years the "incredibly inventive and wild drummer" with whom the band had built the rhythmic identity of its sound. His departure is the first real rift in the line-up since Giovanni Rovatti's exit in 1996.

Davide joins

After a year-long break, AydrA find the new drummer — Davide Fabi, from Urbino — and start the live dates again.

Davide Fabi · from Urbino · 2005-2007

After the year-long pause, AydrA find Nicola's replacement: Davide Fabi, a drummer from Urbino. Davide has the technical preparation needed to handle the HNS repertoire — the irregular meter, the dynamics of pieces like Vortex of Desire, Mental Pattern of Re-Birth, Mind Blast — and the right attitude to fit in with the rest of the quintet.

The new 2005-2007 line-up is: Mauro vocals · Francesco + Alessandro guitars · Mastro bass · Davide Fabi drums. The sound remains HNS; the live repertoire continues to be built around the third album's tracks, with the IoS classics and a few pieces from PPC in the setlists.

The year off and the last live shows

Between Nicola's departure and Davide's arrival — then the last concerts before the silence.

A year-long break · the search for a replacement

AydrA stops. The search for a replacement will be long: the technical level required by the HNS repertoire is high, and Nicola was hard to replace. The band goes through a year-long pause — no concerts, no new material, just auditions of drummers who don't find the right fit. It is the first time AydrA has truly stopped since 1991.

The repertoire remains frozen on the freshly released Hyperlogical Non-Sense. The Xtreme Rising / Rising Works promotional machine slows down. The five members stay in touch, but each begins to fill his own time with other commitments — personal life, work, other musical projects.

Concerts 2006-2007 · the final live phase

With Davide on drums, AydrA is back on stage. Between 2006 and 2007 the band still plays — scattered dates around Italy, a few festivals, shared bills with groups from the Marche and national scene, up to the concert in Cremona with Avulsed.

But the circuit isn't what it was in 2004: the Xtreme Rising / Rising Works / Self promotional machine has gradually wound down, the dates grow more sparse, the opportunities more sporadic. The Italian underground scene is itself changing — some historic outfits close, others move elsewhere. You can feel that something is ending.

"Between 2005 and 2007 AydrA is still active, but the engine is idling." — toward The Void.

AydrA disappear

End of 2007 — beginning of 2008. With no formal announcement, no farewell concert. The band stops. The Void begins.

The stop · no announcement

Between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 AydrA stops. There is no formal announcement, no farewell concert, no statement on the official channels. The band simply stops playing. The last concerts of 2007 will be — though no one knows it at the time — the last ones for five years.

The reasons are many: Francesco, a graduate in civil engineering, begins working with a major company that sends him to Libya, Japan and finally to Australia for four years. Andrea Mastromarco decides to leave on humanitarian missions in Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières. Davide returns to Urbino. Mauro, in 2008, will have his first daughter Zoe, and will dedicate himself to his new family.

The Void · 2008-2012 · five years of silence

And so begins The Void — AydrA's five years of silence. From 2008 to 2012 the band is officially inactive. No new songs, no concerts, no communications. The members move on with their own lives.

It will be Mastro, in 2012, returning from a mission, who reaches out to Mauro again to propose the reunion. From that phone call will come AydrA's new life, the 2013 quintet and — eleven years later — the come-back album Leave to Nowhere in 2024. But for now, at the end of 2007, AydrA has vanished.

"AydrA disappear into the void · 2008-2012." End of the band's first life — the beginning of Part VI.

The reappearance of Hydra

In 2008, while AydrA was slowly slipping into silence, something almost anomalous happened, at least symbolically: the name Hydra came back to life.

Hydra wasn't simply a name that had come before AydrA. It was the root. It was the starting point from which everything had begun many years earlier, when the band still existed in a different, more raw form, more tied to its heavy/thrash origins, but already immersed in that same underground urgency that would later give birth to AydrA.

With the change in line-up and musical direction, Hydra had become AydrA. That passage hadn't been just a change of moniker: it was a mutation. A real transformation. AydrA had taken that root and carried it elsewhere, into a more extreme, more technical, more personal language.

For this reason, the fact that Hydra became active again precisely in 2008 had something strangely circular about it. As AydrA stopped, their origin reappeared. As if, at the moment one creature went into hibernation, its primordial form re-emerged from the past.

It wasn't a replacement. It wasn't a step back. They were simply two lines that, after parting ways, kept existing in different forms. On one side AydrA, suspended in a long and undefined pause, without any real official split. On the other Hydra, brought back to life by its founding members, as testimony to an earlier season that had never fully burned out.

This coincidence remains one of the most curious moments in the whole story. At the exact instant AydrA seemed to vanish, the name from which everything had been born returned to occupy a real space.

The call

After five years of silence, it is Mastro — just back from an MSF mission — who calls Mauro to propose the reunion.

Mauro · the answer

On the other end of the line, Mauro — by now a father, years away from the stage — says yes. The phone call breaks through the wall of the Void. From that moment a new job begins: putting the band back together, rediscovering the sounds, reconnecting the threads.

Mastro · back from MSF

In 2012, after a mission with Médecins Sans Frontières in Africa, Andrea Mastromarco comes home with one fixed idea: get AydrA going again. Five years of complete silence have passed since the band last played. Mastro picks up the phone.

Luca and Giuseppe

For the 2013 reunion two new guitarists join the line-up: Luca Calò and Giuseppe "Peppe" Cardamone. It is the first structural change of AydrA's second life.

Giuseppe "Peppe" Cardamone · guitar + backing

Giuseppe Cardamone joins AydrA in 2013 as guitarist and second vocalist (backing vocals). He becomes one of the stable pillars of the band's second life: from the early reunion dates all the way to Leave to Nowhere in 2024 and beyond.

Luca Calò · guitar

Luca Calò joins AydrA for the 2013 reunion. He partners with Peppe on second guitar, helping reopen the band's sound after five years of silence. He stays with the band through the recording sessions that will lead to Leave to Nowhere.

Marco

Marco Bianchella joins AydrA as drummer for the 2013 reunion. A new rhythmic backbone and the first echo of the reunion in the press.

