All For Metal
Mountain Of Power

22.04.2025

In just about three years, an entertaining and picturesque gang known as All For Metal, has made an impressive progress to make themselves heard all over the metal community. Their light-hearted approach and over-the-top lyrics may not necessarily work for everybody, but they do succeed in grabbing a lot of metal fans’ attention. A lot of that is due to the contrasting duo of singers, both of which had a solid background before establishing All For Metal - Antonio Calanna with melodic metallers DeVicious, and Tetzel with German melodic death force Asenblut. But that does not mean to understate the contribution of instrumentalists, who don’t only wear fancy costumes and enigmatic masks, but also provide solid musical backing, and of the behind-the-scenes songwriting team that includes some names that every metalhead is familiar with. On top of it, they all work relentlessly, putting out album after album and using all touring opportunities available. We got an interview slot with Tetzel literally two days after the band came home from a month-long European tour, but he was all ready and willing to discuss with us the past, the present and the future of All For Metal.

You have just returned from a major tour with Dirkschneider. How did you like the tour? Were there any cities or shows that you personally liked best of all?

The whole tour was very good, it was a very well-organized tour with a lot of people coming, a great audience attendance, we had, I think, a thousand people at every show, at some shows even more, and almost every show was sold out. It was really good to have that. There was a little bit of - which is kind of clear when you go on a tour for the 40th anniversary of an album like “Balls To The Wall” - the average age of the audience was pretty old, to be honest, and that was definitely a challenge to get these people to engage with our music. Even though I feel we make pretty traditional metal music, some of them are like, “The last good record came out in 1989!” (everybody laughs) But I think we managed to get quite a few new fans and new people that liked us, so it was really great. Generally I would say the German, the Eastern European and also the Spanish audiences were really strong and really engaging. Sometimes in the northern countries there was a little bit more distance, but this is just how people are, their temperament, basically. It was a lot of fun.

Before All For Metal you sang with Asenblut for something like 15 years...

(interrupts) I still do!

Yeah, we know, but how did your lifestyle change when you joined All For Metal?

I am now doing something with music most of the time. Before that it was more like a part-time job or even a very big hobby. Now almost everything I do has to do with either All For Metal or Asenblut. I am basically a professional musician, I earn my money with music.

Is it a welcome change, is it something you have worked all your life to achieve, or is it more like a challenge?

It is definitely something that I wanted. When you start playing in a band, and you start making music, and you do it for such a long time, you don’t do it just to go on stage three times a year, put your jeans on and rock around a little bit. It was definitely a goal to become a touring musician, an artist that is recognized and now tours through all of Europe. My lifestyle - coming to that - I am way more away from home now. (laughs)

When and how did you originally meet Antonio? Was it before or after the idea for All For Metal was born?

It was part of how things came to be. Basically I got in contact with Antonio in May 2021 or in early 2021, during the whole COVID situation. I had basically started to take singing lessons, started singing clean, and since he’s a very awesome singer, and he’s also into fitness, we got to talk about that, and then there was this idea to do something with two different vocal styles. We recorded the first demos for All For Metal in November 2021, and that’s how it all started. Then the idea was pitched, we talked about the concept, did a lot of brainstorming to bring the vision to life, and we shot the first videos in May 2022. “All For Metal” (the first single - ed.) came out in October 2022, and it kind of snowballed from there.

You and Antonio are a charismatic vocal duo. But how is it like to work together backstage? Do you always agree on who should sing which parts, or do you sometimes argue about any musical matters?

Yeah, we argue, but at the end of the day, when we argue it’s basically from the perspective of what’s going to be the best for the band, what’s going to be the best for the performance. They are really fruitful arguments. We have a very different background, which is very interesting. I’m a super spontaneous guy, I’m like a professional moderator, you can put me on any stage and give me a topic, and I can navigate through it, it’s really easy for me. Antonio is the guy that is a very hard worker and learner. He’s from the musical world, he gets incredibly good through repetition and really nails down something because he has practiced it. It’s a big difference. It’s a different kind of strength. For example, when there is moderation for a song, I’m sometimes like, “Let me do it like this”, and he says, “I’ve prepared a speech for that, let me do it my way”. Since we have two microphones, two main vocals, of course, we really have to split things, so that we don’t talk over each other, that would just be chaos, for example. But in the musical realm, I always rely on the expertise of people from the outside and also Antonio’s expertise. It’s just natural with a super-high voice that his vocal lines are usually leading, obviously the high notes usually lead, and that’s completely fine for me.

Could you say a few words about the other band members? Especially about the rhythm section – why are they covering their faces most of the time?

