Milan, 22 October 2025 – I am a great little phenomenon of European metal. The Italians Wind Rose are recording “sold outs” in the main countries of the Old Continent and Saturday evening they will disembark atAlcatraz of Milan for the last date of the European tour (and only Italian stop).
The leader and singer of the Tuscan band, Francesco Cavalieri, tells us how Wind Rose managed to become a solid reality of European metal and create a subgenre now recognized by all: the dwarf metalthat is, nano metal. Knights, final of the tour in a friendly land.
Francesco Cavalieri, the leader and singer of the Tuscan band
A record ride…
“This is our second European headlining tour. We did the first in 2023 but in the last few weeks we are playing in much bigger places and, despite this, this tour is almost all “sold out” and represents a beautiful snapshot of the Wind Rose project from 2009 to today. We are a band on the rise, among the few Italian metal groups to have success abroad”.
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Does this tour make Wind Rose reach the peak of popularity?
“Yes, from the point of view of the number of spectators at our concerts. But on social media our popularity exploded in 2019 thanks to the single Diggy Diggy Hole. Compared to six years ago, in any case, we are now even more popular. And we are very happy about it. At Alcatraz we will probably exceed three thousand spectators”.
A great result for an Italian metal band…
“It’s true, because Italian metalheads are xenophiles. Also for this reason we are very proud of the many fans ready to come to see us in Milan from all parts of Italy. We thank them in advance. I’ll say more: we would like to play more in Italy, but we have a bigger following in countries like Germany and England”.
In a recent video on social media, you respond with irony to the comments of Italian haters on your success and your sold-out tour…
“Some people took my words as the retorts of a hurt person. But that’s not the case. In that video I laugh from start to finish. I believe that without negative comments there is no real popularity. You can’t please everyone.”
Let’s talk about the origins of the band. It is known that Wind Rose is inspired by JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings stories…
“Right from the name. A wind rose (Wind Rose in English, ndr) appears in one of the first pages of the Lord of the Rings, next to the map of Middle-earth.”
How would you define your genre? Power metal, folk metal, epic metal? Or dwarf metal, given that you often talk about dwarfs in your lyrics?
“The social media public has decided that we are dwarf metal, that is, nano metal. Ours is a modern power metal that has a precise identity from the point of view of the voice and the choirs. This is the key to our success: in a world where we need to attract attention in 10-second videos, we propose a unique key from a musical and aesthetic point of view. Creating this identity was not an easy thing, it took us seven-eight years”.
Difficult beginnings?
“We started from a small room in Ponsacco, in the province of Pisa, trying to compose some pieces. After many experiments, a style emerged that made us original. In 2015 The Breed Of Durin was our first song about dwarves. From the following album, we made various pieces about dwarves. And the first successes arrived: for example To Erebor (the lonely mountain of the Kingdom of the Dwarves in the Lord of the Rings, ndr). Then in 2018 we signed with Napalm Records. And in 2019 the album with Diggy Diggy Hole was released, the real springboard towards success. And we continue with the stories of the dwarves. We didn’t want to be Vikings. We Italians have nothing to do with the Vikings.”
