Death SS

Founded in 1977 by Paolo Catena (guitars) and Stefano Silvestri (vocals), the line-up was soon complete with the addition of Daniele Ugolini (bass) and Tommaso Castaldi (drums). All four members took as artistic names the way their names would be in English: Paul Chain, The Death (guitars), Steve Sylvester, The Vampire (vocals), Danny Hughes, The Mummy (bass) and Tommy Chaste (I), The Werewolf (drums). Paul Chain and Steve Sylvester soon started to compose their first songs: "Terror" (1977), "Zombie" (1977), "Horrible Eyes" (1978), "Murder Angels" (1979), "The Hanged Ballad" (1979), etc. Contrary to popular belief, there were line-up changes from 1977 to 1982. As Steve Sylvester stated on an interview for trumetal.it webzine on December, 2005, Danny Hughes were really two individuals, the same way Tommy Chaste were three. It all came from my haste to quickly establish the names of the musicians that were part of the band, in a sort of magical pact. The first Danny Hughes (Daniele Ugolini) was the first guy that played the bass in the band, but […] he was substituted by Gabriele Tomassini, who became the new Danny Hughes. As for the musicians nicknamed Tommy Chaste, nothing is known about the first out of his real name (Tomaso Castaldi). The second was Franco Caforio (who lately gained fame with the Italian rock band Litfiba) and took the name of Thomas Chaste. The third one (Andrea Vianelli; the first one to be called with the compound name Thomas Hand Chaste) entered in Death SS in October, 1980. There’s only one recording available previous to the entrance of Andrea Vianelli, that is the rehearsal version of Zombie from 1979 released on Zombie/Terror single, contained in The Cursed Singles Boxed set (1995). Claudio Galeazzi (Claud Galley, The Zombie) also entered in the band in 1980 as rhythm guitar player and Death SS became a quintet. This line-up recorded the demo The Horned God of the Witches (1981), unreleased as such for the general public (only two copies exist) but contained in The Story of Death SS compilation LP (1987). The Mummy, Gabriele Tomassini, left in 1982 and Claud Galley took the bass instead. Again as a four-piece the band recorded the Demo II. More songs were composed, but not recorded before Steve Sylvester left the band. After Steve Sylvester’s departure in 1982, Paul Chain kept on recruiting Sanctis Ghoram (Piero Gori) on vocals. With him, the band released the Evil Metal EP and contributed with the song "Black and Violet" for the Heavy Metal Eruption compilation in 1983. Other songs composed (but recorded only as live versions) while he was in the band include "The Bones and the Grave", "Death and Love" and "The Evil, the Sorrow", the last released later by Paul Chain Violet Theatre in 1986. Paul Chain had the feeling that the band was not already the same without Steve Sylvester, so he decided to drop out the name and focusing in his solo project, Paul Chain Violet Theatre, in April 1984. Three years later, Paul Chain released The Story of Death SS, 1977-1984. After a relative success of this compilation, Steve Sylvester recorded the copyright for the band’s name and moved to Florence, recruiting new members from the local scene to rerecord his old songs (which are mainly featured on their first two LPs) along with some new ones. After releasing their completely new compositions on Heavy Demons, the band slightly changed its name to Sylvester’s Death for its subsequent Cursed Concert and Straight to Hell EP in 1992/1993 (to avoid controversy and confusion in Germany with the SS part of its name). Meanwhile, Steve Sylvester recorded his first solo album (with members of the old Death SS) and spent some time to clear up ideas while releasing hard to be found miscellany like Horror Music: The Best of Death SS. The 1997 comeback was the seminal point for their new industrialized sound which would be better developed on Panic, Humanomalies and The 7th Seal. The band played their supposed farewell shows at Headbanger’s Open Air festival on July 24th to 27th, 2008 and was put on hold until late 2012. Their former manager was Elio Ferlaino. Compilation appearances: - "Terror" on Gathered (Electric Eye Records, 1982) - "Black & Violet" on Heavy Metal Eruption (Metal Eye, 1983) - "King of Evil" on Metalmaster Compilation (Metalmaster Records, 1990) - "Vampire (live, as Sylvester's Death)" on Dracula Compilation (Columbia, 1993) - "Baron Samedi" on Metal Art Act 1 (MetalAgen, 2000) - "La Voie Lactee" on Not of This Earth (Black Widow Records, 2002) - "Black Mass" on Lords of Chaos - The History of Occult Music (Prophecy Productions, 2002 / Index Verlag, 2008)