By Kira L. Schlechter

The women of the young Italian band Hellfox aren’t able to devote themselves fully, day and night, to their music. They are the true definition of “working” musicians. But needing alternate means to support themselves financially has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the work they’ve put out to date.

They’ve just released their wonderful sophomore album “The Spectrum of Human Gravity,” the follow-up to the equally terrific “The Call” (2022) – an album that solidifies their sound and showcases the magnitude of their formidable ambition and intelligence.

The band is guitarist (and fellow Amorphis sister) Gloria Kaps, clean singer Greta Antico, growler and bassist Priscilla Poe, and drummer Fedy Piscopo. Greta explained in emailed responses to questions how they first came together in 2019 and filled us in on each member’s day jobs.

“Priscilla and I met up for a beer in a local pub; we’d been in the same band for many years but had lost touch,” she said. “At that moment, she agreed to play with me, and from then on, I worked hard to find the other members: first Gloria, who I thought would never respond, and then Fedy, for whom I had to fight hard – she wasn’t convinced, she didn’t play our style, blah, blah, blah.”

Greta teaches in a high school and sings at a music school, she said. Priscilla works in an office. Gloria has a business, “a mega alternative fashion store in Bergamo” called StarKaps, and Fedy teaches drums. Greta also explained the meaning behind the album’s intriguing title.

“We thought that to encapsulate the album’s entire concept, we needed something almost ‘scientific’ that conveyed the sense of research,” she said. “The spectrum of human emotions, understood as the range of emotions a human being can experience, changes with different gravities from person to person.”

“Just as gravity on the moon is six times less than that on Earth (and varies from planet to planet), so among us there are things that touch and ignite different emotions in completely different ways, with different weights. Man is therefore a planet in a vast relational space, and everyone has their own gravity, which is why it is important to put yourself in the other’s shoes (without distorting yourself) and approach without fear,” she added.

Greta and Gloria discussed the album’s equally introspective songs; their responses follow.

HH: The lyrics of the opener of “Nautilus/Seaweed Braids” are where I really get a folk feel – it could be taken literally (the leviathan as lover, in a way), but it’s also symbolic, the idea of being shunned and finding release or salvation elsewhere (maybe in music) – would you agree?

Greta: I like to discover new meanings in my lyrics after releasing them into the ether. When I write, I try not to be overly descriptive, to allow for just that. When writing “Seaweed Braids,” I thought of a modern Hamlet, no longer mad, who thinks back to his Ophelia and sees her, as in the Pre-Raphaelite painting, immersed in the river while her hair is woven with seaweed. He can’t live in the present because they expect him to move on; he can’t live in the past because it’s painful. This is Leviathan, the monster of depression that mercilessly preys on its victims – the sweetness of a memory that’s nice to relive, but hurts because it’s no longer here.

It’s all in the first person, and there are no genre indications, to make it easier to internalize the song and find something personal.

Gloria talked about the track from a sonic standpoint. 

HH: I hear an Amorphis influence here – is that accurate? And I especially love that breakdown, your riffing melody that goes over the rhythm guitar, the kind of erratic structure it has, how its rhythm differs from the 6/8 tempo of the rest of the song – can you talk about that?

Gloria: The inspiration for this song came from Insomnium’s latest album, but yeah, the influence of Amorphis is definitely present in everything I write.
Priscilla and I also really love prog metal, in the right doses. In some Hellfox songs, there are small references to this genre as well. In ‘Seaweed,’ we wanted to add some prog elements, since it’s a very linear song, to change its flow.

HH: It seems to me that “Empty” is about a relationship, about no longer getting what you need out of it (that first verse especially, “oh here we are again,” and the second, “A human body filled with someone else’s pain”) – having no more feelings left (“A stone, my mind/My body’s like a grave”) – would you agree? How personal was that?

Greta: Nothing personal – as always, I try to empathize with someone else, and this is what came out. There’s always a bit of social anxiety in the background. It was a bit of a desire to talk about violence in general, whether physical or psychological, without delving too deeply so as not to sound insensitive or out of context. At the end of the day, tired and confused, we just want to be empty.

HH: What I love about your music is how it can be straightforward and how it can also be almost freeform, like “Water on the Ceiling,” which has a verse-chorus-verse format, but has plenty of tempo changes within it – can you talk about that? 

Gloria: ‘Water’ is my favorite song. Previously, when I wrote it instinctively, it was much longer. Fedy and our producer, Alessio Lucatti, gave it more dynamics by removing several parts. Now it’s truly an energetic and powerful song. The structure is still fairly standard, except for the double bridge after the second verse, a structure that’s often used in metal.

–HH: It’s obviously about how we can’t seem to shut off our minds sometimes and how it keeps us up at night – how personal is that for you, what do you find yourself worrying about at those times?

Greta: I wrote the concept one night during lockdown. I saw the reflection of the river water on the ceiling of my room. I couldn’t sleep, and I was thinking about how to dissipate the energy I hadn’t managed to expend during the day. I was spellbound. I had no real worries, I simply couldn’t, as you say, turn my head off.

