Italian masked collective Hurricane On Saturn combine metal, rap and electronic elements in a sound they describe as “unpredictable, unconventional and solid” and with which they “just want to destroy peoples’ brains.”
The band come from what frontman Maydx describes to us as: “We are nobody, five cheap masked guys coming from fucking nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean real nowhere. Central Italy, a Greek island, an Anatolian plateau, Mars surface, it’s all the same, it makes no difference. There is no music scene, no music infrastructure, no places to play, no receptive people and tons of silent rivalry with the other local shitty bands. Where we come from the best you can aim with music is to play some karaoke midi in your village bar.”
That said and the irony put to one side, Hurricane On Saturn – completed by Dakm (vocals), Antares (guitars), Rastaban (bass) and Marakk (drums) – have gone well beyond playing karaoke in their village bar. We spoke to them ahead of the release of their second album ΦΝΧ, which came out in February.
On the album, Maydx told us: “It was a great relief to see it finally dropping. It has a very long and tricky story behind it. We wrote these songs almost two years ago but everything is so complicated when you want to walk away from the beaten paths or more in general when you need something different from the mass standards. I won’t lie, we are excited and we expect people to recognize the unique approach of our work from the conception to the finalization.”
The album opens up in lively fashion with the heavily EDM-influenced We Die Young. But the intensity increases in the heavier, more dramatic In Ash and the two elements of music and electronica are beautifully fused in the excellent Noizbleed.
We particularly enjoy the closing track When I Shoot I Kill and Solo Sangue, which opens up with dramatic staccatoed instrumentals before a huge scream ushers in a wild ride of fast-paced guitars and vocals. Clean vocals take over with funky electronic instrumentals before bursting into wild vocals. It drops into a cool section of light keyboards answered by intense metal guitars that tees up a lively conclusion. Check it out in the lyric video here:
Since the album’s release, the band have released a new single I Want. It opens up with punchy EDM instrumentals and engaging vocals before exploding into life with heavy guitars and screamed vocals. Check out the new track here:
The Hurricane On Saturn sound has been shaped by a wide range of influences. As Maydx explains: “We are influenced by the feelings generated by what we see inside or around us. It can be about personal struggles and redemption or social critique. If we see something that sucks or isn’t working well in our eyes our anger rises and we tend to directly attack it. I must say the music business is definitely an easy target. But we don’t have a limited source of topics.”
And the band want us to adopt a certain mindset before listening to their music, with Maydx telling us: “Escape all your stereotypes to which the present music scene has accustomed you. We don’t think in predefined cliches. When you understand that Slayer, Gigi D’agostino, Beastie Boys, Pink Floyd, Beethoven, GBH, Basshunter is all the same thing in the end, you are set to our frequency.”
Maydx adds: “We all have that band that we skipped after 15 seconds and then rediscovered sometime later, it’s the blast of our life. We are that band.” But we assure you that you won’t want to skip the intoxicating and varied sound of Hurricane On Saturn after 15 seconds.
And you can guarantee there’ll be much more to come from the band soon, as Maydx says: “Something is going to come up for sure. We are not the kinda guys who can sleep well at night. We have lots of new ideas, but their realisation much depends on finding the right people disposed to follow us and our vision.” You can also see the band for yourself as they play at Pannonian Rock Festival at Rajevo Selo in Croatia on 11 August.
You can follow Hurricane On Saturn on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Hurricane On Saturn and more new bands on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Electro and GigRadar Metal
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