5RAND is a female-fronted melodic death metal band from Italy, with both clean and growling vocals. The band plays a modern metal, distinguished by the combination of melody with heavy, aggressive riffing, which leads into a dark, disturbing and violent atmosphere, whose result may recall bands that range from Slipknot to Dark Tranquillity.

5RAND was founded by the guitarist, Pierluigi Carocci. the band proposes a modern sounding mixture of extreme metal and melodic elements, with growl and clean vocals both delivered by Julia Elenoir‘s female voice. The lineup, formed in 2015, is completed by Riccardo Zito (bass) and Andrea De Carolis (drums).
In 2017 5RAND released their first album “Sacred/Scared”, followed by 2 European tours supporting bands like Vader, Dark Tranquillity, and Equilibrium. Furthermore, the band played several shows in Italy and Europe as a headliner. In September 2019 the band released their critically acclaimed second album “Dark Mother“. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy our exclusive interview with the band.

Beginnings:

“Pierluigi founded the band a few years ago. In the beginning, the lineup wasn’t that established: it’s only in early 2015 when Julia joined, and also Riccardo a bit later, that the band really came to life properly. We consider that to be the real founding moment because that’s when everything started coming together: our music style, the lyrical concepts…etc. As to how we got to know each other, metal in Rome doesn’t have huge numbers, so it’s not hard to find someone if you have specs in mind, given he or she exists, naturally.”

“As you may know, Rand is South Africa’s currency. When Pierluigi was looking for a name for the musical project he had in mind, he met a strange and mysterious guy who, after a good chat, gave him a 5 Rand coin as a lucky charm. He liked both the coin and the name, so it did stuck.”

Inspiration:

“Growing up, we’d say the classics: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer… now the names are slightly different and more recent though, like Slipknot, Gojira, Fear Factory.”

Teamwork:

“Most often Pierluigi, but not only, outlines the major structure, and then we fine-tune it together. The same happens with lyrics, but in that case, Julia does 90% of the work.

We want to make refreshing music, modern and heavy but still melodic and pleasant, not something complex for its own sake. We all like the genre and we propose our own interpretation, and obviously, we mix in there other genres as well.

Being experienced obviously helps a lot, especially in saving time because you already know what to want, what to expect, and how to get it done. We’re definitely on the same page as a band, which also helps a lot.”

New album on the horizon?

“Not yet, but with this pandemic and the impossibility to play live, maybe we will start working on a new record sooner than expected.”

COVID-19

“It has affected probably every band in the world. We had to cancel a lot of shows and our plans for the summer are probably compromised. We’ll have to see how the pandemic resolves in the different countries, this also has to be considered, but it’s likely that our lives will be limited and different for the next year.”

Behind the scenes:

“We suspect Julia really enjoys watching people eat, that’s why everything she cooks is in enormous quantity! Riccardo is a history geek and randomly pops out anecdotes when we visit places, Pierluigi constantly makes jokes and witty remarks and Andrea does impressive imitations of people! And that’s how we manage to survive long trips!”

Message to the fans:

“Thanks for reading us, we really hope to meet you soon in some shows, when everything gets back to normality! Follow us on our social pages and on 5rand.net to stay up to date. If you like our music and want to support us, please visit our online store. Thanks again and keep banging your head!”

Please support the band by buying their music – just click on the photo below.

Photos: Alessandro Schiariti Photo Art