Music – Page 37

Hell, the Musical

January 23, 2007 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“The Vatican has challenged purist Roman Catholics by disclosing plans for a daring rock, punk and jazz opera version of Dante’s Divine Comedy with a soundtrack written by an avant-garde priest.
Monsignor Marco Frisina uses rock music as background for the Inferno, Gregorian chants for Purgatory and lyrical and symphonic classical and modern music for the advent of Paradise in the musical set to be staged in the autumn.
After a premier in a leading Rome theatre sponsored jointly by the Vatican and Italy’s two houses of parliament, the extravaganza will tour other major Italian and European cities ‘to bring back the attention of the widest public to Dante’s immortal poem,’ Riccardo Rossi, director general of Nova Ars, the company producing the opera, told La Repubblica newspaper.” –John Phillips, The Independent, January 3, 2007

See also : La Divina Commedia home page.

Contributed by Gloria Smith; Patrick Molloy

Canto 6

January 1, 2007 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“Canto 6 began as Life of Hate, a hard-edged rock outfut along the lines of Metallica and Godsmack. After tiring of that style, the band began working with a producer, reorganized its sound and became Canto 6, taking the name from one of the layers of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.” –Aaron Yoxheimer, The Morning Call, October 6, 2005 (retrieved on January 1, 2007)

See Last.fm to read more about the band.

Sepultura, “Dante XXI” (2006)

September 26, 2006 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“‘Ostia,’ ‘Crown And Miter,’ and (to some extents) ‘Nuclear Seven’ and ‘Convicted In Life’ are what make Dante XXI stand out. The fervor of thrash metal with the bitterness and crunch of metallic hardcore can be heard, and that’s the difference between intensity and the meandering shallowness of Sepultura’s angsty groove formula. These four songs show Sepultura in some kind of revival with a coarser guitar tone richly executing vicious riffs. Bass follows the guitars with fatness and desiccated heaviness under a polished production job. The groove aspect with slappy bass lines and that massive layering had started to become phased out.” [. . .] –OzzyApu, Metal Archives, August 20, 2012

Iced Earth, “Burnt Offerings” (1995)

September 15, 2006 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“This is Iced Earth’s heaviest album, but it still retains powerful symphonic sounds and heart-twisting acoustic passages. It also has all sorts of song structures, time changes, and cool stuff packed everywhere. Iced Earth had some long songs on the previous albums, but on this one they show their ability to create a full-fledged epic. ‘Dante’s Inferno’ takes us through the Nine Planes of Hell for sixteen minutes, each plane something new and demonic. This album was written during angry times — and it shows.” —Iced Earth

Lyrics include: “Damned, the wrathful and the vain / Suffer the fifth plain / Cross the river Styx / Heed your crucifix / The muddied corpses cry / Howling to the sky / Reach the other side / Open wide the gate!”

Cited in Loudwire’s “1 1 Metal Songs Inspired by Dante’s Inferno” by Katie Irizarry (August 15, 2018).

GM Grimm aka Superstar Jet Jaguar, “Digital Tears: Email from Purgatory” (2004)

September 15, 2006 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“A study in blatant subtlety? Maybe, just maybe? GM Grimm gives us “Digital Tears,” the first album since his release from prison last year. Featuring production from J-Zone, X-Ray, Zero Point and Mas this album will probably be one of the most diverse and heavy sets released this year. With Grimm’s ill rhyme flow and incisive lyrics you better buckle up and hold tight as Jet Jaguar the robot is gonna take you on a dark musical journey into the mind of Percy Carey.” –Eric Goldwyn

Contributed by Eric Goldwyn (Bowdoin, ’04)

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