There is surely one band in Italy that not needs any sort of intro and it's Death SS, since ever the creature molded by the hands of the most charismatic figure of the entire italian metal scene: Steve Sylvester. Here's a paragraph cut out from their Official Biography that captures the true spirit of this band << Death SS were born from the strangest pages of the underground scene and are the living proof that heavy metal is fed on the lymph of medieval esoteric  myths and legends, bringing to extreme consequences the obscure warmth of gothic chimera's in a way that none have ever tryed before in Italy>>. Steve's alter ego is the grand mad-man guitarist Paul Chain, with whome he no longer shares friendship. Together, over twenty years ago, they have created one on of italian music's most mysterious and particular entities, Death SS. Steve continues his journey with other companions and not long ago has released his second solo album...

-(Evil S)- Steve first of all I have a few things on my mind that wouldn't mind resolving. Rumors say that you have a new member in your line-up, an Apulian guitarist near my town (Bari) previously in a local band called Scomunica. Is this true or just another rumor for some easy pubblicity ?
-(Steve)-Bullshit as usual.. Personally, I've never heard of a band called Scomunica and Death SS members are all from around Florence-Pisa.

-(Evil S)- Anyway, would you like to introduce us the new members that have replaced Felix Moon and Ross Luckather?
-(Steve)-Felix has been substituted by Simon Garth previously guitarist of the bands Neon and Punkhrow,  and his name comes from a character of an old American comic strip Tales of Terror that was a zombie and whose name was Simon Garth, meanwhile our actual drummer is Anton Chaney (who's name comes from chaney cinema's first warewolf) and has played in many other bands in the past one of wich is Tossic.

-(Evil S)- Steve, what kind of relations do you have with Paul Chain now ? Are  your problems due to temper incompatibility or are your tremendous artistic figures just to too big to put together ?
-(Steve)- Paul Chain and I have broken up any sort of cooperation again, and I doubt that we'll ever work together again... Our differences are due to personality and character dfferences.

-(Evil S)-  Don't you think that the real Death SS  line-up is the one that features both you and Paul Chain ? Or do you think that the band is mostly "your's" and that the other musicians that have followed up beside you were just co-headers ?
-(Steve)-I'm really fet up of all this ... the line-up with Paul Chain is over 20 years old... whoever thinks that is the "real" Death SS line-up can just go on listening to those albums.

-(Evil S)-  Can you explain to us what happened to that chicken in the Gods of Metal concert ?
-(Steve)- I cut a chickens neck during the gig... so what ? It's a classic voodoo rite that was perfectly in tune with the text's reguarding Baron Samedi; since it had such success I'll surely do it again !

-(Evil S)- Doesn't it bother you that now a days thing's that Marilin Manson or Mayhem do are considered so shocking, meanwhile you had done those same things already 15 years ago ?
-(Steve)- Sometimes it does !

-(Evil S)- I mean, You have surely been a precursor, but don't you think that going on stage now or appearing in Official photo's  with costumes and heavy mackup, and even with a nun that is about to be raped might make most people smile  ?
-(Steve)- Who really fallows the band knows who we are and what we think... everybody else can do something else if they want, we won't miss them !

-(Evil S)- How come Death SS have never really "made it" beyond Italy, even though many consider you as a cult-band ?
-(Steve)-  I think that it's mostly record companies' fault because they always have limited their productions to barely cover the Italian market, just enough to get back the money they had spent... without ever risking and those few copies that have reached other countries were sold in pre-paid packages ! I hope that this will all change for the future.

-(Evil S)- Do you think that Lucifer Rising can risk on young Italian bands, besides dedicating themselves to Death SS? And if you do, name some.
-(Steve)- Unfortunatly I don't think so.. There were supposed to be other new releases but then nothing came through... it's a pretty long story but at the moment I would like to point out that LR will not promote other bands so it's useless sending in demo tapes and no matter I tried to contrast this situation as hard as I could, this is how things actually stand !

-(Evil S)- At last your solo album has been released, can you tell us something about it ?
-(Steve)-  In theory  "Mad Messiah" was supposed to be released in '95 but then things carried on a bit in time and I went on with other recordings, in the band there are several members of Death SS and there are 3 covers, Dying World of Necronomicon (even though I realaborated alot both lyrics and music), Shape of things to come, an Enslade song and last but not least Heaven on their minds off the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack.. the other tracks are mine some of which have been written with Paul Chain and the others with other band mates; it is a much more linear album than Free man even though it's allways based on dark and seventies  tunes.The cd cover is an overlapping of a picture of Aleister Crowley and mine... on the other hand the Free man cover had an overlapping of me and Lucifer !

-(Evil S)-Tell us something more about your appearence in Cristiano Borchi's Stormlord?
-(Steve)- I know the guys of Stormlord since a bit, I like their music so when they asked me if I was available for some backing vocals on their album I accepted .. that's it !

-(Evil S)- Which do you think are the best things and worst things in Italy's metal scene  ?
-(Steve)- No need my answering, just take a look for yourself and you'll see everything.

-(Evil S)- I know that there's a Death SS tribute project growing done by Italian underground bands. Do you know anything about it ?
-(Steve)- It's all organanized by a guy of Roma... I'll be involved only on the supervision of the final product and will authorize it only if it will be high quality result... I can't afford producing an album that may contain demo's taped in a garage.. anyway it isn't one of my Official issues, maybe in the future if I'll have the chance I might organize an Official Death SS tribute album calling some foreign well known bands and that have allready asked me information about something like this .. but for now  there's nothing sure !

-(Evil S)- What would you like to say to all those bands that claim that they adore the Forces of Evil and Obscurity and that probably don't even have any intellectuall background reguarding these themes ? (I personally know a few Black bands that don't even undrstand there own lyrics)
-(Steve)- I think that in every kind of music there are good and bad things, as for Black Metal... there are a few things that I appreciate and others I don't, but reguarding the lyrics they seem a bit all the same.

-(Evil S)- How did your participation at Red Ronnies tv show go ? Do you think he understood your musical and scenic  act ?
-(Steve)-  Overall I found it a positive experience that gave me the opportunity to spotlight the band, our genre, our music and let people that probably didn't even know we existed appreciate it.. this is a positive thing and Red Ronnie was pretty cool too...we will probably repeat that experience as soon as we can !

-(Evil S)- Steve, I found Black Widow's idea to issue "...e tu vivrai nel terrore" ingenious . What do you think about it ?
-(Steve)- I like the book alot, a little less the album, I found it a bit boring but nevertheless it was surely a good idea; I'm fond of  horror movies so this seems a good issue too.