The STEEL is a Neapolitan Hard Rock band whose members are Tiziano Favero, aka Roy Zaniel, at the bass and vocals, Rino Musella at the drums and Marco Perrone at the guitars. The band was born in 1979 with the name Wizard, founded by Tiziano and Rino, soon joined by guitarist Santo Carrotta. With this formation the band released in 1988 the album “We Can Do It” and in 1989 was included in the Italian compilation for metal bands “Surgery of the Power”.
Some time after Santo Carrotta left the band and Claudio Vitelli took his place: in 1990, the new album “Shiver and Shake” is released, but the trio disbanded the following year.
After a long period of inactivity, Wizard reunited in 2010 with the same formation, but in 2014 the new entry Marco Perrone, who substituted Claudio as a guitarist, stabilizes the trio which in December of the same year recorded the EP “Straight to the Unknown”, produced and distributed by Radio Entropia Factory.
A fundamental twist takes place in 2016 after the trio created their new album “The Evolution of Love” and changed their name to The STEEL, signing a contract with Perris Records which distributed the new project for 4 years.
At the moment, the band has recorded a new album entitled “THE STEEL II”. , available on all the best music stores and soon available in CD Audio version. The album will be promoted and distributed by Wanikiya Record/Promotion.
Greetings From Metalheads Forever Magazine, I’m Keith Clement, the editorial head, how are
you today?
Hello Keith, cheers to you and all of Metalheads Forever Magazine’s readers, I am Tiziano Favero aka Roy Zaniel, singer and bassist of The Steel. It is a real pleasure being featured on your magazine and to speak with you in India!
You have released your new album “ The Steel II” can you tell me the making and producton of
this new album?
Before heading to the studio to record our album, we first carefully made a home studio production of our work in order to have a clearer idea of what we expected from the final version, so that we would know exactly what to play and add to each track. We thought we would manage to complete our project in less time than our previous album, The Evolution of Love, but multiple events ended up making things harder for us, so it took more than a year to have the definitive version of The Steel II. I am not only referring to the COVID crisis that obviously gravely slowed down all processes in the making of the album, but also to a health issue of mine that occurred right when we were supposed to record the vocal tracks. I had to stop working on the project to undergo a surgery that prevented me from getting back on track for over 6 months.
Like for our previous album, we have had the precious chance to collaborate with keyboard player Luca di Gennaro, who is featured on 6 of the 11 songs in The Steel II. This album is undoubtedly more substantial and without distractions from its main sound, it is primarily influenced by Heavy and Hard rock. The physical distribution and promotion of the album are handled by Wanikija Record, which we recently signed a deal with after our partnership with Perris Records ended.
Was there any concept put behind this album?
Lyrics-wise there is no main topic in the album. The themes I like writing about are love for music and the freedom to live our own passions and dreams. I also try and focus on recent significant historical events such as the war in Ukraine or the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. In this album, with the song Plastic World, I was inspired by the horrible issue that is plastic pollution in our seas and oceans.
A Pure Classical HardRock/Metal album, great songwriting, Vocals, musical progression, simply
amazing record for the year, how do you feel about the outcome of the album?
This album is much more homogeneous and hard rock than the previous The Evolution of Love. In our previous work we have surely deviated more from a single idea by featuring instrumental tracks and progressive nuances such as in the track The Eden. In The Steel II, aside from the funky sound of
The River, we stay focused on a single heavy/hard rock sound from beginning to the end, and that was our intention. We wanted to make an album where all the tracks felt connected and shared a good feeling with each other, so we worked hard on the mixing of each of them to achieve that. In the end, like with our previous work, we were very satisfied with the final version.
On 25th March 2022, you released the video for “Don’t Runaway” can you tell me about the
making of the video?
Don’t Runaway is the song that introduces the album, and the one that is having the most success online. It was our intention to record a video for it, but we had some difficulties so we instead opted for Hold on Tight. We have recorded the video in a studio in Naples, our hometown, even if I would have preferred a different outdoors location. It was directed by our friend and videomaker Luigi Manzo, with whom we have recorded almost all of our previous official videos.
How does the touring looks like for the band?
We are promoting the album with a series of live dates all over Italy, with great feedback. Being on the road is exciting and fun as we are not just a band, but also very close buddies. The best parts about being on a tour is being able to meet new fans and friends and discovering new places.
The Band has changed its name to The Steel From Wizard, back in 2016, how has things been
for you since?
When we recorded our album The Evolution of Love in 2017, we changed our name to The Steel after Perris Records’ request to find a new band title because they feared there would be controversies with the German band Wizard while distributing the album. That choice was not easy for as since our previous name Wizard is encased in our DNA and carved in our skin after many years of work and recognition; it felt like changing our identity without however stripping off our true selves, so we joined both our names The Steel – Wizard on all our social platforms except for the logos of our albums. Nowadays we have overcome those feelings and identified ourselves in our new name, especially now after our new project.
History goes back to 1979 where Wizard was formed, how has the road been for you guys so
far?
Rino Musella, our drummer, and I, Tiziano Favero aka Roy Zaniel, have known each other since we were kids and we have musically grown together. In the year 1979 we created our band Wizard, playing our first live gigs. We have always been heavily inspired by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rush and the 70’s in general. Throughout the 80’s we were the most known and
representative metal band of our region during the growth of the Italian metal underground scene, described as such by the most popular magazines and critics of that time. We produced the albums We Can Do It in 1987 and Shiver and Shake in 1989, and we were included in the Italian metal bands compilation Surgery of Power in 1988. We became inactive in 1990 but remained close friends, and we only reunited in 2010. The true new life of the band began in 2014 when our guitarist Marco Perrone joined us. We first made our EP Straight To The Unknown, then our album The Evolution of Love which was published under our new name, The Steel.
Would you like to share some great moments?
Every new fan, each cheer we receive in our live plays are the best moments for us! Our new album has been defined one of the best Italian hard rock albums of its year by the critics and it was a fantastic feeling. Each time the band reunites in the studio to record something new feels amazing.
How do you look into the future of the band?
I am certain that the band will have an even greater chance to grow in terms of composing and producing new music. We are still very motivated and wish to keep this project alive and going, having fun with music, and I believe that as long as you keep yourself stimulated there will always be so much more to achieve.
What would be some of the upcoming plans for the band?
At the moment our main goal is to play live, but we are also working on a new single that we would like to record before the end of 2022. We already have so many new ideas for our new album but we will not begin working on it until a few months.
Finally what would be the message for the fans?
I hope the readers enjoy our story, it was a pleasure introducing ourselves to all of you, we hope to see you all on our channels on Spotify, YouTube and Facebook. We appreciate all feedback and support, it will be a great pleasure replying and meeting you all.
Thank you Keith and Metalheads Forever Magazine for the chance you gave us, we love you India!!
Tracklist
- Don’t Run Away
- Hold On Tight
- Loving Killer
- I’ve Lost My Woman
- Until The End Of The World
- Open Your Heart
- Take It Or Leave It
- The River
- Fire
- Plastic World
- Believe Me
