Pier Gonella

Biography

Pier Gonella began playing guitar at the age of 15, following his passion for such bands as Scorpions and Deep Purple. From 1993 to 1997 he studied jazz guitar in many Italian schools and, at the same time (not finding any rock guitar teachers), he studied it by himself. In particular he studied scores of many of his guitar heroes such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore, Joey Tafolla and many others. He studied music theory and, in June 1998, received the diploma of "Teoria and Solfeggio" at the Conservatory of Music "Nicolo' Paganini" of Genoa, where the same year enrolls and studies 4 years of basson.

Labyrinth

From 2003 to 2008 he played with the power metal band Labyrinth in many Italian and European festivals (such as Gods of Metal, Metalway) and, in 2005, made a 6 "gig" tour in Japan, China and Taiwan. During the tour he recorded the DVD Live in Tokyo that was included at the album Freeman, released in 2006. In March 2007 he release with Labyrinth the album "6 Days to Nowhere", and, in the same year, toured Japan again.

Necrodeath

He joined the band Necrodeath for the first time in 2006 as a guest guitarist. In the same year the band made a 20 gig European tour supporting the band Marduk and, in 2007, Pier recorded the guitars work on the album Draculea. He left the band because he was busy with his other bands. He definitively re-joined Necrodeath in 2008. He recorded the albums Phylogenesis in 2009, Old Skull in 2010, The age of Fear in 2011, Idiosyncrasy in 2012, The 7 deadly sins in 2014. All albums were followed by a European tour. He is still playing with this band.

Mastercastle

In 2008 Labyrinth decided to take a break. During that time Pier started a collaboration with the singer Giorgia Gueglio. They wrote many songs and sent a demo to the label Lion Music which offered them a deal. In the meantime bass player Steve Vawamas and the drum player Alessandro Bissa joined the band. They chose the name Mastercastle and released the album The Phoenix in April 2009. The album was well reviewed especially in the USA. The videoclip "Princess of Love" reached over 150000 views on youtube very quickly, and the band continued composing music. In June 2010 they released the album Last Desire and, in 2011, the album Dangerous Diamonds. Many webzine from all over the world made very good reviews and "Gonella" has really good reviews also as producer of the albums.
In 2012 the band had a split with the drummer "Bix". In 2013 Gonella announced the signing of a new drummer John Macaluso (Yngwie Malmsteen, James Labrie, Ark,Tnt...). In the same year the band released the album On Fire (produced by Pier Gonella and mixed together with John Macaluso.
On 2014 the band signed a deal for Scarlet Records and the new album Enfer was publisced on 14 October 2014. Pier Gonella is still playing in this band.

Other projects

In 2001 he recorded the guitars for the album Athlantis and in 2003 he recorded the guitar and bass part for the album Wild Steel. Both were published under the label Underground Symphony. In April 2005 during his militance in Labyrinth, he published his solo album Odyssea – Tears in floods, released under the label Scarlet Records (Europe) and King Records (Japan).
In 2006 Gonella appears as guest in the project Rezophonic, recording guitars for one song.
From 2006 to 2009 Gonella plays with the big band "Metal Gang", playng hystorical heavy metal and hard rock cover featuring Pino Scotto (Vanadium), Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth), Trevor (Sadist), Olaf Thorsen Labyrinth, Fabio Lione and many other musicians. In the summer of 2008 Gonella was chosen as second guitar player by Timo Tolkki (Stratovarius, Revolution Renaissance) for two Italian gigs.
In 1998 Gonella started teaching guitar lessons, working in many private schools and creating guitar clinics in the north of Italy. In 2007 he founded a recording studio for the production of his bands and for his guitar school. In 2011, it was officially opened to all with the name of MusicArt.
In 2011, together with the drummer Peso of Necrodeath and Giorgia Gueglio and Steve Vawamas of Mastercastle, he start a new project, completely rearranging and recording the famous album The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. The project is titled The Black side of the moon and was publisced for Black Tears label.
Since 2012 Gonella has collaborated with the drummer John Macaluso for guitar and drum clinics called "Rock and Heavy Essentials"
In the same years Pier Gonella joined the hystirucal italian metal band Vanexa.
From August 2014 Gonella collaborates with the magazine Metal Hammer Italy, writing the article Learn to play where he teach technics, licks, advices etc regarding electric guitar.
On 2014 Gonella starded a new "soloist" project, with Dick Laurent (Cadaveria). Here Gonella plays live many Mastercastle songs in instrumental versions, classical arrangements( Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and others) in rock style and other unreleased material.

Discography

Videogames Soundtracks

Since 2008 Gonella collaborates with the Italian videogames factory called Xplored. To date Gonella has made soundtracks and sample effects for over 150 flash games.
Some examples: