Since their formation in 2007, Italy’s Hideous Divinity have established themselves as one of the most uncompromising forces in technical death metal. Known for their intricate musicianship, dense arrangements, and thematically ambitious records, the band has carved out a reputation that bridges sheer brutality with intellectual depth. With influences drawn from philosophy, literature, and film, Hideous Divinity transcends genre conventions, delivering music that is as thought-provoking as it is devastatingly heavy.
DinIntunerec: Hello, thank you for getting on board with this interview and welcome to Bucharest! How do you feel about playing here, as part of Metal Gates Festival?
Hideous Divinity: Hello, we feel great and we are thrilled to play here for the first time.
DinIntunerec: Hideous Divinity has built a reputation for dense, technical compositions. How do you balance technicality with maintaining an emotional impact?
Hideous Divinity: If we could answer that question, we’d probably be way ahead of what we’re supposed to do, because that’s exactly the point. We’ve always been labelled as technical death metal band, but I always paid more attention to the song itself, rather than what to do to make it sound technical. Let’s just say that the answer to the question will be, basically, a virtual point that we still are not getting, but just the fact that we’re aiming at that point, which is being technical… However, we never lose the focus on what makes a song good, listenable and memorable. Just aiming to that, it’s to maintain the balance between technicality and emotion.
It’s also the due to progression. We have constant progression, so the music is changing. Hopefully, people will agree with me when I say that we try not to do always the same album over and over… Our aim is to keep it emotional, keep it brutal, fast, technical, but never losing the focus of the song.
DinIntunerec: Your music often draws on literature, philosophy, and film. What inspires your lyrical themes, and how do you integrate them into extreme metal?
Hideous Divinity: It’s true, it became a trademark for us to have albums based on the movies. And at least for us, it works. So we’re still keeping it on… In time, we also started digging in philosophy and literature. We always start from a movie, usually based on a book, and then the book is rooted in some philosophical background.
Monsters and demons were attractive back in the day, 20, 30 years ago, because the themes were still new. When we started with the idea of making the albums based on movies, the idea of concept album in death metal was still relatively fresh. Nowadays, everybody makes concept albums. So, we understood after the third or fourth album that we had to add something to the movie itself to make it a bit less obvious and a bit more articulated and interesting.
I always try not to blend music and emotions. I try not to make it too pedantic, too cultural at every cost, because that bores people and makes them feel like the band may acquire this sort of arrogant vibe, which we clearly don’t want to because we are pretty down to earth people. So, it would have been cool to have been born as a band in the early 90s, instead of late 90s, so monsters, demons, gore and splatter would have been enough. However, I’ve never been that much attracted to that. It never belonged to me. Movies and literature are my thing, indeed.
DinIntunerec: Hideous Divinity is known for its layered arrangements. Could you walk us through your songwriting process, from initial riffs to final production?
Hideous Divinity (Enrico Schettino): I do the initial riffs, meaning I try to present the guys with a full song that has a beginning and an end, so they understand the vibe. I work a lot on the sound because I want it to be as close as possible to what I have in mind. What has changed over the years is that everybody in the band now has much more critical sense. So there used to be comments such as: “great, brutal, fast”. Nowadays it’s more like, “I like this part, but also I don’t think this part is working that much.”
Then, the lyrics come in, and when the vocals come in, you have massive structure changes. I make the song and the vocals have to adapt. Yet, the vocals have their own pulse, they’ve got their own space, so sometimes they change the structure… Actually very often. So, it’s more difficult for me right now to come up with an idea of a song, that everyone says it’s perfect. We are always editing and we’re listening and we’re writing and rearranging.
DinIntunerec: Italy has a rich but often underrepresented extreme metal scene. How has your home country shaped your sound and career?
Hideous Divinity: This is a thought question because, well, when we started, the old members of the band I mean, because here you have the young members… So, when we started, it was really complicated, because we had a lot of local bands, but most of them were actually terrible. Terrible in terms of music quality and production quality. It’s not that we felt, we were great. But most of those bands were really struggling to get a decent record. They had good ideas, but the final product, though original, overall it was not that good at all. I would be accurate to say that we started because we wanted to do something that was well mixed. We started looking at other bands from outside Italy… Then, we thought, is it going to be that impossible to make it sound like Florida metal bands or bands from Scandinavia?
The funny thing is that in our opinion, the man who would develop the Italian sound, is Stefano Morabito from 16th Cellar Studio. The funny thing is that the 16th Cellar was Enrico Schettino‘s cellar when he was in his twenties. So The 16th Cellar Studio started in his cellar. The Italian sound started shaping in his cellar and we kind of lived it while it was beginning to develop and emerge. Nowadays, we have the Italian sound in death metal… We crafted it together and then the studio was born from nothing but his own experience and knowledge. Also it forced, especially drummers and singers, to play at their best. It’s true that it was a nightmare to record in that studio for many drummers because the standard was so high, that it pushed musicians to the limit.
So, more than the bands, I think it we should celebrate The 16th Cellar Studios and Stefano Morabito as the ones that crafted the modern Italian death metal sound. Before him, there wasn’t much. After him, just a lot of copycats.
DinIntunerec: Technical death metal can sometimes alienate casual listeners. How do you make your music accessible without compromising its complexity?
Hideous Divinity: We don’t do it on purpose… just the final product gets to sound like that because we work on it until we are satisfied. However, we don’t judge in terms of accessibility or complexity… Younger generations grew up with a standard that is more easy listening. So, if they really want to get into us, it requires some digging… I don’t want to do something that it too easy. I’m an artist, so my music has to be inaccessible by definition, do you think? That’s stupid.
I want my music to be accessible within the parameters of what I think extreme music should be. Somehow inaccessible. To many, at least. Because you listen to it and think it is not for everybody. It’s like garlic. You either love it or you hate it, you cannot force people to like it.
DinIntunerec: Your albums are thematically ambitious. How do you approach conceptual continuity across a full record?
Hideous Divinity: Obviously, continuity is very important so that people can recognize the concept and be able to follow it all along the album. Therefore, we have to dig a bit into the concept, not too much in order to turn it into something artificial, but enough to boost inspiration and develop something like a spider web around a central theme. We start from the movie and, of course, the literature on which the movie is based on. We are lucky to have an expert in horror movies…
I think Edoardo (not only as a drummer, but also as an obsessed cinema lover) brought that vibe of the 70s horror movies. Also, people say the love for horror movies will never stop. It transcends every trend. It’s also part of our music, but not exclusively. We are not like other bands, like Aborted for instance, that based everything on the horror cinema. Our approach is a bit more subtle. But still within our quest for continuity.
DinIntunerec: Touring is crucial in extreme metal. What have been the most memorable experiences from Hideous Divinity’s international tours?
Hideous Divinity (Edoardo Di Santo): From my point of view, the most memorable has been our latest tour with Nile, last year. Because it’s my favorite band and one of the most important bands in death metal. Also, George Kollias, the drummer of Nile, is my teacher. So, there were a lot of emotions in that tour. Also, I had the pleasure to play a song with Nile on stage in my hometown, Rome. I think that was the best experience in my life.
(Enrico “H.” Di Lorenzo): Actually, it was pretty intense to see your drummer playing with Nile. We all are fans of the band, but no one loves them as much as Edoardo. I believe if there were a top five fans of Nile on the planet, Edoardo would be there. No questions asked. All five positions.
DinIntunerec: Collaboration is central to your sound. How does each band member contribute to the creative process?
Hideous Divinity (Enrico Schettino): By complaining. (all laughing) I am the main writer, which means that deep down I expect only compliments from the rest of the band. At the first suggestion to change something, my first reaction, used to be frustration and anger, but I improved over the years. I improved so much. The first reaction I don’t know what you mean, change. It’s perfect the way it is, so deal with it. It’s because everybody’s got their own approach to the music we play. Everybody developed their personality because we all achieved things over the years. So everybody, and rightly so, feels entitled to say, this should be different. It should be changed. This should be shorter. That part should be moved, or doubled or reduced.
It’s us and there is Tito, our number one fan and manager. Every time I bring a new song, I know it’s going to go through a serious analysis. They’re not just going to say yes it’s cool. To be honest, I’m never looking that much forward to that moment. Because I know it’s going to be tough… I may even be disappointed. My first reaction is of a screw you all, you don’t understand my heart. Then I calm down, after they leave me for just a couple of minutes, like patient parents with kids. And then I chill down and admit I’m going to try. I’m not sure if it is going to work, but I’m going to try.
(Enrico “H.” Di Lorenzo): The most funny moments are when Enrico sends something new to all of us… Sometimes we like a part and consider it should become the heart of the song and repeat a few times. Then, Enrico frowns and says it’s a stupid part… and we laugh and say, well, you wrote it…
(Enrico Schettino): Not entirely true, and certainly not funny… When you work a lot a put your heart into it and realize the others like exactly what you consider less impressive… However, what’s important is that we are four people, with different tastes which makes this kind of discussions normal and I have to say constructive. Three of us have been working together since the second album. Now, Edoardo entered the band and we immediately clicked with him.
