This is the first interview with you guys for our webzine, so to kick off with a short introduction would be appropriate. How would you describe the band to someone discovering you for the first time? First of all, greetings to ALOM readers! I am Cristiano Filippini, composer and producer. I founded the band Flames Of Heaven in 2019 and do the songwriting, lyrics, vocals, arrangements, orchestrations, rhythm guitar and keyboards. The singer is Marco Pastorino (Temperance), on lead guitar Michele Vioni whose YouTube channel is the most visited among guitarists in the world. The bassist is Giorgio Terenziani from Arthemis, and the drummer is Paolo Caridi known from Ellefson/Soto, Reb Beach and Geoff Tate’s Sweet Oblivion.  The band’s style is to combine the best of 80s AOR (Heaven) and 80s and 90s Power (Flames) in a personal, even orchestral, modern and unique way. Flames Of Heaven are also the meaning of the power of the Holy Spirit against all evil in this cruel world. What was the vision, motivation or drive or how you would like to call it, behind starting a project like Flames of Heaven? Ever since I was little my dream has always been to create a successful rock/metal band. But it took me twenty years to find the right people, both musically and personally. In the meantime, I followed the solo path by composing two discs of epic symphonic music, which were also performed in several theaters with a real symphony orchestra.  The vision is also to fill a void. I see so many bands all the same, who don’t take care of the details and who are a poor copy of someone else. Or even worse, bet everything on the singer’s beauty or the oufit. We want to make real music. strong>A few years ago you set yourself on the metal booth with the album ‘The Force Within’ which gained you some very favorable attention, all in the midst of the corona crisis. How do you look back on this period now? Paradoxically, that period helped me a lot artistically, allowing me to delve deeper into some aspects of production, improving mixing and mastering more and more and increasing my awareness as a producer. When I came back from Finland after working with Matias Kupiainen of Stratovarius and Mika Jussila from Finnvox Studios, we retouched the work 3 times massively working online months. I couldn’t leave anything out. And it turned out to be a really good album. Many love it madly, you can feel how much passion and fervor there is within it. Fond as I was of ‘The Force Within’, the new album ‘Symphony of the Universe’ feels like a major evolution from that point on. What was the conceptual or emotional spark that set this album in motion? You hit the nail on the head. I wanted the new album to be a natural continuation of the first but with some aspects still enhanced and improved. As if he were a big brother, strong and unassailable. I wanted to create something huge, untouched, at the highest peak of grandeur. Like the Symphony in Symphonic music and the Universe in Creation. I combined these two ideas, which then fit together perfectly on the songs inspired by Masami Kurumada’s “Saint Seiya”. The new record seems more expansive and cinematic. What choices in terms of production or composition helped you reach that bigger universe‑like sound? I am a person who listens to constructive criticism and advice, if it is sensible and expressed with respect, by those who have studied my work in depth. Then naturally I decide and evaluate personally. The only criticism that had been made of the previous album was the presence of too many ballads, three. So I replaced two ballads with two epic suites and this is the secret and key to the album’s sense of greater majesty and epicness. Furthermore, as far as I was concerned, I thought I still had to take a step forward as an author of texts, more researched, more intimate, more in-depth. Now I’m also very proud of the lyrics and my work. How did the songwriting process differ from the previous album? Did you experiment with new structures, orchestration, or themes? The process remained unchanged, I composed everything except the most virtuoso guitar solos which are the fruit of Michele Vioni’s work. Marco takes care of some vocal arrangements and backing vocals in the studio. Giorgio and Paolo obviously following my guidelines make their very valuable contribution regarding their instrument. As for the real orchestra, this time only the strings were recorded separately to have much more control over each take and manage it at will.

Which song on ‘Symphony of the Universe’ pushed you to the furthest creative limits, and why? I would say ‘Darkside Of Gemini’ because it is the most progressive epic and has many nuances in itself. A poignant song about the suffering and story of the character Saga of Gemini from the manga “Saint Seiya” by Masami Kurumada. On an instrumental level we have all epic intro, dark arpeggio, “rides”, power metal, cinematic cuts, musical passages. A song I love.