Aleph

Aleph took shape somewhere during 1998 in the surroundings of Bergamo. Founding members were Manuel "Ades" Togni (who has recently been playing with icons like ULI JON ROTH, BLAZE BAYLEY, GRAHAM OLIVER, KEE MARCELLO and others) on drums, Dave "Nacht" Battaglia on guitar and Fabio "Thunder" Bellan on vocals and guitar. The latter soon quit to form the doom band Thunderstorm: it was then Nacht who assumed the role of singer/guitarist. Aleph's concept was, and IS, simple and clear: pay tribute to the bands they've grown up with and to create something new, vital, merging thrash and death metal with a dark and progressive attitude. Slayer, Sabbath, King Diamond and Celtic Frost were the band's guiding lights and this attitude has never changed. The band recruited a bass player, a second guitarist and a keyboard player and released its demo debut, "Falx Lunae" in year 2K. The record got enthusiastic reviews and the first shows were performed. One major change in Aleph's style was the recruitment of keyboardist Giulio Gasperini, the man who added a definitely "soundtrack-oriented" approach to the sound of the band, affecting the songwriting: this line up recorded "Promo 2002": good reviews and shows followed until the recording of the fundamental piece of the band's history, "In tenebra", released as a demo in 2005 with Lorenzo Fugazza on the second guitar. These songs defined the new cornerstone of the band's style, now deeply incorporating the musicians' love for (old) horror movies: this can be heard in the music and can be seen on stage. The power and inspiration of the songs led the label Fuel Records to sign Aleph and to release "In tenebra" as an official album in 2006, distributed by Self. Soon after the signing of the deal bassman Antonio Ceresoli joined the band, adding his characteristic 70s bass weight to the sound. The live energy was spread on stage with bands like DISMEMBER, VISION DIVINE, NECRODEATH, SLOWMOTION APOCALYPSE (and more): one of the song was released on Rock Hard Magazine and the record was voted best debut on Metal Hammer Reader's Poll: this gave Aleph international recognition on mags and zines all over Europe. The second album, the more death metal oriented "Seven Steps of Stone" was recorded at Vasteras' Underground Studios by Pelle Saether and was released by Fuel in 2009 and distributed by FRONTIERS and PLASTIC HEAD. The following touring activity saw the band share the stage with acts like SINISTER, DARK LUNACY, WHITE SKULL, SKANNERS and ILLOGICIST. Aleph parted ways with Fugazza in 2011 and started working on their third record with Nacht performing all the guitar tracks. What they have achieved is simply their best record to date, "THANATOS", recorded and mixed at AlphaOmega Studios by Alex Azzali; shortly after Aleph recruited Jack Ciurlia on the guitar and completed the line up. In October 2016 Silvano "Hypnos" Belloni (riff-master for thrash cult band Hellstorm) replaced Jack on the guitar, tightening the sound even more. In February 2017 the band released "Exhumed Alive", its first live recording ever. Dark-Death Metal from Italy