So, if we managed to resist all these years to work, to produce, to invent, create and elaborate, somehow we found a way to make it work. Because when there’s respect and common intent, not just trying to shape the song the way you are because it’s you, thing progress in the right direction.
DinIntunerec: Production plays a huge role in your dense soundscapes. How do you ensure clarity while keeping the music brutally heavy?
Hideous Divinity: Stefano Morabito and The 16th Cellar, these are the key words. We grew up with him. He grew up with us and we still work together. He’s one of the few that we can accept if he would disagree or dislike our ideas. If he says some part of a song is weak we decide to change it because we respect him and also trust him.
Usually when you do something experimental in death metal, it’s often terrible, because it sounds strange. I mean, the kind of experiment that stays in the studio… you try something, you listen, and conclude it’s crap. Then, you abort it. But if you trust your producer, if you trust your sound engineer, then you can try to push. The problem is when we ask to push everything more brutal, more extreme. When people talk about our production, we receive different opinions. They say it’s super brutal or they say it’s super intelligible, which makes no sense to me. It’s either one or another. However, different people get different aspects of the production. I think that means that production has something to tell, a different thing. Different people get different things.
DinIntunerec: The technical death metal genre is crowded with talent. What do you feel makes Hideous Divinity stand out among your peers?
Hideous Divinity (Edoardo Di Santo): I’ll answer from the perspective of a fan of this band, not as a member… because I was a fan of Hideous Divinity since more than 10 years ago. So, I think the band is different, because they mix really extreme stuff in a beautiful way. I don’t know how to explain it better. That is the difference. It’s so extreme and so beautiful. Not only violence and speed.
DinIntunerec: Looking back on your discography, how do you see the band’s musical evolution from Obeisance Rising to your most recent work?
Hideous Divinity: At the beginning it was crucial to be loud and fast. We were coming out as a new band in a crowded underground with a lot of fast and brutal bands. It was way easier back then, because if you could play blast beats, you were already ahead of everybody else. When Hideous Divinity started I noticed that there were so many bands out there that were just brutal. So, I knew that the first album had to be extremely loud, powerful and technical, at every cost. Because we had to make ourselves known. We didn’t have that much personality back then.
With the second album things already started to change, Cobra Verde is more articulate not just loud and fast. Adveniens, our third album, I would say, is my favorite. It is the one album that, for the first time, had true personality and a modern sound. It’s like a bridge in between all the technical stuff this band stands for. Simulacrum was a bit of an important crossroads, because it was the first album with a major label, Central Media. I think we felt the pressure. And we decided to go for the ultra-polished sound, perhaps too much. We didn’t want to take risks. We felt the pressure that we could not miss this big opportunity with Central Media.
Looking back, things could have been very, very different.
I believe we fixed all those… let’s call them mistakes. I made the mistakes first, before everybody else, because I didn’t have the courage to go all the way. So, Simulacrum is a bit stuck in between two worlds, the technical and something more about it. I believe with Unextinct, we felt less pressure and we felt free to evolve. People hear black metal into it and different influences. It’s the most cinematic album we wrote. And I think it’s because we progressed, we changed. The length of the songs was actually a problem, because every song is perhaps a bit too long. We’re working on that for the next album.
That’s how I feel things have changed. When we started, it was the technical death metal renaissance, so to say. Nowadays, after 15 years, the taste, the music have changed. Influences have changed. Music started progressing in different ways. So, to do the same thing that we were doing in 2010 would be pointless.
DinIntunerec: What can fans expect from Hideous Divinity in the near future — new music, tours, or conceptual directions?
Hideous Divinity (Enrico Schettino): Well, it’s been a busy summer… A super cool experience in Japan. Lots of great festivals. And we already have something booked for the next year. But now, it’s time to start writing because soon there will be a new album. Probably to come out in 2026, but we should start writing it.
(Enrico “H.” Di Lorenzo): The point is that we have to come up with something new. Not for someone else, but for us. Every time we need a new thrill. Otherwise, it will be pointless to release a new album. So we need to create something new. And we will, for sure. A new challenge. This time we have a new member working on it, Edoardo, our new drummer. We did the latest album when our previous drummer left the band. So we recorded it with a session drummer. But now we have Edoardo… When you start a new relation with someone, it’s like a love affair. We have this new thrill, a lot of new energy in the band. So, I can’t wait to see what we can achieve.
DinIntunerec: Unextinct is a powerful title. What concept or ideas lie at the heart of this album?
Hideous Divinity: I’ve been thinking a lot about horror movies and certain characters that are crossing ages. So, they go from one age, from one generation to the other. Different versions of Dracula and Nosferatu… It looks like every generation needs a certain hero or certain monster. So, you have the Batman from the 50s, the Batman from let’s say late 80s. Then you have the Batman from Christopher Nolan. And then you have something for Gen Z, which I really didn’t like. But, again, it’s something necessary.
