Correale – Bangkok Dangerous
By Ryan Dyer
Bangkok glows like a fever dream — a city of contradictions where temples hum beside LED billboards and ghosts flicker through the heat haze. It’s here that Italian musician Correale channels his vision of metal, synth, and mysticism colliding at the speed of neon. His new album Conquer feels like a midnight drive through a city possessed: equal parts serenity and violence, meditation and meltdown.
AU: Your track ‘Krung-Thep’ is named after Bangkok. How does the city influence your music and creative process?
Bangkok is a paradox, sacred and profane, ancient and futuristic. It’s a city that never sleeps, drenched in neon and chaos, yet filled with quiet spirituality. Living here makes you hyper-aware of contrasts, and that duality naturally seeps into my music: aggression and serenity, distortion and ambiance, the beauty inside decay.
AU: Bangkok can feel chaotic, neon-lit, and cinematic—similar to the mood of films like Only God Forgives. Does that cinematic energy inspire your music?
Absolutely, I really like that film and also its evocative soundtrack; they fit perfectly together. It’s a big source of inspiration and captures the most surreal, neon-lit side of Bangkok.
AU: ‘Jasmine Blow’ is a striking title. Can you tell us what inspired it and what the track represents?
That’s a secret. What I can say is that jasmine is a flower with an extraordinary scent, often used in tea, and it’s very common throughout Asia and the Middle East. Everyone can interpret it in their own way. For example, when I recorded it, the co-producer in the studio thought “Jasmine Blow” was a person’s name, and I liked that. It’s interesting when people bring their own imaginations into my songs.
AU: How do you balance the aggression of metal with the atmospheric textures of synth in your music?
The synth gives breath to the guitar’s violence. It’s an instinctive balance. Metal is the flesh, synth is the spirit. The guitar cuts and stirs things up, while the synth creates an evocative atmosphere and expands it. I always try to make physical and meditative energy coexist. Together they create tension and release, destruction and transcendence in the same frame. It’s like breathing inside a storm.
AU: Does living in Thailand shape your soundscapes or rhythms in a way you might not experience elsewhere?
Yes, definitely. Thai rhythm has a circular, hypnotic pulse. You can feel it in the traffic, in the chants, even in the way time slows down under the heat. That sense of suspended time influences how I structure my songs, with loops that evolve.
AU: This style of synthwave and synth-metal often feels very European—Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, and others come to mind. Why do you think that is?
Yes, synthwave is basically electronic music with a deep sense of ‘80s nostalgia. I’m Italian; Italo-disco, krautrock, think of Giorgio Moroder or Tangerine Dream, were huge in the eighties, and those vibes are still in the air and always come back like waves. The same goes for classic English heavy metal, Norwegian black metal, and all those cult niche European metal bands. These worlds coexist well and have branched into many variations and subgenres. That said, music labels are mainly used for promotional purposes. They are usually born from a kind of “godfather,” someone who sets the foundation, and then others follow, almost slavishly, those same stylistic rules. but I believe my music doesn’t really fit into any ready-made category. Yesterday, a guy from a label that produces “dungeon synth” wrote to me saying, “I listened to Conquer and I have to say it really surprised me, but in a good way: on paper, the idea of mixing black metal, retrowave, and pop wouldn’t normally excite me, but your songs have something outside all those genres that I can’t quite define, and that makes them much more interesting than expected.” By “on paper” he probably meant “tags,” which nowadays are needed to make art visible and, in a way, validated to the audience. But I agree with him about not wanting to fit into a specific, already-defined genre. Not being a copy of anyone.
AU: Who are your biggest musical influences, and how do you see synthwave and synth-metal evolving in the future?
Definitely metal: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS. The extreme metal I was listening to while recording Conquer, Darkthrone and Burzum, also influenced me a lot. I love the synth scores by Gordon Ovsiew, Goblin, Vangelis, Jan Hammer, and also the more modern ones like Drive, Stranger Things, and Only God Forgives. I think the record label Italians Do It Better is awesome, not just for the name! I’m drawn to exotic noir soundtracks; for example, two tracks by Nino Rota come to mind: Indo-China and Rice Fields. I also love traditional Southeast Asian music, the blues, Hendrix and Albert King. As for the future, I believe the genre has huge potential. The nostalgic element will always be there, and it will continue to attract an audience in need of the right evocative vibes to escape into, recharge with, or simply lose themselves in. I think it will become more and more hybrid in terms of sound, an emotional art form, not just a stylistic one.
AU: Do you see Bangkok as futuristic, chaotic, mystical, or something else in your music?
All of that. Bangkok was cyberpunk before the word existed. I remember reading as a kid that Ridley Scott was inspired by it when creating Blade Runner, which is one of my favorite films. I’ve always wanted to see it in person. Temples glowing next to skyscrapers, monks scrolling TikTok, ghosts and LED screens sharing the same space. In my music it becomes a mythic city, both hell and heaven, concrete and dream. There’s a saying that goes, “if it doesn’t exist in Bangkok, it doesn’t exist.”
AU: What’s your dream scene or vibe to capture in your music —rain-soaked streets, neon nights, quiet moments, or all of it?
Yes, all of it. And I’ll add: flying on a plane at night, driving, walking under neon lights, and suddenly finding yourself in a tropical forest. I also often imagine my music as a heavy metal gig in a smoke-filled neon club straight out of a sci-fi movie like Blade Runner, Cyborg 2, Johnny Mnemonic, and Hardware.