Marco Bianchella · drums

Marco Bianchella joins AydrA as drummer for the 2013 reunion. He brings with him his experience with Gunfire and — above all — his studio: WR / White Rock Studios, the space that will become AydrA's recording headquarters for years to come, all the way to the come-back album Leave to Nowhere in 2024.

Manifesto · come back

Special guest: Hydra

At the come back show, the historic Hydra line-up also takes the stage — the root coming back to weld itself to the band that grew out of it.

Prelude too....

Before the AydrA concert, Mauro takes the stage with Hydra to close their set. Together they play three tracks: All Mod Cons, Nightdrive, Carnage. For a few minutes, under the same lights, the two bands become — literally — a single voice.

AydrA · come back

Destroyer Festival

Mastro leaves

After putting AydrA back together in 2013, Andrea "Mastro" Mastromarco leaves the band again to return to humanitarian missions with Médecins Sans Frontières.

Mastro · ready to leave

Mastro's call to Mauro in 2012 had been the spark that lit the entire AydrA reunion. But his role in the band had always been intertwined with another commitment: health worker with Médecins Sans Frontières.

After the 2013 reunion dates and the Destroyer Festival, Mastro decides to devote himself fully to humanitarian missions. AydrA loses its bassist — and the man who had put it back together. He stays a friend, a brother, the first witness of the second life.

Enter Masso

On bass comes Andrea "Masso" Massetti. He picks up the baton left by Mastro and will stay with AydrA all the way through the writing and recording of Leave to Nowhere.

Andrea "Masso" Massetti · bass

A bassist with experience in the Marche underground scene, Masso joins AydrA after Mastro's departure. The transition is smooth: the style stays consistent with what the band had built, but with a new personal mark.

Masso will be the bassist for the central phases of AydrA's second life — the tour with Infernal Poetry, the writing sessions for the new material, and the recording of Leave to Nowhere at Marco's White Rock Studios.

Balkan Tour

The friendship with Infernal Poetry

The friendship between AydrA and Infernal Poetry has lasted since forever — from the early days of both bands, back when Infernal Poetry was still called Lamiera. Andrea "Mastro" Mastromarco had played with them right at the start of the project, contributing directly to the birth of Infernal Poetry. Since then the two bands have shared dozens of stages, tours, posters. Beyond the musical respect that links them, they are bound by a solid personal friendship that has run through decades of underground scene.

Live · Balkans

The long silent composition

After the 2013 tour with Infernal Poetry, AydrA does not immediately re-enter the recording and live circuit at the pace someone might have expected. The return was real, the will was there, but the band enters a different phase: more adult, slower, more complex.

From 2013 to 2020 the group meets roughly once a month to work on new material. It's not a pause, it's not an abandonment, it's not artistic uncertainty. It's more like a long underground workshop, made of rehearsals, riffs, ideas, arrangements taken apart and rebuilt, songs that slowly shift shape until they find a solid structure.

The reasons behind this slowness are many. The first is simple: all the new AydrA musicians already belong to established musical projects. The time they can dedicate to the band inevitably often takes second place behind other commitments.

In 2014 Gunfire's Age of Supremacy comes out, an album that keeps Marco and Luca busy promoting it for about two years. This greatly reduces the time both of them can give to AydrA.

In 2015 Giuseppe releases Elektron with Duality, a record he invests in heavily, both artistically and technically.

In this case too, AydrA stays present, but without forcing things. There are no imposed deadlines, no label pushing, no urgency to "put something out" just to exist.

Masso, meanwhile, continues his path with Kurnalcool and also starts playing with Riciclato Circo Musicale, a band very active live, for whom Mauro works as sound engineer. This too becomes a constant, intense commitment, capable of absorbing energy and time.

Then life arrives.

In 2016 Yago is born, Mauro's second child. As had already happened with Zoe, Mauro chooses to dedicate his time to family. In those same years he also keeps working with Riciclato Circo Musicale as sound engineer, works as a freelance sound engineer, takes part in tours and other audio-related events. Music remains central, but it is no longer separate from life: it has to find space inside a daily reality made of children, work, responsibility and adult choices.

In 2018 Marco proposes to Mauro that they open something together: Mosaiko is born, their ledwall business for events and concerts. A company demands investment, time, energy: another element that slows AydrA down, without ever stopping them.

The AydrA project, in reality, is never abandoned.

Mauro, Giuseppe, Luca and Masso keep meeting: one evening a month devoted to writing. Each track requires four, five, six rehearsals before finding a convincing shape. It's also a choice, tied to the AydrA DNA: not just any songs, but memorable tracks.

AydrA has never been in a hurry. And maybe that's exactly why, when they truly return, they return with something that doesn't come from the urgency to publish, but from years of layering, patience and stubbornness.

Toward Leave to Nowhere

Toward the end of 2018 a clear need emerges: finally finish the album that had been started around 2014. After years of monthly rehearsals and accumulated riffs, that material cannot stay suspended forever.

It is the moment when the band begins to plan the future.

On one side, the desire to finish the album; on the other, the reality of everyone's lives. Time has become a tyrant: work, family, other projects. They are no longer in their twenties, when everything revolved around music: now every hour given to AydrA has to be fought for.

And yet something is moving. The first demos are born: the songs are convincing, the album starts sounding like a real album — no longer isolated riffs, but direction, identity, structure.

But if on one side art calls, on the other life demands.

And that's exactly where everything gets complicated. The artistic will is strong, but the practical conditions are hard: putting out a new record will already be a huge achievement. Thinking of a real live activity too — rehearsals, organization, dates, travel — looks almost impossible.

So, at the end of 2020, a lucid and realistic decision: Leave to Nowhere will be above all a studio album — to be completed and left to time, more than the starting point for a steady return to the stage.

Leave to Nowhere thus becomes not just a record, but the document of an adult band: still hungry, still stubborn, yet forced to measure every step against the weight of time.

Covid and the birth of Leave to Nowhere

Then Covid arrives. Everything stops.

For Marco and Mauro it's a disaster. They had just started the Dardust tour: first date in Bologna, at the TPO, February 22, 2020, then Milan, Turin, Rome. Instead that night becomes the year's last event.

It all collapses like a house of cards.

Concerts cancelled, stages dark, venues shut. Anyone who, like Mauro and Marco, works with gatherings of people finds themselves without work and without income: a personal, professional and human tragedy.

But inside that forced suspension something unexpected happens: time, for years AydrA's number one enemy, becomes available again. Not by choice, not in a happy condition. But it's there.

And that time becomes the space in which Leave to Nowhere is finally completed.

The fortunate thing, at that moment, is that Marco owns the White Rock Studios. The band has the minimum setup needed to record drums: Marco takes advantage of the suspended situation and dives completely into the songs.

He plays and replays the album until he knows every passage absolutely, then performs all the songs perfectly in a single take, recording the videos as well — which then stayed up on the AydrA YouTube channel.

At that point the record can truly be born.

Giuseppe, Luca, Masso and Mauro record their parts from home, remotely; the tracks go to Marco for the mix. Leave to Nowhere is born in the middle of a global lockdown — the only possible way to keep existing.

In the middle of the 2020 lockdown, during those same home sessions, AydrA records a metal version of Cuore d'Oceano — the track by Caparezza and Il Teatro degli Orrori. In the band's own words: "a tribute to the two Italian artists we respect the most on the Italian scene."

The concept: nowhere to run

Throughout the 2014-2020 period, Mauro and Mastro remain in constant contact: even though Mastro is no longer in the band's day-to-day life, the human and ideal bond stays strong.

Over the years Mauro had developed a deep sensitivity to the theme of migration. Since the days of Kontatto he had followed wars, flights, exoduses, peoples forced to leave their land. Not a passing interest: with a degree in psychology, his thesis dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — identity, uprooting, oppression, the impossibility of any simple peace.

Mastro, on the other side, was touching those realities with his own hands: his work with Médecins Sans Frontières in Africa put him in direct contact with extreme situations, real people, stories that were no longer images seen from afar. That dialogue becomes one of the emotional and conceptual grounds from which Leave to Nowhere will be born.

The lockdown blocks everything but gives Mauro a new condition: time. Forced into inactivity, he focuses all his energy on writing the lyrics. He had heard about the meaning of freedom in Eritrea, a country many flee because to stay means living without any real chance to choose. With the lockdown the theme becomes concrete in Italy too — less tragic, but tangible: not being able to go out, not being able to move, not being able to flee.

Leave to Nowhere is born partly from there: from the idea of a flight with no destination, of a forced movement, of people leaving everything not because they know where to go, but because staying is impossible. It's not the romantic journey of someone leaving to seek fortune. It is the exodus of those who have no choice.

In this journey, Mastro's contribution remains carved into the album in a special way. Before leaving AydrA, he had written the music for one song and left it to the band as a kind of legacy. That track will become the album's instrumental, the title track: Leave to Nowhere.

It is meaningful that precisely the song without words carries the title of the entire record. As if the deepest core of the concept didn't need to be explained: music left as inheritance, transformed into the symbolic center of the album, capable of telling without text the very idea of departure, absence, uprooting.

Leave to Nowhere thus becomes the meeting point between biography, pandemic, political conscience and human memory. A record born slowly, but loaded with everything that had stayed suspended over the years: friendships, distances, wars, migrations, work, family, lockdowns, fears, and that terrible question that runs through so many contemporary lives:

"Where do you go, when there's no place left to stay?"

The album ready, life to rebuild

In the summer of 2021, Leave to Nowhere is finally ready.

After years of slow writing, Covid, the home recordings and Marco's mix, the album exists. But the world starts up again and with it the urgency to make up for lost time: for Mauro and Marco, 2021 isn't a celebration, it's the moment to get back on their feet.

Mauro is completely broke: to survive he takes out a loan. The priority can't be Leave to Nowhere: he has to work to secure his family's future.

The album is there, but it has to wait.

Despite all this Mauro makes a move: he contacts Enrico Giannone — vocalist of Undertakers and founder of Time To Kill Records. He sends him a promo, the response is positive: Enrico likes the album a lot.

But the decisive question lands right away: how do you plan to promote it?

Mauro answers with total honesty: at that moment there is no real intention of promoting the album live. The idea is to press it, release it, close a circle — rather than reopen a live season.

Enrico's position is understandable: investing without a band ready to play live is a huge risk. He doesn't close the door — out of respect and friendship with Mauro — but gives priority to other bands.

For Mauro, though, that pause isn't a defeat.

If anything, it becomes almost an opportunity: having another year to get back on track is maybe just what he needs. So 2022 passes — work, work, work. Leave to Nowhere stays suspended, not forgotten: just postponed, while life still asks for its bill before art.

An analog creature in the digital age

2023 marks an important year.

The relationship with Time To Kill stays open, but Enrico keeps postponing. Mauro understands the situation perfectly. The label is growing, taking huge strides, investing in young, active, eager bands ready to play, promote themselves, ride the rhythm of the contemporary market.

Everything is going well for Time To Kill, and in that picture releasing AydrA can't be a priority.

AydrA, however, has a ready album. A finished work, listened to, listened to again, internalized. After years of waiting, the need to finally see it published gets stronger and stronger. So, after some internal reflection, the band decides that the moment has come.

Mauro contacts Enrico and explains the situation clearly: at this point AydrA prefers to go it alone and release the album as a self-produced work. Enrico understands. There's no break, no conflict, no bitterness. The roads simply part ways naturally.

And so the Time To Kill chapter closes.

October 2023 arrives and Mauro is set on releasing Leave to Nowhere. The wait is becoming almost unbearable. Every day he plays the album back: it sounds good, it sounds really good. It's AydrA at one hundred percent. Three years have passed since the recording, yet the record still sounds fresh, alive, powerful as the day it was finished.

But Giuseppe stops him.

Or rather, he convinces him to think it through one more time. The band has been off the radar for almost nine years. In the meantime the world has changed: social media has evolved, the way people listen to music has been completely transformed. AydrA has no Instagram, no structured YouTube channel, no Spotify, no Bandcamp. They have no real digital presence.

AydrA is an analog creature living in the digital age.

Releasing the album at that moment would have meant maybe handing it over to the void. Giuseppe suggests using that year to prepare the ground: open the channels, rebuild a presence, bring the AydrA name back into the light after the long silence that followed Hyperlogical Non-Sense.

It's about letting the world know AydrA still exists.

The digital rebirth

At the end of 2023 AydrA takes the first real step toward going public again.

After years of absence, the band finally opens its digital channels and starts building a presence in the new world. Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, content, reels, stories: tools that had stayed far away from a band born in a completely different era.

AydrA starts uploading all the albums to Spotify, planning releases at a steady pace: one album a month. Each release is paired with reels, stories, images from the past, memories, fragments of a journey that until then had stayed almost buried in the memory of those who had lived it.

Cover videos, old live footage, parts of the 2013 concert recorded professionally in multitrack start coming out. The band takes its own history back into its hands and starts rebuilding it piece by piece: photos, flyers, fanzines, truly underground concerts, years made of stamps, letters, cassettes, direct contacts, small stages, travel, waiting and pure passion.

What had been an analog creature finally begins to breathe in the digital age.

And the response comes right away.

The numbers grow fast. Spotify grows. Instagram grows. Messages come in. The historic fans speak up, recognize the band, remember the albums, show their affection. AydrA discovers that their name hadn't really disappeared: it had stayed suspended, hidden, waiting to be called back into the light.

Then, in January 2024, a decisive encounter happens.

Mauro is in Rome for work and meets Gabriele Cruz of Rude Awakening. Gabriele has known AydrA forever. The two talk, they understand each other right away, they immediately find common ground. Mauro, with the same honesty he had used with Enrico, lays out the situation: there probably won't be any real live activity. The band wants to release Leave to Nowhere, but can't promise tours, dates, constant live promotion.

Gabriele, however, isn't put off.

On the contrary, he proposes a collaboration for the release of Leave to Nowhere and more. He sees in AydrA's story something worth bringing back out, something that doesn't depend only on the possibility of playing live, but on the strength of a journey, a name, a discography, an identity.

From that moment an incredible journey begins.

Reissues, announcements, press releases, new publications, recovery of the past, relaunch of the present. Everything that had stood still for years suddenly starts moving.

And so 2024 becomes, almost without anyone seeing it coming, the absolute year of AydrA.

Rude Awakening Records

Who they are. Independent underground label based in Rome, founded on August 20, 2015. Specialized in releasing and reissuing rare or out-of-print records of extreme metal: thrash, black, death, doom, heavy and US power.

The encounter that unlocks everything. January 2024, Rome: Mauro meets Gabriele Cruz, who has known AydrA forever. They understand each other instantly. Mauro is straight up — no guaranteed tours — but Gabriele isn't put off: he releases Leave to Nowhere and reissues the entire historic catalogue on vinyl and CD.

Old-school promotion. Gabriele does incredible work: EPKs everywhere, webzines, magazines, radios and underground outlets in Italy and abroad. Within a week AydrA is swept up by reviews, interviews and requests.

A living label. Between historic reissues and contemporary bands from the extreme scene, Italian and international: Heruka, Shardana, Humanity Zero, Metal Detektor and many others.

Psycho Pain Control

Icon of Sin

Hyperlogical Non-Sense

Hyperlogical Sin Live 2001/2013

A single CD lining up two AydrA eras. The first part is the recording of the Icon of Sin tour concert (2001); the second, the Hyperlogical Non-Sense tour (2013). Two different line-ups, twelve years apart, the same fury: live, the tracks change skin and the 2013 set closes with the Death (Crystal Mountain) and Slayer (Raining Blood) covers. All remastered and on CD for the first time, with an 8-page color booklet — photos and band history.

Forever Hide

Rare Tracks

Not an album but an archive. Rare Tracks gathers demos, live versions, covers and unreleased rarities recorded throughout the band's entire history: from the origins as Hydra (1991-93) to the early AydrA demos, from the tracks featured on '90s compilations to the 2013 Hydra reunion, all the way to the pandemic-era TribalStep project of 2020. Each track has its own lineup and story — reconstructed one by one in the 8-page color booklet. Remastered audio.

Psycho Pain Control 2024

Deserter

Leave to Nowhere

Luca Morici

Ancona, 1974. Self-taught painter with a versatile, eclectic style; lives and works in Castel d'Emilio. An artistic and territorial bond with AydrA: two creative gems from the province of Ancona.

The friendship with AydrA. A thrash guitarist with Endrenalization, he shared the stage with AydrA many times during the '90s: a solid friendship grew from there. Years later Mauro, fascinated by his painting career, bought "Delirio" directly from him.

The Leave to Nowhere cover. The official album artwork is an adaptation of the painting "Delirio": anguish, disorientation and no way out — the same journey of the migrant from Eritrea to Europe told by the album's concept.

Also for AydrA & TribalStep. He also created the covers for the Russian reissue and the Panamanian reissue of Icon of Sin, and the cover of the TribalStep single All One Tribe.

Beyond music. A leading figure in Italy for scientific outreach through comics: the graphic novels Viaggio al centro del cervello (Cosmos Prize 2024) and Dio gioca a dadi con il mondo (quantum mechanics).

The Best of AydrA

Abominium

Music essay by Mariano Fontaine (Crash Edizioni, 2026, Noises series): 324 pages, 16×23 format, illustrations by Francesco Vignola and the official logo curated by The Old Nick. Standard edition and limited signed version with t-shirt — Amazon Italy, LaFeltrinelli and book retail networks.

It reconstructs the birth and early evolution of death metal in Italy, from 1986 to 1993: a pre-internet era, with no labels and no adequate studios, inspired by the scenes of Tampa and Northern Europe, intertwined with the social and political context of the time, told through the direct voices of the protagonists of the Italian extreme scene.

Among the protagonists of the volume is also the historic band from the Marche region AydrA, alongside foundational names in Italian extreme metal such as Sadist, Gory Blister, Detestor, Natron and Electrocution.

It is no coincidence: the temporal threshold of the book — 1993 — coincides exactly with the birth of the AydrA moniker, which emerged that year from the ashes of the previous power/thrash project Hydra (active since 1985). Born in Ancona, AydrA are among the pioneers of technical death metal in Italy.

The band publicly expressed their pride at the inclusion in the anthology. Rude Awakening Records (Rare Tracks, Leave to Nowhere) also contributed to the book's distribution.

The new live line-up

After the success of the single Forever Hide, the AydrA project changes shape once again in view of the live shows.

The line-up change · summer-autumn 2024

After the success of the single Forever Hide (July 2024), the AydrA project takes on a new form. Mauro absolutely wants to bring Leave to Nowhere on stage, concentrating the dates within specific periods of the year.

Andrea Massetti, busy with Kurnalcool and Riciclato Circo Musicale, drops out. Luca Calò, already committed with other local bands and with his job, is also unable to follow the tour calendar.

Andrea Mastromarco returns to the line-up on bass, after eleven years away from the band. Marcello Lammoglia joins on guitar. The new live line-up is ready for 13 December 2024 at Circolo Dong in Macerata — the show that opens the tour.

Everything is ready.

Death metal · Macerata · since 1995

Death metal band from Macerata, formed in 1995 in the basement of an old building in the Marche province. Over three decades in the extreme underground, with a brutal sound faithful to old school death metal that blends the Swedish school (Dismember, Entombed) with American extreme sonorities. Discography: Revolution Evilution (2014, debut) · You Tomb (2019, Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) · The New Beginning.

"It feels like being back in 1990. Crepuscolo are not lacking in irony or boldness."

— Lorenzo Bolletta · bollanet74 · 17 Dec 2024

Technical death metal · Italy · since 1991

Italian technical death metal, formed in 1991. A hyper-technical, high-precision sound interwoven with mid-tempo rhythms: complex songwriting and ferocious aggression. Internationally renowned for their discography and live performances. Founders: Raff Sangiorgio (guitar) and Joe Laviola (drums). National attention with the EP Cognitive Sinergy (1997), then the debut Art Bleeds (2001, reissued by Sekhmet in 2003). The deal with Dutch label Mascot Records leads to Skymorphosys (2006, including a cover of Death's '1000 Eyes') and European tours with Sadus, Darkane, Amoral. Since 2023 with Eclipse Records with the acclaimed Reborn from Hatred.

"Considered true pioneers. A devastating concert."

— Lorenzo Bolletta · bollanet74 · 17 Dec 2024

Technical death metal · Marche · 1986 - 2026

Born in 1986 under the name Hydra, becomes AydrA in the early '90s. Four decades of music, five studio albums, records produced between Italy and the United States. Vocalist and founder: Mauro Pacetti. Live, a return to the roots: on bass Andrea "Mastro" Mastromarco is back — former bassist of Hyperlogical Non-Sense and of the 2013 reunion — on guitar Marcello Lammoglia, guitarist of Icon of Sin. Alongside Cardamone and Bianchella, the musicians from the band's historic chapters return to the stage for this tour.

"2024 marks the grand-style return of AydrA, the local standard-bearers of Technical Death Metal."

— Lorenzo Bolletta · bollanet74 · 17 Dec 2024

That day was insane: so many had been waiting for an AydrA live show for years. The venue was packed, and a great many were old friends. Before going on stage Mauro lingers chatting with dozens of friends and fans — and when he kicks off the set he pays the price: he needs a couple of tracks to find his voice again. The lesson is learned on the field: from that night on, chatting with fans and acquaintances only after the show, never before.

Emberstar's musical proposal develops over a base of technical and progressive Thrash Metal strongly anchored to old-school Heavy/Speed Metal. Music critics liken their sound to historic bands such as Agent Steel (John Cyriis era) and early Anthrax from Fistful of Metal, enriched by articulated and modern rhythmic structures.

Show of Force is a historic hardcore punk/metal band from Florence, Tuscany, active in the Italian underground scene. The group is known for their aggressive sonorities and is a regular presence at festivals and social centres in the region, having often shared the stage with other realities of the punk and metal scene.

Progressive Power/Thrash Metal band born in Rome in 2000 from the ashes of the previous project Maelstrom. Founded by guitarists Tiziano Marcozzi and Luca Bianchi, the band combines the aggressiveness of thrash/death metal with melodic writing and carefully crafted technical structures.

Origins (1995-2002): the original nucleus in Rome in the second half of the '90s as Maelstrom. In 2000 it reforms as Exiled on Earth. Self-released debut EP Duality Conflicts (2002).

Growth (2005-2008): second promo The Seizure of Rationality (2005). They define their own Orwellian and dystopian sound.

Album and major support slots (2009-2016): debut album The Orwell Legacy (2009). They open for Saxon, Winger, Paul Di Anno. Second full-length Forces of Denial (2016, Punishment 18 Records).

Maturity (2020-today): NonEuclidean (2020), The Onyx Path (2022). In 2024 the fourth album Vertenebra confirms their technical, dark imprint rooted in the Roman underground scene.

The story had started in Chianciano: after the show the van — an old 2007 Ford — makes a strange noise. The next day, on the motorway near Orvieto, while the band is heading to Rome for the Init, the vehicle stops for good. It will stay there until it is scrapped.

While waiting for the tow truck and a replacement van, Marco accidentally closes the door on Mastro's hand: he loses a fingernail. The forced stop turns into a break at a restaurant, ice bag on the hand.

That night Mastro still gets on stage at the RCCB In It with his finger bandaged and aching. The show goes on. The third date in nine days closes with gritted teeth — but it closes.

Italian death metal band born in Milan in 2016. A style that moves within modern death metal, combining technical, brutal and atmospheric sonorities.

Path: three EPs — Spiritual Deception (2018) · Etemenanki (2019) · Oxymoron (2021, international visibility, attention from US magazine Metal Injection). In 2024 the debut album Semitae Mentis via Amputated Vein Records (Earache digital distribution) with the collaboration of Karl Sanders (Nile) on the track Thousand Lives Within.

Live: northern Italy circuit, stages shared with brutal death icons like Putrid Pile (Slaughter Club, La Cripta). Guitars: Mirko Frontini (also on vocals) and Riccardo Maccarana.

