THE ENTROPIC QUEEN – TOMMASO (TOMMY) MONTICELLI
Art: Tom Roberts
Tom Roberts, the illustrator of The Entropic Queen cover art, was easy to work with. We just gave him some simple ideas, and he came out with that picture, and after a couple of changes, it was done. That’s why we hired him again after Glare of Deliverance 2020, cause we trust him and are on the same page. The subject represents a queen of an army ready to fight and defend her nest. It can represent both men fighting against nature (the pandemic in this case) or nature defending itself from a dangerous virus, humanity. We like to tell epic and emotional stories; we avoid discussing politics or criticising society.
We don’t have specific routines to create our songs; it just happens. The only method we have is that Tommy creates the music and Nick the lyrics on their own; we usually don’t jam together in the creative process. We have had a dream since we were kids and are determined to aim for it through heavy metal.
Me (Tommy) and Nick grew up together, and we were used to listening to heavy metal since we were little kids. Epic and power metal legends were and still are our models, from Manowar to Blind Guardian. Of course, we like modern metal bands like Lamb Of God or Gojira, but our style is based on epic stories like the ones told in Nightfall in Middle-Earth or Fighting The World, and we’re proud of it. I like to spend some days alone in my little house on the mountains while recording the demos for the new albums, no psychedelic trips or crazy stuff.
I’m not an idol; some music, books or movies inspire me. Many talented people are out there, but my goal is to be a good guy and live with our music. I don’t think it’s spiritually connecting anyone; music often divides people more than connecting them sometimes; to a personal level, I think it’s the most emotional art. It’s not just entertaining media but a sacred way to discover yourself and feel emotions intensely.
If we’re not speaking about heavy music, I’m a big fan of modern country music! I’m obsessed with Luke Combs: great voice, amazing production and touching lyrics; check him out (if you don’t know him, but I doubt it as he’s so famous right now.
