Dantesco – Pagano

The challenge of creating relevant but still traditional Heavy Metal in this current age where even the most commercial face of Metal has been changed by the extremity of the underground seems to be an almost insurmountable task. The most recent efforts of mainstream veterans like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in continuing the genre provides little in and of themselves to enthrall the masses as they did with their once advanced, Romanticist art. There are also the countless Power and Doom Metal bands that have hijacked the older forms and do so with little to none of the magic that possessed the music of the seventies and eighties. Though the secrets of the grand, old tradition have been apparently condemned to obscurity, they can never be lost and befitting the nature of lost wisdom, have turned up in the least likely of places.

Dantesco hail from the small Latin American island of Puerto Rico and through their music, divulge a rich tradition of Spanish music and highly exoteric and vibrant Catholicism. Although chronicling the triumphant Heathen soul at war with Christendom, ‘Pagano’ conjures the sounds of the immanent culture and possesses it with a bestial inflection, as the vocals of Erico that dominate this album resemble a Latin black mass arranged with the magestic sensibilities of an European opera. Infact, the vocal style is as properly operatic as imagineable in Heavy Metal music, putting the high-pitched aspirations of a Rob Halford or Messiah Marcolin in their places, though still conveying a sense of extreme primality and visceral power rivalled only by the demonic throats of Black Metal vocalists. These sermons are conducted exclusively in the native Spanish tongue, which suits the guitars incredibly well, as the melodicism of the riffs is only supplemented by the Doomy heaviness of Candlemass influence, but really crafted with Spanish classical guitars in mind. This is where the music really comes alive, before there’s any chance of hearing the vocals as just a unique ethnic gimmick to fill space with. The compositions are constantly engaging, commanding narratives the scale of the epic title-track to Iron Maiden’s ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son‘ with attention to mood dynamics often passed over in favour of an intentionally one-dimensional wallowing by other bands who play this melodic, traditional and Doomy kind of Metal. All the techniques on show have been long perfected, and more recently, have even found their way into the mallcore slang of pre-teen alternative/hard rock bands (via. Gothenburg), but fortunately, it’s all found an orderly, emotive and inspiring expression in ‘Pagano’. The tight but hyperbolic interplay of vocals and guitar is a feast for those that love to follow several strands of ancient melody at once, as if transforming the old Hispanic anthems of Mexico’s Luzbel into rousing, harmonised hymns, tempered and then unleashed to invoke the spirits of pre-Christian warriors. True Heavy Metal, fit for contemporary ears, giving the current crop of extreme-influenced Pagan and Black Metal bands a serious run for their money.

6 Comments »

1. 

   YOU’RE ALL POSER METALHEADS WATCH MY VIDEO

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygaKhPWCcL0

   Comment by CHOSEN2BJUGGALO — March 14, 2010 @ 23:37

2. 

   Reminds me of Hammers of Misfortune quite a bit. Good stuff.

   Comment by Wasyl — March 15, 2010 @ 19:40

3. 

   This dude is the best vocalist ever. It’s good to see someone pushing the genre forward without cheapening it. I’d recommend this to those “operatic metal” Nightwish dorks, but it would probably just make their heads explode. Then again, that’s probably not a bad thing…

   Comment by seker — March 16, 2010 @ 23:24

4. 

   For post-80s heavy metal, this is amazing. I sense alot of similarities to Helstar, particularly in how they have a very classical sense of harmony, and both seem to love using the harmonic minor scale and operatic vocals (though Helstar’s were comparatively under emphasized, and not nearly as powerful or well trained), and like Helstar, make use of an overused scalar pattern (see “Egyptian music” and all modern “metal”) in an incredibly elegant way. Excellent, excellent material.

   Comment by GentlemanOfTheMorningAsses — March 22, 2010 @ 04:24

5. 

   Due to the plenty of colourful and Romantic rhythm riffing that asymmetrically stops and starts the gallops in service of harmony (contarily to most German and Italian power metal bands) coupled with the extensive vocal layers that refrain from easy sing-along choruses I am convinced they have listened to plenty of early Fates Warning and Solitude Aeturnus. And Luzbel, of course.

   Comment by Devamitra — March 23, 2010 @ 23:12

6. [...] of bands will do, be it Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Fates Warning, or more recent efforts such as Dantesco.  Each of these present music that is proficient, has a beautiful sense of melody, and an epic [...]

   Pingback by Hessian [ Heavy Metal Music and Culture ] :: Contact — April 7, 2010 @ 02:55

Leave a comment