“ I think the concept fitted perfectly and it also has a big parallel on things happening today . That is why it is called The Immortal Wars ...”
“ I was in Italy in 2015 and I visited a lot of ancient monuments and I bumped into a few fans who said “ you better bring back EX DEO ” and I was feeling it in the moment and that is when it all started for me again . The hiatus remains for touring , that ’ s not changed , we just decided to do a record and that ’ s where the hiatus was more meant to be . The album was just a uncertain thing if we would do it or not but we decided to do it and it came out great and we are very happy with it . I don ’ t close the door on anything , I just let the people decide .”
10
The arrival of The Immortal Wars has been a long time coming , five years since their last record Caligula . Building itself as a concept record surrounding the bloody trilogy of The Punic Wars is a fine fitting for the band as Maurizio explains , “ well it is a conceptual record , the other ones were more individual songs that represented different times of the Roman Empire and all that . But this one , this one is more based on the Punic Wars , it ’ s really a whole concept , and it is the first time we have done that so it is a different approach ” says Maurizio . “ Also , we have a different member of the band on this record where it is the keyboardist of CARACH ANGREN , Clemens Wijers , so he brought a completely new dimension to the band ’ s sound as well and we worked very close together on how the background is going to sound , all the orchestra and all that , so that was a very cool experience . It ’ s a mature record and I think it is a going in a different direction , it ’ s a very dramatic album and it ’ s got a lot of power in it , I am very pleased with the result . Well you know it was something that redesigned the entirety of warfare , it was a time where the strategies used in that war between Hannibal and Scipio switched and changed the way people think about war . You ’ re talking about a guy who decided he was going to walk into the biggest republic in the world and just walk right through