HH: “Pareidolia” is defined as “a tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.” The song describes just such a sensation, with the idea of the “human shapes in every corner.” Where did that come from? Did it happen to one of you?

Greta: Always! It is normal for human beings to see human shapes and faces in inanimate things. Here, we simply gave it a less ‘funny’ and darker meaning. It is my favorite song of the whole spectrum.

HH: What I so love about your band too is how Priscilla and Greta are foils for each other, of course the dark and the light, one acts as the commentary for the other, and it goes back and forth depending on who’s singing lead – can you talk about that?

Greta: We really like to think that Hellfox’s dichotomy always comes first in this. But be careful, because light and darkness aren’t always obvious. Lyrically, Pri’s growl is often the clarifying voice, helping the protagonist get out of the situation or evolve, while my clean, “angelic” voice (how I hate it when people call it that!) is often the one that highlights the most uncomfortable parts.

HH: “Atlas” seems to be about that feeling of bearing the weight of the world, but can you explain the reference to “that far nebula?” I really liked the reference at the end to the actual Atlas myth (“The will of the fake gods/Pressed down/By the burden of the globe/The final sentence in the eyes/Of those passing by”) – that’s a really nice touch, can you talk about that?

Greta: The ‘nebula’ that Atlas sees from under the weight he carries somehow symbolizes salvation, the end of suffering, whatever that is, and it’s very far away in reality, but (there’s) so much hope. We drew on the myth of Atlas, but imagined it as fitting each of us. Each of us carries our own weight, made up of social anxiety, expectations (ours and others’), and people’s judgment, which may or may not be important, but is still there.

HH: Is “Six Times Lighter” any sort of reference to social media –  the idea of being “a closed book to everyone,” “the ghost of a human being”)? And then the chorus might be saying “here the rain falls differently,” “the pain hits differently,” like in real life, and that’s the real “distance between us”? If that is accurate, was there a particular impetus for this observation?

Greta: Actually, “Six Times” was supposed to be the title track of the album, so it embodies everything I’d already explained regarding the album title itself. Each of us is a world apart, and as such, presents a different ‘gravity.’ If I were to enter into a relationship with you, then I would experience your gravity and you mine. So that’s why “here the rain falls differently,” “the pain hits differently,” because we can never experience the same things to the same extent.

HH: I think there’s a lot of perhaps political commentary in “The Centipede” – the whole second verse, “There you are, sleeping/Bound to your convictions firmly/Hopelessly corrupted by so much lack of ambition,” all the references to “the swamp” – were you directing it at anyone in particular if it is indeed political?

Greta: ‘The Centipede’ is a reading of society, of all those who consider theirs the only possible normality when normality doesn’t exist. I imagine these people, convinced they are perfect and flawless, suddenly finding themselves trapped in a swamp where imperfection, difference, and alienation reign supreme.

HH: I love how you start with the chorus in “The Warrior, The Child, The Healer” – “the light you see on the bias shows/All the pieces of yourself” is an interesting line – do you mean maybe when you eliminate bias, you do see “the pieces of yourself”?

Greta: Who knows? It’s really difficult to truly know and accept yourself; it would be enough to start by seeing yourself for who you are.

–HH: The two verses, the juxtaposition of yourself as warrior, hiding any vulnerability, being “angular and stiff” (I love that line), hearing “only the inner voice of duty” (that is, being responsible, doing what you’re supposed to); and then yourself as the little girl who IS vulnerable and emotional – that’s a real journey there – how personal is that for any of you, where did that come from?

Greta: The entire song is the summary of three years of therapy on myself. It’s a way of understanding and exorcising the parts of me that have a voice and trying to make them all equal. The warrior was the part that came out first, always on the defensive and ready to attack, in response to trauma and difficult situations, while the child is my emotional part, often unheard.

–HH: And then in the bridge when you mention the “enchantress” who heals you and you say, “Now I know who I really am,” does that mean you really are a combination of all those things and it’s OK to be that way?

Greta: It’s okay to be the one who makes us feel good. The enchantress is the adult part, who almost magically brings all the others together and leads them by the hand.

HH: The closer, “Voices” is really beautiful, with that overdubbed wordless singing – is that all of you or just you, Greta? 

Greta: ‘Voices’ was composed by Maestro Roland Erulo especially for us. He’s a great friend of mine and I think he did a great job. ‘Voices’ is awkward because it sounds like a classical piece, but in reality, it’s full of dysphonies. And yes, that’s just me.

After several dates in Italy this summer, including an album release show in June, Hellfox is now working toward the fall. 

“(We’re focusing on) perfecting the show, combining the new album with the old,” Greta said. “We’ll definitely have a couple more live shows in Italy in September – six at Alchemica in Bologna and twenty-eight at Druso in Bergamo.”
They do plan “many more” live dates on their Facebook page, but hopefully we’ll see this preternaturally talented band beyond the borders of their native land soon, as they are a secret too good to keep.