So, you’ve got this evolution, it’s the same character, but it tells different stories. It lives, it dominates… isn’t that the same with death metal? In the 90s there was one approach, then in the 2000 it was different. Nowadays, more than 30 years after people started talking about death metal, what’s the next step in its evolution? What do people expect from that monster that is called death metal?
DinIntunerec: How did the writing and recording process for Unextinct differ from your earlier works?
Hideous Divinity: Apart from the fact that our drummer left before the recordings and we had a session drummer… nothing much. The process was smooth… I think because for once I recorded the guitars before entering the studio. So I could be present during the process of mixing. It was not so hectic. Also, we worked more closely with Stefan and Malik this time.
DinIntunerec: The album feels even more aggressive yet nuanced than your past releases. What elements did you push further this time?
Hideous Divinity: What I think Unextinct has pushed further is the narrative structure. We always had this narrative approach, but to an extent you can follow some flows of emotions more than the other. It’s a world story. I think that, from the musical point of view, not only the lyrics, but its narrative structure is the best.
DinIntunerec: Which track from Unextinct do you feel best captures the essence of Hideous Divinity in 2024, and why?
Hideous Divinity (Edoardo Di Santo): Well, you might get different answers for this one. For me it’s the second song, right after the instrumental part. It’s called The Numinous One, and I can’t explain why, it’s just a feeling that this song represents the entire album.
(Enrico Schettino): For me it’s the last one, Leben ohne Feuer. Because when you’re getting to write the last song, you can look behind and see what the album has said so far and you can just decide how you can close it. It’s gonna be very difficult to play this song live if not really possible. It’s too long to and it would take too much time on our setlist. But I really like this song. It represents me.
(Enrico “H.” Di Lorenzo): I was about to say the same song, but I cannot pronounce it. So, I waited for him to say it. But, I totally agree. When he sent me the music, he said when the voice enters it changes everything. And that’s how I’m feeling. It was perfect in my opinion. I did my part on the song in the fastest way possible because it was like writing the metrics. But I told him, I hope we will never play a gig without this song. Anyway, we never played this song live.
DinIntunerec: Tell us a few things about the cover artwork.
Hideous Divinity (Enrico Schettino): Great, great artist, but very difficult to work with. Let’s say that the communication was not the best, but I think Adam Burke did the best. It has a funny story because I think we wanted to go for something different. We went for it, but let’s just say that not everybody inside the inner circle of the band liked it that much. It was very different from what we had in mind, plus we realized it was going to be difficult to make the merch, but we managed it. We thought maybe this is going to be interpreted, but it just worked.
At the beginning the two characters were too central. There was something strange about it, the fact that they were central. Because there was the deck of the ship that was actually the thing gathering attention. Let’s just say that from the beginning, it grew on us a lot.
We’re not going to work again with the same artist, because we had communication issues. You can’t just disappear and then, just show up with something different than we asked. We wanted to make some changes, but the guy refused to do any modification. Luckily we were pleased with the final outcome, and it grew on us.
DinIntunerec: What is the most important life lesson that you have learned so far?
Hideous Divinity (Enrico Schettino): To speak the truth without being afraid of offending or hurting people… just to speak out. If there is something wrong, there’s something that doesn’t please you, to pretend that things are okay, dragging a toxic relationship, for example, with band members. It’s only going to do bad to you and to the others. So, I’m still processing this, you know, because I’m still making the same mistake, but the number one rule is, don’t waste your mind. Don’t pretend that the problem is not there, when it actually is.
(Enrico “H.” Di Lorenzo): I learnt this was not a phase of my life, as some people said… It was not a phase, but o part of who I am.
(Edoardo Di Santo): My most important life lesson is to be serious with myself and with the other people I’m working with, with the band, and with my instruments. To be serious with everything I’m doing. Because I made a lot of mistakes, in the past. So, to be serious and reliable is the most important thing for me.
DinIntunerec: Thank you for your time, any final words for our readers?
Hideous Divinity (Enrico Schettino): Thank you for this chance to play for the first time in Romania. We seriously hope to come back. Thank you very much for your interest and for the insightful questions. It was lovely.
DinIntunerec: Hideous Divinity embodies the duality of modern technical death metal: calculated precision fused with overwhelming intensity.
Their music is not only a showcase of technical mastery but also a medium for complex narratives and philosophical depth. As they continue to refine their sound and expand their global reach, Hideous Divinity remains a testament to the idea that extreme music can be both intellectually profound and brutally uncompromising.
