Although they are gearing up for the release of their fifteenth full-length studio album Goliath on August 11th, Kataklysm singer Maurizio Iacono spoke about the recent passing of Tony Bennett and what the famous Italian entertainer meant to his family.  

“I mean it’s part of my family upbringing and one of my mom’s favourite collection of artists for that time,” he tells BraveWords in an excerpt from our upcoming Streaming For Vengeance interview. “If you are Italian and it’s Christmas time, it’s in the background. It’s part of our heritage and what a classic legendary singer. He did so much for the industry. So it’s definitely a big loss. He toughed it out though, he’s got those Italian jeans. 96, so that’s pretty cool.”

Can you relate to how his family immigrated to North America and how your family did? Apparently Bennett was the first person in his family to be born in hospital.

“My family was more in the 40s, right after World War II,” the singer explains. “It’s funny, because my family is from Bari, which is in the south of Italy. Right where the heel is. So when it was time for them to get out of there, because it was chaos and there’s a lot of problems after World War II was done, they gave them three choices. They said you can go to America and either go to Boston which was the number one choice or New York. Or you could go to Canada and go to Montreal. So those were the three choices. They really didn’t know the difference. They knew New York, but they didn’t know much about the rest. They were told that one had free health care, and the others don’t. So they decided to go to Montreal. They saw the Statue of Liberty in America, and they knew that Montreal was French. But that was about it. I think they also had some siblings that were there already in Canada. So there was some connection there. And it was making the decision easier for them. Some actually went to Argentina, but that was a really big difference.”

Kataklysm's Maurizio Iacono will guest on Streaming For Vengeance on Saturday, August 12th at 3:33 PM EST.

Goliath was recorded at JFD Studios in Dallas, TX and Studio City, CA as well as The Cabin in Orlando, FL by J-F Dagenais, who also produced and engineered the album. For the mixing and mastering, the band returned to Chris Clancy with assistance from Colin Richardson. The cover artwork required an image that captured the iconic battle of David versus Goliath theme that is echoed throughout the album while matching the power of the music. The band enlised renown Berlin metal illustrator Eliran Kantor (Testament, Fleshgod Apocalypse) to create the artwork which who took the Kataklysm look and gave it a macabre filter that compliments the brooding sense of uneasiness that was felt during the writing and recording of the album.

Goliath will be available digitally and in the following formats:

- CD Jewel
- Vinyl
 * Orange (Limited to 1000, NB US)
 * Orange w/ Black and White Splatter (Limited to 1000, NB EU)
 * Orange w/ Brown Swirl and Black Splatter (Limited to 300, Band Store)

Pre-order/pre-save Goliath here.

Goliath tracklisting:

"Dark Wings Of Deception"
"Goliath"
"Die As A King"
"Bringer Of Vengeance"
"Combustion"
"From The Land Of The Living To The Land Of The Dead"
"The Redeemer"
"Heroes To Villains"
"Gravestones & Coffins"
"The Sacrifice For Truth"

"Die As A King" video:

"Bringer Of Vengeance" video: