Track By Tracks: Liva - Ecce Mundus (2023)

1. De avaritia et luxuria mundi: this is the longest song of all the album songs, with 9 minutes 30 seconds. All the ability of the band is in this song. I gave a lot of space to our new soprano Nadine to improvise.

The song is about the search for power, linked to human greed, and an insatiable thirst. As with a tumor, the more it swells, the more violently the disease grows.

2. Materiae summa: for this one, the riffs of the intro, the verse, and the chorus are very heavy but in three different ways for each section. I wanted a half-beat song with a double bass drum feel to it. I’m very proud of it. The text says: Nothing happens without a cause; everything that is, is the consequence of what was and the cause of what it will be.

3. Ecce mundus demundatur: this is my power ballad but not like many bands used to do them. I wanted it to suggest sensuality and wanted to build a progressive intensity.

The text says: The world is nothing but filth, the only thing it abounds in is vices galore.

4. Sunt: This is my power metal song for the album. This song was created in one night! I love the final section. It talks about corruption, dishonest lawyers, and hypocrite people.

5. Samson & Dalila I: This is the emblematic song of the album. This song has all the elements that are to be found in the Liva style. It’s about the old story of Samson and Dalila. To avenge her people, Dalila cuts off Samson's hair, thus weakening him.

6. Samson & Dalila II: With the same story of Samson & Dalila, I wanted to have a Hard Rock feel to sing over. I’m very proud of what I found for Nadine’s chorus and of how I use all the registers of my voice.

7. Obscura:

I wanted to use a “gallop” kind of riff. This was an old idea that I worked on very much to build the structure. The lead section is one of my favourites of the album.

The text is about happiness: a suggestion to make up for what it lacks in length with its intensity—the amount in which it impacts an individual is long-lasting, even if happiness itself is not.

8. O Roma nobilis: this is the heaviest-sounding song that I have ever written.

It talks about the glory of Rome:

Queen of the earth, O thou Rome of nobility,

Thou the most excellent City of cities,

Red with the rubrical blood of the Martyrs,

White with the Virginal garments and lilies:

Thee we hail as we come to thy portal

Guard us, govern us, City immortal!

9. Silence: this one was my toughest song to build. It took me a lot of time to build that song with a mix of very good old ideas. But it was only last year that I was inspired to finish it. The lead guitar section is one of my best ever.

The text: Even when a man is gone and human sound ceases, the green ruins, desolate walls, and antique palaces continue to exist with the solidity of their ‘silence’ – or rather the subtle sound and paralleled peace of nature.