Interview

Ad Infinitum's Melissa Bonny Opens "Chapter II"

It's always nice to catch up with people you respect. Whether it be family members, old friends or in today's case, bands which one is a fan of. Earlier this year, Metal Underground spoke with renowned vocalist Melissa Bonny of Ad Infinitum (then also of Rage Of Light) where we discussed the band's debut, "Chapter I: Monarchy." Now, nearing the end of the year, we once again had the opportunity to speak with one of the most talented singers in symphonic metal and discuss the second Ad Infinitum album, "Chapter II: Legacy," the plans for and making of the album, as well as Bonny's departure from Rage Of Light. You can watch the interview in full below.

Diamond Oz: First of all thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today. More importantly the new album, “Chapter II: Legacy” will be out on October 29th. What would you say makes this different from “Monarchy”?

Melissa Bonny: The songwriting process was very different and so the end result is as well. I would say that the big difference is that “Chapter I” was recorded and written with the additional view of a producer who would supervise everything, whereas this time we only worked together as a band, from the beginning until the end. We were only involved with two other people: Elias Holmlid for the orchestration and Jacon Hansen for the mix and post production. So, this album is very much us and I think you can hear it in the music that there’s an evolution. It’s a little bit younger, fresher and heavier.

Oz: Absolutely, I think that was immediately noticed when “Unstoppable” came out. Even people who loved the first album were praising it as the best Ad Infinitum song yet. It’s a very cool music video too with the fire and everything. How was the recording process for the video?

Melissa: It was fun. We planned everything with the video director Ralf Leitner and we travelled to Austria for this video and for the next one (“Afterlife.”) The only difficulty we had was the fact that it was in the middle of the pandemic, so we didn’t know if our flight or the train would be cancelled, or if suddenly the border of one of the countries would close. So it was definitely a little bit stressful but finally when we were all there, we were ready to film, it was fantastic. I remember that it was pretty cold, we shot during the night and as we started to film, the adrenaline kicked in and we knew we were all about to create something special. I was wearing a shirt and short clothes but I couldn’t feel anything because I was so like, “Yeah! This is finally happening!” and also with the fire around, it was so cool.

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Interview

Ad Infinitum: "We're Working On A New Album"

2020 may have been a pretty crap year for the world in general, but in the realm of metal music, we were still treated to the debuts from several excellent bands. The likes of Surma, Konvent and Calyces all unleashed their first full lengths and garnered plenty of attention, as did another band from Switzerland, one with a lot to offer and a fascinating blend of styles. The band in question is Ad Infinitum, led by the incomparible Melissa Bonny and featuring contributions from members of such bands as Follow The Cipher and Delain.

In 2020, Ad Infinitum not only released their first album, "Chapter 1: Monarchy," but also an acoustic version of the record, entitled "Chapter 1: Revisited." In December, the band announced that bassist Korbinian Benedict had joined the fold, replacing Jonas Asplind and that work on a new album was underway.

To find out more about Ad Infinitum, their forthcoming sophomore album, the status of Melissa Bonny's other band, Rage Of Light, her numerous guest appearances and more, I spoke with the singer herself. You can watch the interview in full below. More...

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