It’s not all doom and gloom this time of year… unless it’s your job to create doomy, black, noisy, evil music. Which is precisely what Shardana do, and they do it well!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy!
How did you meet?
We’re all from the Sardinian metal scene so we know each other from years, playing together in different band and so on. We changed through the years, and we recruit always people we trust and know before ask to jump on board.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Me (Aaron) and Daniele are in the band since its birth, twelve years ago, Lorenzo and Michele about five years ago. The line up for Milli Annos was completed in 2018, with the joining of Luca on bass.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Shardana is the name of one of the “sea peoples” of the Mediterranean Sea, that between 1200 and 900 BCE They lived as pirates and sometimes as mercenaries for the pharaoh of their time.
When we formed the band we wanted to related with epic and viking metal bands, but keeping us linked to our historical roots.
What are your influences?
The common ground we share together is epic, black, power, and thrash metal, so the influences are many, but to name a few deep related to our earlier material, are Grave Digger, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Primordial.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
I don’t think we’re so unique, we’re just trying to write songs we like without been too bounded to a specific genre.
If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Our main theme is Sardinian history. But it depends on the song we are working on, sometimes our lyrics our about something we read, like “The Doom That Came To Sarnath” (a Lovecraft novel), “Path Of Snow” (about John Snow of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series), or “Tanit” (Il mistero dell’inquisitore Eymerich by Valerio Evangelisti).
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We’re not played many shows (less than ten gigs per year perhaps) but when we’re on stage we play our stuff as fast as we can, scream loudly and always enjoy all of this. And people seems to like it, so…
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
While we were playing a tribute show to Finntroll, Trollfest and stuff like that, and I was explaining their funny lyrics about Trolls that kill christians, a totally drunk (100% sure) catholic (I suppose) woman scream at me, “Yeaaah I’m Christian so whaaaat? Come ooon wanna fight? Cooommeee oooon”. Her boyfriend in a moment of courage managed to take her out of the pub surrounded by laughter of the people, while I was totally unaware of the situation, cause we started playing TROLLHAMMEREEEEN thereafter. That was indeed crazy, and well, a bit fun, cause she was enjoying the show just one second before all of this “religious statement”.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Daniele uses Jericho and LTD guitars, Lorenzo uses Kononykheen guitars, Luca uses Fender basses, and Michele Vibe drums and Zildjian cymbals.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment? What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
Milli Annos is out this month, so we’re planning a lot of promotion. We already did listening and a release party in our city, Cagliari, so now we need to spread our music across the world. Sending review requests, playlist adds, stuff like that. We’re also planning an official video, hoping to publish it within this terrible year.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Open for Primordial would be very cool for us! And in this crazy show we’re imagining we absolutely need our friends Ilienses Tree to share the stage. Their last album Till Autumn Comes was published last year and it’s a doom death metal gem!
Shardana: official | facebook | instagram | spotify | bandcamp | youtube
