Road Trip with Angelcrypt – a firsthand witness account in three parts

Part 1:

From The Beer Festival to The Pope’s Backyard or Inky Pinky Ponky

It all started ‘backstage’ at the Malta Death Festival 2024. Amid the growls and guitar squeals, Shawn and I got to talking—touring, metal, and the usual rock 'n' roll visions. I casually mentioned that I’d love to see Angelcrypt abroad, assuming the idea would be lost in the din of distortion. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. Months later, as negotiations kicked off for Masters of Rock in the Czech Republic, Shawn pulled out that little nugget of memory. And so, the gears were set in motion.

But before we could conquer foreign stages, Angelcrypt had one stop to make—their only Maltese gig of the year at the Farsons Beer Festival on July 3rd. Malta got its taste, and then it was time to fly.

The voyage begins. photo: Angelcrypt

Wednesday, July 9th began, as most adventures do, with a sleepy-eyed airport meetup at 8am. Of course, our flight was delayed, because nothing says "tour life" like starting behind schedule. While we waited, we bumped into Rene ‘Hades’ Farrugia, who was off to Poland to play his set at Castle Party Festival. Small metal world.

We finally touched down in Rome, where Andrea, Angelcrypt’s Italian drummer, was our knight in shining...van. He drove us to his home in Ariccia, not far from Castel Gandolfo, aka the Pope’s summer escape. Rumour had it, His Holiness was meeting the Ukrainian president that day. Meanwhile, we were being spiritually blessed by Andrea’s wife’s divine pasta. When in Italy, carbs are holy.

Rehearsal pose. photo: Noel Mifsud

That evening, it was off to Andrea’s rehearsal den—a five-minute drive and a drum geek’s paradise. Jean had a minor technical scare: his bass’s bridge screw was loose. Not the first loose screw with Jean, mind you, but those only affects Shawn’s patience and self control. While he fixed that, Shawn suffered a tragic wardrobe malfunction—his jeans split clean down the middle. Crisis averted, pants changed, rehearsal commenced.

Somewhere between blast beats and melodic growls, my ears—still clogged from the flight—miraculously popped back to normal. Whether it was the volume or the sheer metal, I’ll let you decide. After a full run-through of the setlist, Andrea took us out to Ristorante Le Colombe in Nemi. Half the menu mysteriously landed on our table, and we didn’t complain. 1am rolled around, and day one was officially conquered.

The traditional "band photo on the road". photo: Angelcrypt

Thursday, July 10th. We hit the road at 9am with our traditional "band photo on the road" and a mandatory espresso-and-cornetto pitstop by Lago Albano. If you’re in Italy and not over-caffeinating, are you even trying?

Lago Albano. photo: Noel Mifsud

We cruised past Florence by 12:46pm and Bologna by 2:15pm, making frequent espresso stops to maintain acceptable heart rates. At some point, Shawn’s ice cream cravings took precedence, so we added a gelato detour. Metal is all about balance, right?

Then came the inevitable: traffic jam near Trieste thanks to an accident on the autostrada. A quick beer break at 6:30pm marked our final Italian stop. By 8pm, we’d crossed into Austria and reached Graz by 10pm, where Shawn found us an apartment with a locked garage—no need to unload the entire gear mountain. Dinner was late-night pizza from a kebab house, the only joint we found open at that time. Simple, greasy, perfect.