Well, it’s just a part of the look of the band, it’s just how we are portraying ourselves, with a little bit of mystique. The rhythm guys, our drummer and bass player, Leif and Flo, they have these characters, and this just works so well. They look fucking cool…(everybody laughs) Flo is running around with crazy eyes, he has really incorporated it into his stage act, and Leif is just a machine on the drums. I told him, “When you ever do something different, just one small thing, I actually notice, because you are always on point!” (everybody laughs) It’s like a fucking drum computer. And when he does some small details, when he has some fun, when he gives us a little bit of an offbeat crash or something just to make us aware that he’s still there, it’s really a lot of fun. These guys are amazing at their instruments, and they bring a lot to the stage even though their faces are covered.

We would also like to ask you about the songwriting team who writes music and lyrics for All For Metal. We know Peter Jordan from Running Wild, and Hannes Braun from Kissin’ Dynamite, but who are the rest of the songwriters?

It’s basically the production team of Elephant Music, Hardy Krech, he is a very renown German producer and songwriter, he has written music for Santiano, he worked with different projects even back in the 90s. Do you know Passion Fruit’s “The Rigga-Digga-Dong Song” (an electro pop hit from 2000 - ed.)? He has written a lot of music in very different styles, that’s the point. He’s a very versatile guy who knows how to write catchy melodies. We just basically rely on him in a way (laughs) to help us out. But as you said, Peter and Hannes are contributing a lot to music.  

We have spoken about the musicians and the songwriters, but who is responsible for the band’s image and costumes? Do you decide for yourselves what you want to wear and how you want to look like, or do you bring in a fashion agency or anything like that?

There is a vision that we kind of agreed on when we started with All For Metal: to build this fantastic world where we can be and do whatever we want, a little bit like video game characters. This is incredible, because it gives us a lot of freedom. On the first record we had a lot of Northern themes in songs like “Raise Your Hammer”, “The Day Of Hammerfall”, or “Born In Valhalla”. Then we ventured into Far Eastern lands with the second record, and the topics for the third record are already in the works. That’s the beauty of doing this rather fantastic stuff. Of course, we had our influences, and the costumes are all custom-made, the masks are custom-made, my shoulders and everything… We got to decide that, and now we kind of work together with the label to improve on that. The same goes for photo shoots – we do our make-up, and we try to look as larger-than-life as possible. (laughs)

Your second album “Year Of The Dragon” (2024) is very much influenced by the Japanese culture. But what is the status of All For Metal in Japan? Have you ever toured there?

Yes, it’s very influenced by Far Eastern cultures, both Chinese and Japanese, more in the traditional sense, I think. I’m a huge fan of anime and manga, for me the modern stuff is not represented in there at all, but it’s something I really like as well. What is our status? Well, we have not toured Japan or China yet, unfortunately. There were supposed to be two shows in Tokyo, which didn’t come to pass, because things were on short notice, and it’s a lot of legal issues with visas and stuff that you need to travel there and work there. Unfortunately it hasn’t been possible yet, but I think it’s gonna be a big goal for the future to also break into Asian markets, especially the Chinese and Japanese markets. I know that our albums have been released there, but I don’t even know if they are recognized, if there’s any success so far. (laughs) I really hope that once we get a chance to play live, people will be like, “OK, I gotta check them out”, and then they will hopefully join us at our shows.

How did you get Laura Guildemond (Burning Witches singer) and Tim Kanoa Hansen (Induction guitarist) as guests on the song “Valkyries In The Sky”? And why these two?

We got to know Laura on the second show we’ve ever played. We played Rock Harz festival in 2023, and Burning Witches were playing the slot after our show. We got to hang around backstage, we talked a little bit, and we said - as she’s obviously a fantastic singer, an absolutely awesome one - that we’d love to work together on a future song. We kept in contact, so we invited her on “Valkyries In The Sky”, and she’s obviously doing a fantastic job on that. As to Tim Hansen, Antonio was substituting for the singer of Induction, and Induction is Tim Hansen’s band, they were doing a tour with Sonata Artica and Stratovarius, with Induction opening. They got to know each other really well, and it’s was the same thing - “let’s cooperate, let’s put you in a song and include your amazing guitar skills”. (laughs)

Who is responsible for the female spoken parts on the second album? We haven’t found her name in the credits…

Is there no name? To be honest, I’ve forgotten her name, but it’s the same person on the first and the second album. She’s very renown, but sorry I can’t remember.
 
Can you say a few words about your Christmas single “All For Metal Is Coming To Town”? How did this song come about?

