Hour of Penance's new record, Regicide, came out this week and guitarist Giulio Moschini took some time to discuss it along with his favorite US food, and more!

Please state your name and role in the band.

G : Hey everybody, Giulio from Hour of Penance here, I play guitar and write the songs.

What’s the significance behind the album title, and how does it tie in with the album art?

G : I’ll quote our singer Paolo; he worked on the lyrics and he developed the main theme of the album.

"Regicide revolves around the theme of destruction and rebirth, the killing of the king, be he your own fears, prejudices or dogmas that you built inside yourself to cope with reality. Only by letting go of those illusions and tearing down the walls of ignorance and fear that society, religion and every form of dysfunctional authority you introjected during your life, you can start to rebuild your own path of life as a free man that has no need for a king.” The album art is a snapshot of our culture , where politicians and priests rule the country and control the population (which is chained to their will). The statue you can see in the middle of the cover art is the statue of Italy, mutilated and raped , no longer a glorious image of freedom and progress."

What do you think sets this record apart from your earlier albums?

G : I think that REGICIDE definitely marks a step up from our previous work in terms of songwriting, production, musicianship, and so on. We toured a lot promoting Sedition the last two years and that helped us grow as musicians, the great times we had on the road inspired us to write new music. I stayed away from metal for a year, that helped me get new ideas without being influenced by other music. We managed to write 14 songs in less than 8 months. Production wise, we recorded the drums in our bass player studio where we had a bigger room and we could take advantage of the natural reverb of it to get a more organic sounding for the drums. It’s our most varied work so far and it’s not just blast beat; this time, we played a lot with different tempos .

What do you put into your music to differentiate yourselves from other bands in the genre?

G : We’re big fan of this kind of music and the music we write is the music we would like to hear from a death metal band. We will never be a band that would release something that could be a disappointment for fans. We love what we do.

Have you ever had a rough time going through customs?

G : No, never had problems with that. We always apply for the Visas so we’ve never been really checked.

You've toured the US numerous times; have you found a favorite food/drink/etc there that you can't get back home?

G : Our singer Paolo is now addicted to Dr Pepper (don’t ask me why he loves that drink) - which is hard to find here in Italy.

How is your diet on tour different from what you would eat at home?

G : We mostly eat junk food, ,and that sort of stuff unfortunately… so yeah that’s way different from what we normally eat back at home. When I’m at home I’m always on a diet because I work out. I try to stay healthy while on the road but it’s a very hard task! Since we usually drive the van ourselves we stay away from alcohol as much as we can.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

G : That’s a hard question ... we had so many great moments on the road. I’d say the tour we did here in Europe with Cannibal Corpse, Devildriver, and The Black Dahlia Murder in February 2013. Every night it was pretty much always sold out and we played big venues.

You'll be touring the US with Septicflesh and Fleshgod Apocalypse; any surprises planned with former vocalist Francesco Paoli who's now the drummer for Fleshgod? Maybe have him do vocals for an older song in the set.

G : Who knows! We haven’t really thought about that , I don’t think Francesco would be able to do it since it’s been a while i think since he sang something!

This isn’t your first tour in America, you’ve been here a few times before; what are your favorite things about touring here?

G : There a couple of things that I like a lot, first of all the nature. Last time we toured in the U.S. we drove ourselves in the van and we had more chances to visit places between shows. The vastness of the land is what impressed me the most. That’s very different from Europe where the big cities are not far from each other and it’s pretty much overpopulated in some areas. The diversity between the two continents is fascinating but also the diversity between a state and another within the U.S. I mean, last time we toured U.S in December, we went from the heavy snow in Michigan to the sunny Florida; I loved it!

In your experience, what are the similarities and differences between crowds back in Italy and those here in America?

G : Well, Italy is a small country and there’s a small scene over here. To be honest, playing in the States is very different at the point that it’s not even comparable. Playing in Italy kinda sucks unfortunately.. most of the venues are closing because of the financial crisis of this country and because the italian crowd doesn’t support enough the local scene.. so you can go to a show where an Italian band plays and find 20 people.

What other bands do you see yourselves touring with in the future?

G : I’d really like to tour with Morbid Angel - they’re one of our biggest influences and inspirations and I hope we could tour again with our friends and the legends in Cannibal Corpse!