Italian Gothic/Doom/Death Metal band born in Rome in 2016. The musical project sets itself the goal of reviving the dark and melancholic sonorities of '90s doom metal: cold, decadent atmospheres charged with anguish. The lyrics explore apathy, pain, decadence, lack of purpose.

Label: Aural Music / Code666. Logo: designed by the well-known Belgian artist Christophe Szpajdel.

Recent activity: in May 2026 at Traffic Live Club in Rome (Via Prenestina) they will support the Roman date of Psychonaut 4 and Sedna, alongside Dispnea.

Underground Black/Death Metal band from Foggia, Apulia. A style that fuses the aggression of death metal with the dark, icy atmospheres of black metal — themes tied to existence and dark visions. The band explicitly declares itself against every form of violence. Active and independent, with no official label.

Discography: Veleno (EP, 2021, debut reviewed by TrueMetal) · Di estetica, epifanie e tormenti (EP, 2024).

Live: active in the Apulian and Southern Italy underground circuit — Kraempus Fest (Foggia 2024), Borgo Rock (Borgo Celano 2025), Kambusa Rock Bar (Monopoli).

Anthony Michael Dolan, known by the stage name Demolition Man, English heavy metal singer and bassist born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 21 January 1964. Famous for his tenure in historic bands of the speed, thrash and black metal scene — in particular for having replaced Cronos as Venom's frontman between the late 1980s and early '90s.

Musical career: Atomkraft (speed/NWOBHM, since 1979) · Venom from 1989: records Prime Evil (1989), Temples of Ice (1991), The Waste Lands (1992) · Mpire of Evil with Mantas (Jeff Dunn) · Venom Inc. (since 2015, with Mantas): Avé and There's Only Black.

Actor: role of the carpenter Mr. Lamb in Master & Commander — The Far Side of the World (2003) alongside Russell Crowe. Also in Judge Dredd (1995) and British TV series.

Thrash metal from Reggio Emilia, founded in 2008. Tight, aggressive rhythms rooted in classic, cynical thrash; lyrics about violence, society and politics. In March 2017 the band was marked by the passing of historic guitarist Andrea "Artio" Artioli (31 years old): grief is channeled into music on the EPs Wreckage (track Endless Decay, Volcano Records) and Parasite.

Discography: Unleash the Violence (2011) · DominHate (2014, Simone Mularoni's Domination Studio) · Wreckage (2018, EP) · Parasite (EP).

Sicilian thrash metal founded by bassist and vocalist Ignazio Nicastro (formerly Xenos). Granite-hard, technical, uncompromising thrash in the vein of Slayer, Megadeth, Kreator, Testament: complex riffs, imposing rhythm sections, progressive shadings. Lyrics on the psychological horrors of war. Label: My Kingdom Music.

Discography: Filthgrinder (2020) · The Dawn of Ares (2021) · Reqviem for the Oppressor (2025, a 9-track concept on war — singles Dogma of War, The Bleeding Hands of Faith).

Symphonic death/black metal from Padova, formed in early 2024. Four highly experienced musicians from historic acts of the Italian metal scene — Cruenta Lacrymis, Ades Numen, Lostair. Their proposal fuses the violence of blackened death with majestic orchestral and symphonic atmospheres: scathing riffs, blast beats and dynamic vocals between deep growl, high-pitched scream and melancholic clean voices.

Label: Ad Noctem Records · Debut album: The Eventide Collapse (4 October 2025).

Death metal and grindcore band originally from Milan, active in the extreme scene since 2017. Known for their chaotic and brutal sonic blend that combines grindcore, death metal and thrash metal, with markedly grotesque lyrics about contemporary decay.

Discography (Ad Noctem Records): 1901 (debut) · Grind Hotel (2023, crossover/thrash contaminations) · Italia's Gore Talent (5 December 2025, Toxic Basement Studios, anticipated by the single Hippopotamus).

2026 line-up: Eric (vocals and keyboards) · Max (guitar) · Marco (bass) · Nico (drums). First live date with the new line-up: 10 July 2026, Have a Drink on Me Metal Fest, Brembate di Sopra (BG).

Blackened Death/Thrash metal from Salerno, formed in 2021. A sharp, heavy, uncompromising sound, strongly influenced by the classic death and thrash scene. The name Lebbra (Italian for "leprosy") is directly inspired by Leprosy, the legendary second album by Death. Themes: death, illness, suffering.

Born during the COVID lockdown from the idea of the two guitarists Kevin and Renato: pandemic time spent writing and recording the first ideas, then the line-up completed in their garage in Salerno.

The tour closes with a band whose name pays tribute to Death — the same spirit as the opening date.

Mauro Pacetti

Role in AydrA

Founder, vocals, bass, author of the AydrA logo and of the compositional direction. Joins Hydra in late 1991; in 1992 leads the name change and the new course. Bass + vocals on the demos and the first two albums (PPC 1996, IoS 1999); from 1999 he hands over the bass to Mastro and dedicates himself exclusively to vocals. Leads the 2013 reunion and writes lyrics, vocals and compositional direction for Leave to Nowhere (2024) — the first AydrA album of new material after 20 years.

Influences

A trajectory crossing thrash, technical death, hardcore, militant song and industrial techno — always tied to a collective attitude: the band as a political laboratory, not as a product.

Mad-Die

Mad-Die are born in the summer of 1996 with Mauro and Luca Fioretti on guitars, Andrea Barchiesi on vocals, Gabriele Baldini on bass, Marco Fioretti on drums. A direct, raw sound — an escape route from AydrA's technical death.

In 1997 they record their first demotape. In 1998 Mauro and Marco Fioretti leave; Marco Priori (ex Arcana) and Corrado Di Noto (ex Hydra) come in.

Nuova Resistenza

Nuova Resistenza (2003-2011) are born within the collective of the Kontatto social centre in Falconara. More than a band: a collective voice, a direct musical expression of the militancy of the Marche network of social centres.

Line-up: Pierpaolo Tomassini (vocals) · Spaider (second vocals) · Pupilli and Landi (guitars) · Mauro (bass) · Barbato (drums).

A repertoire of anarchist and partisan songs, never officially released — they play in squares, demonstrations, picket lines. Not for the market, but for the struggles and the memory.

