Steve Sylvester is eminently knowledgeable and passionate about his interests, such as comics, horror films and music. In 1977 he formed the band Death SS, one of the first to mix occult imagery and themes with rock/metal music. Tobias Forge, Ghost mastermind, recently cited Death SS as a primary influence on Ghost. The Entity was recently released via Lucifer Rising and is hands down the strongest and most innovative Death SS album in quite a while. In this interview I discuss the album with Steve and also throw in a couple of tough questions.
Chris Galea: Your new album The Entity seems concerned with the dark and bright sides of the human psyche. Can you tell me more about the lyrical concept?
Steve Sylvester: Well, I started to think about this kind of concept many years ago, while talking with a friend of mine called James Hogg. He was the homonymous man of the writer of the same name who in the 17th century wrote the book The Confessions of a Justified Sinner, which talked about the double sides of each man’s nature. So I started to put together something like this, while enriching the concept with some other influences, such as the book of Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde and inserting something about The Entity, a book by Alastair Crowley. I also took inspiration from characters such as Jack the Ripper, who was actually a contemporary of Stevenson as well as something from the Italian erotic comics of the 1970s, like “Cimiteria” or stuff like that, eventually making a connection with the history of my band.
How much of the novel of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be compared to your relationship with Death SS? In other words, is the band an opportunity to manifest the Mr. Hyde inside of you?
The song “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde” that I wrote is a sort of tribute to homonymous 1971 movie of Hammer Horror, the English horror movie company, where the evil side of Jekyll was not a man but a woman. I paid tribute to this horror movie that I love with the song. I inserted it into the concept because the meaning is that the evil side of each one of us is not a gender, it can be either man or woman.
This conceptual narrative, in my opinion, has given Death SS an opportunity to explore a wide range of musical styles. For example, you have “Cimiteria,” which is more atmospheric and doomy, and then even “Evil Never Dies” which is more upbeat. What are your thoughts on this?
This is natural because when I wrote each song in the concept I tried to use the comparable musical style, the musical vibe that I think is more suited to what we are trying to express with the lyrics. Each song needed a personal kind of atmosphere that I tried to transmit also in the music. I had talked about this also with the producer, Tom Dalgety [The Cult, Opeth, Rammstein…], and we both agreed that the new album needed a more simple, classic style with respect to what we did in the past to better reflect the atmosphere of each song.
Over the years Death SS has experimented with various sonorities. For example the sound of the albums Panic and Humanomalies is different from that in Resurrection. The Entity, on the other hand, seems mostly inspired by 1970s rock. Do you generally have a clear idea of what you want an album to sound like before you start writing the songs?
Oh no, usually I start with an idea about a song or about a concept and then the music is born naturally, like a natural evolution of the idea. I love all kinds of music. The most important for me is that it’s rock, rock-based with a dark atmosphere. And I don’t care if it can be more metal or more classic or more electronic or more gothic or anything like that. I don’t like putting a label on my music. The important thing is the good atmosphere, one that transmits the emotions of each song, like it does in movies.
I noticed that you have two members of Bulldozer within Death SS. You seem to have a close relationship with that band, right?
Yes, Death SS and Bulldozer are old friends. We have known each other since the beginning and I’m a close friend to Andy Panigada, Bulldozer’s guitar player, who also composed many parts of the music of The Entity with me. I also have Ghiulz [Borroni], who is an ex-guitar player of Bulldozer, and Manu, who is the drummer of both bands.
Ghiulz had already participated as a guest in the previous Death SS album, X (2021), and this time he joined as a full-time member. How would you describe his contributions to The Entity and his guitar playing in general?
I composed all the songs apart from the input from Andy Panigada. After I composed the songs, the rest of the band had carte blanche to evolve and to play in their own style. The contribution of the band is very important because each member of the lineup contributes with his own style, playing the instrument as he wants.
The members of Death SS have various stage personas, such as the mummy or the werewolf, etc. When a new member joins the band, is a new horror character created for him (like Kiss), or does the new member take over a character which already existed (also like Kiss!)?
In the beginning, Death SS was always composed of five classical monsters, the vampire, the phantom, the zombie, the werewolf and the mummy. So when the lineup changes, the new musicians have to take the role that their instrument is linked to. For example, the bass player must be the mummy and the drummer must be the werewolf. So the character, the monster, survives every time but the musician playing that role may change.
Death SS was one of the first metal bands from Italy. I’m curious, what do you remember about the first gig you did with Death SS?