(laughs) Ah, this thing! It’s very crazy! We wanted to do a seasonal song, and it was like, “Let’s try what we can find, let’s see where we can put this little All For Metal twist on”. And “All For Metal Is Coming To Town” (laughs) just came to mind because - especially when you listen to it together with the video - it kind of fits the mood really well. This band, this group of mercenary warriors, and me as Santa coming to town and handing out weapons to all the guys - it was just a lot of fun. It came to mind, Antonio made a rough piano version, and we said, “Let’s do it!” (everybody laughs)

All For Metal are doing an enormous number of music videos – you had about seven of them for the first album and something like five for the second album. How long does it usually take to shoot a video? And how do you personally like the shooting process?

Every video is a lot of hard work and a lot of stress for us, even though we usually don’t organize a lot of things, but then again, we also do. (everybody laughs) We shouldn’t, but then, of course, it’s always a joint venture - you always have to put in your personal work and passion to make it as good as possible. Usually the shooting itself takes a maximum of two days, for example, we did “Year Of The Dragon” in just two days, and it was really a big big project, two whole days, basically 16 hours of work to bring the vision that we had to life, to make it as perfect as possible. I think on the video front we succeeded in making the videos that stand out. I really like to use as much practical staff and props and as much acting as possible and not resort to CGI. A lot of modern bands do that, and to be honest, I feel that whatever budget you have, in two years it’s gonna look dated, and it’s gonna be like “Eh” at best, even when it comes out. So I really love to use just as much practical effects as possible and have all the stuff around that we need to look cool (laughs) - or cheesy, which is also kind of cool in our world.

We were especially impressed with your video for “Rock You Like A Hurricane”. The whole video is basically one long take – can you say a few words about the way it was put together? Was it indeed one camera run, or are there cuts anyway?

OK, I can unveil this secret - it’s three takes. There are two cuts, one is really well hidden, and the other one is a little more obvious. Basically it was half a day of rehearsing to have this full shot with everything, for example, to hide the drums off camera and then put them on camera in four seconds. (everybody laughs) Once we had the rehearsals done, we did like three runs, and that was it. I also love the result, it was a lot of fun, and you can really see that people were dancing and just having a great time.

There was a comment under that video on YouTube – somebody posted, “I need an All For Metal and Nanowar Of Steel collaboration”. What do you think about such an idea?

(laughs) Well… At the end of the day I’m not deciding things like this, but my personal opinion is that it’s something I rather wouldn’t do. Nanowar Of Steel are obviously a persiflage, it’s more than just a wink in the eye, they are outright making fun of themselves and metal cliches and parodying Manowar. I think All For Metal is a little bit more on the other side. Yes, we are super cheesy and we “put it to eleven”, but in a little more serious way when it comes to the music. For me it’s maybe like two sides of the same coin, but then again, kind of the opposite. For my personal taste, I would rather slip into this parody, persiflage way of making fun of things. By the way, I know the guys of Nanowar, they are fucking amazing guys, the singer speaks like seven languages, but then again…

From time to time, we meet people who say things like, “Heavy metal is supposed to be serious music” or “Put on Lady Gaga if you want to hear happy stuff”. We’re sure you sometimes come across such people too. But what do you say to them when you hear such things?

I mean, everybody can have his own opinion. Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, you know. (everybody cracks) It’s completely fine. I’m not here to convert anyone, like, “You have to listen to the gospel of heavy metal!” Listen to what you like, there’s an abundance of metal genres from traditional heavy metal and New Wave of British Heavy Metal to the most extreme shit out there. I like to listen of a lot of what is in between, but then again, who is anyone to tell you what you should like or what not? Of course, it’s serious music, we are serious musicians, we have practiced our craft, no one of us is a newcomer to our instrument. I’ve been playing in a band for almost 18 years, I’ve been singing in Asenblut for, as you said, 14 or 15 years before starting with All For Metal. Antonio is a singer all his life, for more than 20 years he’s been practicing singing, and the same goes for other guys and girls, they are just masters of their craft. If you don’t think we’re serious because the things we do are fun, then you have no clue about music. (laughs) But then again, it’s fine if you don’t like it, I’m not gonna argue with you and your taste. There’s plenty of people that do, which is awesome, for any band it’s the most important thing, but it’s not about a single individual that wants to be sour about things. I don’t care! (laughs)

Many bands film their shows and release them as DVDs or Blu-rays. But last summer you posted an entire 70-minute festival set on YouTube absolutely for free for anybody. Why did you decide to do it? Why not put it on a bonus DVD or anything like that?

