Features : In new release Unforgiven, Sophia Mengrosso gives metal an operatic twist

Somewhere along the way from training in classical and opera and teaching  music, Sophia Mengrosso fell in love with metal and was inspired to begin composing.

 

In the last year or so, she was revisiting some of her past work and decided to start recording and releasing it.

 

Her latest is “Unforgiven,” a track in which power guitar meets Sophia’s rich voice ranging from contralto up into the soprano ranges. The result is metal with an opera vibe. It is great listening.

 

“I wanted to share it with everyone. I just did it. I didn’t have a specific plan, why and what, I just wanted to share what I have. And here I am.”

 

With “Unforgiven,” she is here with a hard rock love-gone-wrong song featuring someone — the gender is not specified — who has not been forgiven for some sin, also unspecified.

 

“So, that’s about my personal experience with someone,” she said. “All of my music is about my personal experiences, and that particular single I dedicated to a person that I do want to forgive, and I can’t right now, but writing that single is helping me to do so.”

 

The sin of the unforgiven singer is not important. The location, clearly somewhere very much like hell, or at least purgatory, is:

 

 

The protagonist does not stay in hell. Forgiveness does come toward the end.

 

“I feel like I’ve reached that point in my life right now where I did forgive, and it just gives me a relief, and power and energy.”

 

The whole story would make good opera, and this piece of the narrative — working up to when forgiveness is possible — told in Sophia’s voice, makes good metal.

 

She started out playing harp and piano when she was 5, singing at age 9. The focus was on classical. Her voice lessons were in opera. In her teens, she started experimenting with music.

 

Somewhere in there, she ran across Evanescence and the wider world of rock, and that is when she started writing music.

 

“I saw ‘Bring Me to Life’ on MTV. I went to the store and I bought the music and started listening to it, and there were more songs, and I just got sucked into that.”

 

She explains her progression into rock as a process of maturing and discovering the power of the music.

 

“And that’s what I love rock for. I think as a female singer especially, it just gives me a lot of room to write and do what I want.”

 

Her operatic background is evident in the vibe at times, especially when the lyrics call for a full vocal blast.

 

Rock is her main love, but she also writes classical and will release some of that, too.

 

“I love both styles. I don’t say that I switched to rock only. I’ve written some classical pieces that I will share. There is no reason for me to choose, you know? Nobody’s making me to choose or decide. I do what I feel like doing.”

 

She doesn’t want to be categorized as anything except a musical artist.

 

For now, though, she keeps returning to rock.

 

“I’m so obsessed with metal. I love Metallica and I love Evanescence. These are my idols — Metallica, Evanescence, Nightvision, Green Day. Some other newer bands that came later I like, too, but I think if I could pick two it would be Evanescence and Metallica. Those are my top.”

 

She has stopped most of her teaching, keeping only a couple of devoted students, to put time into recording.

 

She writes her music on the piano, then takes it to her band, “and we write a track with heavy guitars and just sit and experiment.”

 

“I am very fortunate to have very talented people around me.”

 

She put out three singles before “Unforgiven” and has another single, “Haunted,” coming soon. After that, an album with 12 tracks, all metal.

 

This is a good time to be a musician, she says. The digital platforms and the advantages that give musicians such freedom to be creative “gave me confidence.”

 

“I just started to release my music,” she said, “but my career goes way back. I felt like it’s the right time for me. I think there is no recipe for when you start. Everything has its time, and now is the time for me.”

 

Join her in her time. Connect to Sophia Mengrosso on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.