Interviews About Albums: Antiquus Infestus - Antiquus Infestus (2025)

In this new interview, we sat down with the Italian Black Metal/Death Metal band, Antiquus Infestus, to ask questions about their album "Antiquus Infestus". 

1. What can you say about this new EP/CD?

First of all, thank you, Jon, for having us and giving us the chance to talk more about our music. We began writing the album in January 2024—an emotional time for Malphas, who was about to become a father and had only recently returned to making music after ten years of silence. In a way, that long stillness finally erupted and gave life to these nine songs. To be honest, we originally wrote twelve tracks, but decided to select only nine for the final release.

The album blends black metal elements with influences drawn from death metal, yet it doesn’t fully belong to either genre. For this reason, we prefer to describe it simply as extreme metal.

2. What is the meaning of the EP/CD name?

We called the album Antiquus Infestus because it simply felt like the right choice. As mentioned earlier, we hadn’t spoken or created music together for a long time, and this record represents a rebirth for us.

The album opens with the title track Antiquus Infestus, which functions as an awakening ritual for the primordial evil entity that has always characterized our music. In our previous works, this entity—an ancient presence predating humanity and embodying destruction, death, and the collapse of civilizations—was expressed through Malphas’ growls, gradually taking over from Sverkel’s shrieking vocals. But this time, things had to be different. The Beast was dormant, and this album serves as the ceremony that brings it back to life.

3. Which one is the composer of the CD/EP?

Antiquus Infestus has almost always operated as a trio: Malphas composing the music and laying down the drum foundations, Asmodeus handling the bass as well as mixing and mastering, and Sverkel shaping the concept, lyrics, and vocals.

Even though Sverkel had to leave the band for personal reasons, he still played a major role in defining the overall concept, the track order, and parts of the lyrics.

While Malphas wrote the songs, it’s Asmodeus who truly brought them to life. His use of fretless bass, carving expressive melodies within the sharpness of the guitar riffs, is a real game-changer.

4. If you had to pick one song, which one would you pick?

Witches Hill. Positioned in the middle of the album, it’s a chant for the dead, the Golgotha of Salem, where human beings reached one of the lowest points in history, pursuing pure evil in the name of God.

5. Is there a special message in this EP/CD? If there is what it is?

We want to convey a warning: do not let religion control your decisions. Sadly, this still happens far too often.

Civilization has brought humanity to a point where discerning between good and evil should be quite simple, yet we frequently abandon our own morality when religion comes into play.

We also want to remember the innocents who lost their lives for no reason, people who were never even given the chance to defend themselves.

Their suffering should remind us why it’s essential to break free from the chains of blind dogma and move toward a world where reason prevails over fanaticism.

6. Are there some lyrics that you'd love to share?

The final lyrics of Witches Hill capture the overall feeling of the album:

“Beneath the ruin, the roots still grow,

Fed by the blood of corpses above.

Their cries are etched in blackened stone,

Witches’ Hill, where none die alone.”

We move on, we grow over the destruction caused by those who came before us. The voices of those who perished are carved into history, and while some physically died, many others had their souls condemned to rot under the weight of fear, superstition, and fanaticism.

7. Which inspirations have been important for this album? Like musically or friends, family, someone you'd love to thank especially?

We believe the greatest influence on this album was the simple fact that we kept our ideas trapped for too long. When everything finally burst out, it did so with full force.

Musically, Malphas was strongly inspired by Ulcerate’s Stare Into Death and Be Still and Cutting the Throat of God. As mentioned earlier, it was a very particular moment in his life, and all those emotions inevitably poured into the music.

We’d like to thank Sverkel — a great friend and a talented vocalist. Without his conceptual vision, this album would never have taken shape. We also wish to thank everyone at Darkside Records, who helped us with the mastering and connected us with Maxime Taccardi, whose artwork perfectly captured the essence of the album.

8. Something to add?

This CD is a turning point for Antiquus Infestus. While our previous writings were purely black-metal-oriented — built on fast, sinister riffs and brutal drumming — this album lifts that foundation into something more elegant and refined. The work behind the lyrics and the vocal recording is immense, and the compositions blend brutality and melancholy, melody and violence, arpeggios laid over blast beats. It’s not just music; it’s a freezing, desolate environment where listeners sit before the spectacle of human decadence from the opening to the closing act.

We understand this isn’t simple to grasp, and some listeners may not be ready for what we aim to create. Many remain frozen in time, cheering for the next band that sounds exactly like the one before. But we are proud of what we have accomplished, and we’ve brought in two talented musicians to help us deliver this vision on stage.

And it’s not over — the Beast has been awakened, and it is longing for more.