P.L.P. · Pink Little Pig

Hardcore thrash · bass · Indonesia + Malaysia reissues · 2002-2005

P.L.P. are born from the ashes of Mad-Die. Mauro, after his shift in AydrA from bass/vocals to vocals only, feels the physical need to return to the bass: with Luca Fioretti "Phil" (guitar), Andrea Barchiesi "Spaider" (vocals), Marco Fioretti (drums), he takes the road of brutal hardcore thrash, dirty and uncompromising. Their operational base is the Kontatto, the Falconara social centre — P.L.P. are an active part of the Italian network of social centres. Tours from Crotone to Rome, from Alessandria to Taranto. The CD Piercing by Blade is reissued in Indonesia (Arack Records) and in Malaysia (Speed Rawk). The band disbands in 2005.

Undersiege

Sepultura "Under Siege 1991"-era tribute · guitar + vocals · since 2012

Undersiege are born in 2012 to bring back live the impact of the Sepultura of the legendary "Under Siege" 1991 show — more than a cover band, they reproduce the attitude, sound and live violence of that precise historical moment. Line-up: Mauro guitar/vocals · Andrea Massetti guitar (later AydrA on bass) · Isa bass (later Hydra), then Federico Natalini (Downfall) · Marco Fioretti drums (formerly Mad-Die, P.L.P.). The band also records an album of original tracks: pieces written by Mauro years earlier for AydrA but never released. With the 2013 AydrA reunion the project ends — part of that material, reworked, finds new life in Leave to Nowhere (2024).

Tribalstep

Industrial techno · synth/guitar/bass/vocal · Mauro + Michele Tiberi · 2020-2024

Tribalstep are born during the Covid-19 pandemic from the meeting between Mauro Pacetti (synth, guitar, bass, vocal) and Michele Tiberi on percussion. Industrial techno + electronic pulsations + tribal percussion — a collision between machine and body. The 5 initial singles tell the fear, isolation and tension of that suspended period.

Between 2020 and 2024 they release 5 singles + 3 LPs. Live: rear LED wall + transparent front LED wall, creating an immersive three-dimensional effect. Not just music: a contemporary ritual machine — industrial, tribal, electronic, visual.

Giuseppe Cardamone

Profile & role in AydrA

Violinist, guitarist and singer active in the Italian folk and death metal scene. Over the years his primary activity has been tied to the bands Oloferne, Duality, Zeckyboys and AydrA — a path crossing four genres and three decades, holding together the Italian folk rock tradition and the American technical death school.

A violinist since childhood, he approaches the electric guitar as a self-taught player, drawn to the names of the golden age of American technical death metal — Atheist, Cynic, Death. He joins AydrA with the 2013 reunion: rhythm guitar and backing vocals, actively participating in the composition and production of Leave to Nowhere (2024).

Influences

A player who moves between classical violin, Italian folk rock, American technical death and celtic punk — a rare case of versatility in the Italian underground scene.

Oloferne

In 2001 Giuseppe joins Oloferne as violinist, replacing Alfonso Cutolo. He becomes a permanent member of the Italian folk rock line-up. Over the years he records three self-produced albums plus a reissue of the debut, and contributes to four genre compilations: Samonios vol. II (Terzo Millennio/Self), Premio Musicale Città di Jesi (Skantinato), Iang Pipol (Rai 3/Arte Nomade), Dal Profondo (Latlantide).

Over 200 concerts with the line-up, including a 2005 tour in Argentina and appearances at the major Italian genre festivals.

Duality

In 2002 Giuseppe founds Duality, a technical death metal project where he is guitarist and singer. It's the testing ground where he channels his American death influences (Atheist, Cynic, Death) and refines his own writing — far from the folk of Oloferne, complementary to the European death he will later find in AydrA.

With this project he releases two EPs and one full-length published by PRC Records. The band, currently not active on the live front, is working on the new full-length that will bring Duality back on the scene ten years after the previous record.

Zeckyboys

In 2019 Giuseppe founds (together with Umberto Speranza of Crepuscolo) Zeckyboys, a Celtic Punk project with a very sharp sound featuring musicians from folk and extreme metal backgrounds. The perfect meeting point between his two worlds — the folk tradition of Oloferne and the extreme attitude of Duality and AydrA.

Two albums + one EP, many live shows in Italy and abroad, appearances at the major genre festivals. From 2026 they have permanently joined the Make a Dream booking roster. Currently engaged in promoting their latest full-length Rude & Elegant and composing new material.

Marcello Lammoglia

Role in AydrA

Joins AydrA in 1996, when Giovanni Rovatti — founder — steps away for work reasons. Takes over the role of rhythm guitarist, recording some parts already on Psycho Pain Control.

On the first full-length Icon of Sin (1999): collective arrangements and lyrics for the title track and for Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Leaves in 2002 during the early phases of Hyperlogical Non-Sense, without stepping away from music.

Returns to the official line-up in 2024, after Leave to Nowhere, taking the place of Luca Calò and participating in the Italian mini-tours as rhythm and lead guitar — reuniting with Pacetti, Mastromarco, Cardamone and Bianchella.

Influences

From classic heavy to crossover thrash, passing through the technical death of Atheist and the hi-gain virtuosity of Jeff Waters. 40 years on the metal scene without ever swerving off his own axis — that of the pure thrasher.

Gunfire

Marcello is a member of Gunfire together with Roberto Borrelli, Luca Calò, Michele Mengoni and Marco Bianchella from the album Age of Supremacy (2014) until the end of 2025, when he leaves to dedicate himself entirely to projects with AydrA. A line-up that interweaves Gunfire and AydrA very tightly: Marco is the drummer of both, Luca was AydrA's guitarist in the LTN line-up, Marcello returns to AydrA in 2024 precisely by taking Luca's place.

Tribute bands · session player

During the years of pause from AydrA (2002-2024).

Until his return to AydrA, Marcello plays in many bands, including tribute acts (Ozzy, R.J. Dio, Ghost, Iron Maiden...) as a session player, often alongside Mastromarco, with whom he forms a solid rhythm partnership. His ability to learn repertoires quickly — the same that earns him the nickname "jukebox" — makes him a reliable and versatile presence in the Marche underground live circuit.

