Rosae Crucis

Rosae Crucis born in 1990, from an idea of masterminds Andrea Magini and Igor Baccei. They began rehearsing and writing material along with vocalist Giuseppe "Ciape" Cialone, Manuel Timperi on bass and Giordano Bimbi as drummer; after a long period experimenting their sound, ranging from doom to heavy metal, from thrash to death metal and more extreme and obscure sound, with influences from Mercyful Fate, Death SS/Paul Chain, Candlemass, Rage, Grave Digger, Cirith Ungol, Manilla Road, and inspired by history, esoteric literature, horror movies and religious myths, they released their first demo "Il Re del Mondo" in 1993, wich gained very good press reviews and spread through the italian underground scene becoming a most-wanted record among metal fans thanks to its well-structured songs and the particularly inspired lyrics, in Italian language. After this release they played a large number of live gigs, wich contributed in increasing their fame in the scene; at that time bass player Manuel Timperi left the band and was replaced by Mario Ferruzzi, who stayed until the release of their second demo, Fede Potere Vendetta, in 1997. Mario dropped the band due to his life's commitments and Massimiliano Salvatori stepped up, recording the bass for this demo, thus remaining in the band for almost ten years. Fede Potere Vendetta was the answer to the detractors who judged Rosae Crucis dead, after a difficult period during which Igor, Manuel and, at last Mario had left the band for the most different reasons; it is a record where blood and hate melt the steel, straighter than the previous demo, more power-oriented and extremely epic, inspired by the ideal of never giving up and from the books of Robert Howard. At this time they decided to have the band's logo tattooed on their shoulders, to witness the purpose of enduring their battle against the "false" and to begin a new era for Rosae Crucis. This era begun with the live gigs supporting Fede Potere Vendetta, where crowds were enthusiastic yet no label seemed interested in an Italian-language-singing band. After releasing a promo for labels only and getting answers like "this is good, but if you could do in English..." they recorded, in 2000, the promo titled "Bran Mak Morn", the first record without Giordano on drums, replaced by Mirko Lai, and the first work with english lyrics (not to mention the old songs written in the 90/92 period, never published); it was a four-tracks of a more extensive work based on the novel "The Worms of the Earth" by Robert Howard, a persistent inspiration in the lyrics of the band. This promo gained them a contract for their official debut album, but Mirko left the band for personal reasons, so they were without a drummer and with the recording studio already booked; at this point Giuseppe Orlando from Novembre took them out of this wicked situation sitting behind the drums and recording a superb drumming performance, so fine that he played also some live gigs with Rosae Crucis in the aftermath, for example in the gig with Manilla Road, Doomsword and Battle Ram in 2002. Finally "The Worms Of The Earth" was out on Scarlet Records, and gained very good reviews in Italy and Europe as well as in Japan, were it has been distributed with a personal version of Cirith Ungol's "Death Of The Sun" as a bonus track. After an extensive search they found Piero Arioni as the new drummer, brought forth by old friend Tiziano Marcozzi who had recently joined the band in the role of axeman beside Andrea; with them they performed live in important gigs and festivals such as Agglutination Festival (Italy, 2003) or Headbangers Open Air (Germany, 2004) together with bands like Virgin Steele, Pino Scotto's Firetrails, Teathres Des Vampires, Adramelch, Brocas Helm, Hirax, plus countless gigs with bands like Novembre, Stormlord, Enemynside, Hyades and also they recorded some cover versions for various tributes ("Pleasure Slave" for Manowar tribute, "The Fires of Mars" for Manilla Road Tribute). After a long period of silence and few live dates, in 2007 Max Salvatori left the band and is replaced by Daniele "KK" Cerqua, a band's long time friend, and they recorded four songs to be part of the "Kingdom Undead" project, an album that foresees the destiny of humanity overwhelmed by zombies, inspired by writings like Richard Matheson's "I am legend", Max Brooks' "World War Z" and "The Zombie Survival guide", as well as John Carpenter's movies. During the recording of Kingdom Undead they got in touch with Jolly Roger Records, in the person of Antonio Keller, who offered a deal to re-record and re-issue the band's first two demos; recordings for "Il Re Del Mondo" started almost immediately in the band's studio, and finally the first of two has been published in September 2008, in CD, Vynil, and in limited editions for collectors along with patches, shirt and red vynil. This has given Rosae Crucis the opportunity to engrave their music in a new and more powerful sound, supported by the recording technology available at present time, and enhanced by fifteen years of musical experience. The band played at Total Metal Festival 2008 in Bari (Italy) alongside with Deicide, Schizo and Hatesphere, and is currently working on the new "Fede Potere Vendetta", to be issued in spring 2009.