On June 10, Tolkien-inspired power metal Band Wind Rose released its fifth full studio album, Warfront. We had the pleasure of discussing this album, along with the band’s future plans, with  Wind Rose’s frontman, Francesco Cavalieri.

So first of all, I wanted to extend congratulations on the recent album, I’m sure. You know, getting something like that out into the world  must feel really good.

Yeah, thank you very much. It was amazing to be back on business after two years of stops.

What’s your opinion on the album’s reception so far in the past couple of weeks? 

To be honest, I think that “Warfront” is going to be the album of Wind Rose, because it’s our second double with our records. So it’s our second album with a major label. And we really composed this album with the sound of Wind Rose in my opinion. The final form of our sound was reached on “Wintersaga,” the last album that we made in 2019. But that album still ended up being under the shadow of “Diggy Diggy Hole.” But now this is the gamble that we have with the pandemic is that we don’t have any “Diggy Diggy Hole” to rely on. So it’s just our music; pure Wind Rose 100%. And it’s yielded amazing results in just two weeks. 

The album certainly made a big splash. Would you say then that it could be considered the continuation of “Wintersaga”?

Yeah, I mean the sound changed a bit on this one, because obviously, it’s the second album even that we worked with our producer Lasse Lammert on. So knowing the band more allow allowed him to to do a better job. I mean, he did always good a job. But this time, in my opinion we went to the next level with our sound because we are heavier. We are. We have more punchiness than before and it’s really easy to understand every single element of the picture: The voices, the orchestrations, the tie, you know, it’s amazing. It was a really good job.

You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that writing new music is like taking a journey. What kind of a journey was “Warfront”?

“Warfront” is a journey that really made us work through many different things, because obviously was written in, in the pandemic times. So we arrived home in February 2020. And our lives were not the same anymore. So we arrived from the tour. And especially in Italy, since Italy was the ground zero of Europe, we arrived and we saw no one on the street, everyone closed shops. And they were without anything left, you know, stuff that you see only in the films because the people get scared. And this madness brought us to a state of emergency that was really, first of all hard to believe. And second, it was hard to deal with when you’re working like us because the main thing of a band is to meet up and write music. So being without the possibility to have context with others was different. It affected even the composition of the album, it affected the ideas, nothing would be the same without the pandemic. “Warfront” would not be the same without it, since all these emotions, all this stuff was translated into this album.

You’ve mentioned this current sound is pure Wind Rose. And it’s different from the other albums, you know, it was influenced, like we mentioned, by the pandemic. How  do you see those elements and themes being developed in the future?

To be honest,  it’s a question that I don’t know how to answer. Because, with Wind Rose, we always had in mind that if we want to make it work, we have to make what we have what we feel in the moment, right? So we never thought about having to put, say, the folk element in or this other kind of element, you know, because it’s our style; we always do what is in what it comes from the heart in that moment. So “Warfront” is like this, and the next album will be different. Obviously, the style will remain the same; some elements are shared between all of our music, or let’s say with the sound and “Warfront”. Some elements are  shared and even from the first album, you can recognize that it’s a winner resolvable and also because there are some technique or some instruments or some preferences that we have in the composition that really make our style. But the next album is a big question mark, because  it will be what it has to be, nothing more or less. It will be the right album for the right moment of our career. So I don’t know if I answered your question. Because obviously, yes, I will have to tell you more about the next album, but the thing is that we really don’t know because we have to live with live emotions, live experiences, and such and then these will be written on the page and translated into music.

Are there any locations you’d really like to play at in the future? Do you have any plans to travel abroad?

It was not announced yet, but we have a lot of plans for the future that involve also the United States, Latin America and Europe. We will try to be all around the world with this album, because we really believe in this album. And the message that we want to spread is so important now that this album means a lot to us. I mean, it’s an album that talks about wars – but it’s not just army vs. army. Even something that you have to deal with every day in your life, some battles that you have to fight; you cannot skip them, you cannot avoid them, you have to fight. So it’s important and it’s very motivational, to play for the people. And if this all ends up helping someone, it’s even better. 

Anything else you’d like to say about the band, or the new album, or any future plans for the band in general that you’d like to talk about?

We are going to make everything in our possibilities to come to every single country, more than once if it is possible, and to meet all the fans that really love our music and have shown us support and love even through this period of pandemic. So I see a lot of people still contacting us, still listening to us, and the people in  the fan base is increasing and increasing day by day. So I thank everyone and see you at our concerts!