Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs’s album Gates of Hell (2014)

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“Gates of Hell” is an album released on July 31, 2014 by Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs. The band hails from Toronto, Canada, and are a self-described “6 piece rock n’ roll band from hell.” — cited from Bandcamp.com

The album features 10 songs:sam-coffey-iron-lungs-gates-of-hell

  1. Gates of Hell – 3:31
  2. Hold Me Close – 2:32
  3. Birthday! – 1:31
  4. Communication – 4:04
  5. Get Pumped Up – 1:32
  6. Season of the Witch – 2:46
  7. Heavy on Queen St. – 3:16
  8. Calgary Hill – 3:13
  9. Seventeen – 2:58
  10. Brides of Satan – 3:31

Watch the music video for the song “Gates of Hell” below:

Learn more about Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs on their website, and follow them on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Soundcloud.

Darvasa Gas Crater, the “Gate to Hell” (Turkmenistan)

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Darvaza-Gas-Crater-Gate-of-Hell-Turkmenistan“There are places on Earth that are a little creepy, places that feel a little haunted and places that are downright hellish. The Darvaza gas crater, nicknamed by locals ‘The Door to Hell,’ or “The Gates of Hell,” definitely falls into the latter category—and its sinister burning flames are just the half of it. Located in the Karakum Desert of central Turkmenistan (a little over 150 miles from the country’s capital) the pit attracts hundreds of tourists each year. It also attracts nearby desert wildlife—reportedly, from time to time local spiders are seen plunging into the pit by the thousands, lured to their deaths by the glowing flames.” — Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian.com (May 20, 2014)

Septicflesh, “Dante’s Inferno” (2017)

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Septicflesh-dantes-inferno-codex-omegaIn June 2017, Septicflesh released a video for the opening track of their new orchestral death metal album Codex Omega (Prosthetic Records, Sept. 2017): “Dante’s Inferno.” Of the song, Guitarist Sotiris V. says, “We are proud to present the first track from the upcoming album, Codex Omega. The song is appropriately entitled ‘Dante’s Inferno,’ acting as a gateway to hell… as it was inscribed on the top of the Hellgate in the famous poem by Dante Alighieri, ‘Through me you pass into the city of woe; Through me you pass into eternal pain; Through me among the people lost for aye.’ This is just the first glimpse – the entrance to our new album. Stay tuned as more will gradually be revealed with the release date of our new album getting closer…” (cited on metalunderground.com).

The track was one of the “Picks of the Week” on the blog Metal Sucks. Guest blogger Garren L. has this to say: “Septicflesh have once again demonstrated why they are the masters of symphonic death metal. I might go as far as to make the audacious claim that their new track ‘Dante’s Inferno’ has given Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy an extra layer of sinisterness. By mixing the brutality of death metal with the orchestral elements normally found as part of a film score, Septicflesh are able to portray the horrific, evil, and grotesque nature of what Dante described in his work.” — metalsucks.net

The video is available here.

Cited in Loudwire’s “11 Metal Songs Inspired by Dante’s Inferno” by Katie Irizarry (August 15, 2018).

Contributed by Paul Ickert (George Mason University ’19)

How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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