Well, kind of just to give back. I don’t even know how many people have watched it, I don’t have the numbers, but if you want to enjoy it, if you want to see more of us than just the music videos, if you want to see how we put it on stage… It was a great a great show, it was in Milano, Italy, at the “Adunata – Feudalesimo e Libertà” festival, which we were co-headlining with Rhapsody Of Fire. We decided to film it and just put it out there for the people to enjoy. You know, it’s not always about making that extra buck or squeezing it out just to have more content. This one was just to give back to the people. If you wanna see our show, for example, in Russia, you’re not gonna see us live soon, so here’s a show – if you like All For Metal, you can at least watch it and enjoy it on the big screen.

One of the reasons why we’re asking is because it’s a popular opinion these days that DVDs are gone, nobody watches them, so it makes no sense to release it when everybody views stuff online. But for us it’s cool to have a physical product, to watch it in proper quality, not just on YouTube with crappy connection…

I’m kind of torn in between, because I’m also a physical guy, but I can see the decline of the CD, people are buying vinyls more because, of course, they have a bigger cover artwork, you can get it signed by the artist, its looks much nicer when you put it in a folder, or you can even put it up on a wall or something like that. I can really see that. With the DVD, to be honest, I just don’t have that much experience in putting out music DVDs. I don’t own any, and in general, I have a very selected Blu-ray and DVD collection, especially since now the medium has changed pretty fast from the DVD in the late 90s to the Blu-ray… when was it, 10 years ago or something? And now you have the 4K Ultra thing. It’s a medium that’s changing really fast, I’m not sure if it makes sense to put it out as a standalone release. I can kind of see the point that people say, but then again, the issue for me was more like – do you put something out for free, or do you put it behind a paywall? Sometimes I just like to give back to the people and just put it out there. For the same reason we do a lot of music videos. There’s no way you reimburse any kind of money with music videos. They are really expensive, they are a lot of work, and then you put it on YouTube and you put some ads on it, but even if you make a million views, like we did with “All For Metal”, the ad revenue is nowhere near as much as a music video costs.

Your page on the Metal-Archives website says that in addition to music, you are a professional weight lifter. Could you tell us a bit about that side of your personality?

Yeah, I used to be. I used to be a strongman and also a power lifter. I’m still training, but I’m not competing anymore. My last serious competition was in 2021, because then, with the music being more and more present, there was no time to compete anymore. Of course, it takes some time to prepare for a competition, and I was on a pretty high level, I mean, I competed in the Strongman Champions League in Europe, I competed in “Germany’s Strongest Man”, I was Top 6 in Germany a couple of times, and in power lifting, I have the 5th or 6th highest raw powerlifting total ever, squat, bench and dead lift, though I don’t know if I still have it. Now I’m smaller, I weigh less, I’m a little bit less strong - still strong (everybody laughs), but not as strong as I used to be. As you get older, you have to focus. I don’t have the ability, the time and the capability to do too many things on a high level. For now I’m sticking to the music.

Your next shows with All For Metal are only scheduled for July. Does it mean that you are about to start working on the third album?

Yes, there’s always work. There’s no stopping, there’s never been any break with All For Metal so far. The next show is, I think, in the end of June in Switzerland, and we have like six festivals coming up before we will be on our own headlining tour through Europe. In October we are going on tour again, it’s gonna be officially announced in a couple of days. I don’t know all the dates yet, but we will start on October 16, and we’re gonna be on tour until November 8. We are continuously working on new stuff, and there are also nine festivals that I’m playing with Asenblut, I’m also there. We are preparing new music for the new record, so there’s no stopping. (laughs)

Where do you see All For Metal in, for example, five years? Do you or the production team have any kind of masterplan how to bring the band to headline Wacken Open Air or how to make a number one record on the German charts?

(laughs) Of course, there are plans. There are always plans, and you have to take the steps to make the plan work and hope that you can, with all the ups and downs that are part of life, reach those goals. I cannot say that there’s date X when we want to achieve goal Y, for example, as you said, headline Wacken. But of course, we want to take a step forward with everything that we do and hopefully not take too many steps back. I mean, we are doing our own headliner tour just after we’ve done three different support tours, let’s see how that works, and from there we will be able to see where we land for the upcoming future.

Tetzel, thank you very much for taking your time and talking to us. It was a great pleasure having you!

Thank you very much! And just to show off at the end… (speaks in Russian) Menja zovut Teztel, mnje tridzat vosem let, ja ochen ploho govorju po-russki! (“My name is Tetzel, I am 38 years old, my Russian is very poor”)

No-no, you do excellent in Russian! Did you study the language at school?

Yes. But I have forgotten almost everything. This is almost as much as I’ve got. Ja ne znaju, ja ne ponimaju. (everybody laughs)

All For Metal on the Internet: https://allformetal.com/

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Roman Patrashov, Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
April 4, 2025
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