It was many, many years ago. I started Death SS in 1977 when I was very young. What I remember was that we were very involved in everything, with a real passion, a childish passion in everything we did. And we were very rough in our attitude. There was a lot of energy, but not so many instruments to play. What I wanted the band to have was a very strong attitude. We were not great musicians back then, but we were too young so we did not have money to get decent equipment. Weirdly we had a punk-like attitude.
And on the subject of horror elements in music, how much of an inspiration were Alice Cooper and Arthur Brown for you?
Alice Cooper was the main influence on me, of course. Also, I paid tribute to him in the cover of the last album. A reminder of From the Inside album…
…that’s probably my favorite Alice Cooper album so I’m actually surprised I didn’t make the connection between the two artworks straight away. From The Inside is about the mentally-troubled part of Alice Cooper’s mind and when you open the LP from the middle, like a door, you see in one shot all the residents of the insane asylum. Great concept album.
Yes, so I wanted to try and reproduce some of that in the album The Entity because I think that that is a very good representation of the double-sided situation of a man. When I started [Death SS], Alice Cooper was absolutely an influence, also Kiss. But my personal influence was mainly from the old glam rock bands like The Sweet, Slade, T-Rex. There were not so many other references for shock rock. For example, I’ve known of Arthur Brown, Screamin’ Lord Such or Screamin’ Hawkins, that made this kind of horror shock rock before even Alice Cooper. But in Italy they were not well known at the time. I discovered them only afterwards. My influence back then was just Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath mixed with bands like The Sweet.
Death SS have previously worked with artists of graphic novels before, such as on album artworks. And, you know, when I was reading the lyrics of The Entity, it seemed like a perfect story out of which to make a graphic novel. What do you think?
The Entity was the first complete concept album [of Death SS]. And the story can be also played like a sort of musical, if you want. I am thinking about this idea, because there are the elements to make something different, not only an album, but something like a graphic novel or even a musical. I’m just thinking about that idea, you know, maybe in the future.
While we’re mentioning horror, are there any recent films that you liked?
My favorites are all of the past. For example, the Hammer movies, the Universal movies, but also the ones of the ’80s. In Italy, we have a long tradition in the 70s from directors such as Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci or Dario Argento – movies that are well known in the States. Regarding the more modern films, I don’t know, I’ve seen a few, but nothing that I particularly remember right now.
These days, Death SS mainly play festivals. But would you rule out going on tour throughout Europe, especially considering the positive reviews of The Entity?
What I want to do is a few concerts but in a good situation because I’d really like to do a complete show. Death SS are famous in Italy for our theatrical shows. And we try to deliver that type of show also abroad, if possible. So for this reason, I prefer to make only a few concerts but in good situations instead of doing a real tour in places where we can’t express ourselves like we want.
One of the things I observed about The Entity is that, at least in my opinion, there are many songs which would be great to play in a live scenario, songs such as “Possession” or “Evil Never Dies.” To what extent did you consider the live performances when composing the music of the songs?
Of course we will play some songs from the album, though not the whole album of course, but four or five songs taken from the album. And all the songs that we will play live could have some theatrical choreography that better represent the story, of course.
What do you have planned for the rest of the year with Death SS?
At the moment, we are engaged also in the promotion of the album. We will see what happens. Because if possible, in the next year, we will do a small tour or something like that to better promote the album abroad.
And are there any particular places or countries where would you like to play?
In all the places where we have never played in the past. Death SS have been on the road for many years but we have been an underground band that played mainly in Italy apart from a few other places. So it would be great if we can play our complete show to deliver the best we can offer but to new audiences.
You referred to the underground status of Death SS….the band has been together since the late 1970s. That’s more than 40 years. And your fans seem to be very loyal. So why do you think the band doesn’t have more of a worldwide fame?
Oh, that is a good question. Maybe the result of a lot of things. For example, our name with the ‘SS’ – still there are people that believe that the double ‘S’ in the moniker of the band is related to some Nazis or political stuff like this. The ‘SS’ in ‘Death SS’ are just my initials. This could be a barrier for expanding our music abroad. Also, maybe for the Satanic themes.
Well, King Diamond has similar themes and probably has more of a global name.
Maybe because we are Italian. It is a country that does not have a strong rock heritage. I don’t know, to be honest. There could be a lot of reasons. I think our music compares favorably to more globally renowned bands.
(interview published June 1, 2025)
