There’s a steadfastness to Reality Grey that’s vital to the music they make. While many bands have tried, floundered, and failed at the art of metalcore and melodeath, the Italian five-piece embrace the genre with full-throated fury. At the same time, they never sound beholden to the genre, incorporating electronic sounds and rhythms to their music that illustrate their willingness to change and incorporate new influences for the betterment of their sound. In a sometimes uncertain world, this band know what they’re about.
The band’s new video for the track “Preachers of Hatred” shows Reality Grey’s unremitting dedication to their craft and their message. While the track is a spiny explosion of anger at those who would keep humanity subservient, the video itself is a frantic stream of ominous imagery — laughing suits, hooded prisoners, riots in the streets. It’s a powerful visual and aural blast from this no-nonsense band.
Before watching our exclusive premiere of Reality Grey’s new video, we caught up with guitarist Anto Addabbo about the motives and themes of their latest offering…
Tell me about the concept behind the footage in the video — the man in the suit, the burning documents, and so on.
This is a video based on the social turmoil we’re experiencing for several years now. The man in the suit represents the typical powerful people that pull the strings on people, manipulating the masses with fake promises and propaganda, all for the sake of his fortune and well-being that most of the time ends with the poor people (us) fighting each other and the real puppet masters going unpunished. The burning document represents his failure to fulfill the promises made.
Going into the making of the video, what did you want to use the footage therein to get across?
We wanted the video to be a mirror of today’s society. Socially, we’re stranded in continuous unrest and agitation. We want the viewer to focus on the anger and despair, two feelings we’re getting accustomed to too much in the late years.
Who was wearing the hood on their head, and if one of you guys, was it scary or weird to put one’s self in an enemy prisoner’s place — shackled and hooded?
No, that was one of our friends. He surely was uncomfortable with that — he was basically blind and chained by the video crew. I think it worked out pretty good, you can clearly see that he’s struggling, heh.
Right now, we in the US are dealing with unprecedented social upheaval and protests like those featured in your video — how does that experience look to Italian citizens? What has your own 2020 been like?
We’re well aware of what is happening in the US — I have family there and I spent a lot of time in California, especially in the last two years, where I’ve witnessed with my own eyes what’s going on. The lyrics of the song are about all of this and Albo, who wrote the lyrics, was inspired by what we watch on the news nowadays and of course, the US situation had a big impact on him. Our nation, like yours, is now split into two factions, and with little room for reason or reconciliation, it is what it is.
Our 2020 was pretty weird, I had to come back to Italy in a hurry from L.A. in March because of the pandemic. I had to stay home for almost two months for the strict lockdown that was in place here. It was surreal. Summer was more laid-back with fewer restrictions — we also played a sold-out show in September — and then in October we had the so-called “second wave” of the virus and the government closed again everything. Here as well, we’re experiencing a different kind of protests and turmoil because of the whole situation. People are tired of all of this, very often for wrong reasons I must say. Fortunately, we had so much on the table with the band and the record to release that we have been pretty busy. I’ve heard so many bands that quit because of the pandemic, so in a way we’re lucky. I really hope that the situation will turn for the better at the end of the year.
Check out our exclusive premiere of Reality Grey’s “Preachers of Hatred” video below:
Reality Grey’s Beneath the Crown comes out May 7th on Blood Blast Distribution, and is available for preorder.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