A life of music lived away from the spotlight, inside the Marche underground scene: late-night tributes, small stages, repertoires learned by heart in a few days. An artisanal practice of the craft that prepares him — when the time comes in 2024 — to return to AydrA with technical and mental preparation greater than that of 1996.

"Jukebox" — Giovanni Rovatti, founder of AydrA, used to call him that for his ability to absorb songs very quickly

The spark · Iron Maiden at 14 · Heart of Steel

Marcello is born to the heavy metal of Iron Maiden. Ace High, the first metal song heard at age 14 in the bedroom of his high-school friend Alberto Severini — a drummer — "strikes" his mind and marks his future as a guitarist. Marcello and Severini will play together in Heart of Steel, in the Senigallia underground, before joining AydrA in 1996.

Pure thrash · the definitive identity

Over time he settles ever more firmly into the definition of pure thrasher, from which he will never depart. He loves the genre's greats, but also SOD, MOD, Hirax and the most extreme crossover thrash scene.

The model · Jeff Waters / Annihilator

Special mention for Annihilator and Jeff Waters, his model guitarist. In particular for the dynamics that Waters is capable of giving even to hi-gain sounds, thanks to a masterful use of the hands that has always been his personal reference point and performance bar to reach.

The ecstasy · Atheist live in Bologna

He also loves, and perhaps even more so as a band, Atheist. He remembers the recent live show in Bologna as one of the most thrilling concerts he has ever seen: in ecstasy less than a metre from Kelly Shafer, moshing as if there were no tomorrow. At a full 50 years old.

Andrea Mastromarco "Mastro"

Role in AydrA

Joins on bass in 1998, after Icon of Sin, freeing Mauro for vocals. Stays until the 2006 break-up: he contributes decisively to Hyperlogical Non-Sense, signing the title track, Mental Pattern of Re-birth and the music of Vortex of Desire.

In 2013 he reforms the band with Mauro, Luca Calò + Giuseppe Cardamone (guitars) and Marco Bianchella (drums), but that same year he has to leave for work reasons abroad — replaced by Andrea Massetti. He still leaves his mark: the title track of Leave to Nowhere (2024) is a composition of his from years earlier. From 2024 he officially returns for live activity and new material.

Influences

A style mainly influenced by metal and rock. Over the years it has extended to jazz/fusion, progressive and blues. Although you wouldn't think it, he's passionate about Italian songwriter tradition and electronic music.

Infernal Poetry

Mastro joins in 1996, in conjunction with the moniker change (the band was previously called Necronomicon), in the role of bassist and vocalist, sharing the vocal role with guitarist Daniele Galassi.

He takes part in the demotape In the Sign of the Evil Creature (1997) — his are the lyrics and some riffs of Hell Spawn — one of the tracks will end up on the fourth volume of the compilation Screams from Italy (Dawn of Sadness, 1998). In 1998 he writes with Galassi Deviation in Sacrality and The Higher Cause, tracks that will lead the band to its debut on Fuel Records in 2002. In late 1998 he leaves to join AydrA full-time.

Edenshade

A group well known in the Italian underground since the late 1990s. Mastro joins as bassist in late 2011 as an "emergency replacement" for a promotional mini-tour of the record Ceramic Placebo for a Faint Heart (2011), which will lead the band to perform in early 2012 for three shows in the United Kingdom.

In the line-up he plays alongside Stefano Wosz (vocals), Giancarlo Belligoni (guitars) and Simone del Pivo (drums). He remains in the project until its end, in 2012, taking part in sporadic live activity and in the recording of the single Things I'll Just Pretend, released the same year in digital format only.

Common thread: three bands, three decades of the Italian scene — Infernal Poetry (historical death metal, 1990s), AydrA (technical death, from 1998) and Edenshade (death/avantgarde, 2010s). Mastro's bass is a constant presence in the Italian extreme metal underground, always accompanied by a clear-cut compositional contribution.

Marco Bianchella

Profile & role in AydrA

An Italian drummer from the underground heavy/power/progressive metal scene. His name is tied to Spread Mind, Gunfire, The Dogma and AydrA — thirty years on the scene crossing four different metal genres. Besides live and recording activity, he has also worked in the studio as a producer and engineer, with recording and remastering credits on several works of the Marche metal scene.

He joins AydrA with the 2013 reunion, on drums for the return line-up. He replaces Nicola behind the kit and completes the quintet. On Leave to Nowhere (2024) he signs the composition of the opening track Three Minutes Walk, developed from one of his own riffs and then collectively arranged with the band.

WR Studios · White Rock Studios

Marco is the owner of WR Studios, where Leave to Nowhere (2024) was recorded and mixed and where the band is working on the pre-production of the fifth album. Having the studio in-house means total control of the process for AydrA: the LTN production model — in-house recording + external mastering (Paolo Ojetti / Castaway Studios) — is designed around the availability of his studio.

Influences

A style that has crossed all the registers of metal — from progressive to classic heavy, from symphonic power to technical death — remaining a constant presence in the Italian underground metal scene, collaborating with historic musicians from the Ancona scene.

Spread Mind

A Marche-region band with which Marco begins his musical activity in the 1990s. Two demos recorded at the end of the decade, both selected as Top Demos by the leading Italian metal magazines of the era: Marco's entry point into the national underground circuit.

Gunfire

A historic heavy/speed metal line-up from Ancona, born in the 1980s. Marco joins Gunfire in 2003, during the new post-reunion phase, and takes part in the albums Thunder of War (2004) and Age of Supremacy (2014). Marcello Lammoglia will also pass through Gunfire.

The Dogma

In 2005 Marco also joins The Dogma, a symphonic gothic / power metal band released by Drakkar Records. His name appears on three albums in five years: Black Roses (2006), A Good Day to Die (2007) and Black Widow (2010).

2006: The Dogma support Lordi on the European tour following their Eurovision Song Contest victory. In the years that follow the band also shares the stage with Tarja Turunen and plays at Wacken Open Air 2006 in Germany.

AydrA