Cannelloni
& Manicotti Doom pt. IV: The God of Tits and Wine
Dark
Quarterer, in my opinion, is Italy's best metal band. Perhaps this
seems like a bold statement considering there's bands like Death SS,
Mortuary Drape, Bulldozer or Lacuna Coil (ok, just kidding!) coming
from the legendary Mediterranean country. But I stand here, proud of
being a hip kid for liking such a cult band.
The
Italian trio (back in the day, they have a keyboardist now) led by
Gianni Nepi
(bass/vocals) is often seen as the European answer to Manilla Road.
Formed in the late seventies like Shelton's band, it took a long time
before any material got released, I believe they were a cover band
for a while. More than a decade really made the sound of their first
two albums of the bands (released in 1987 and 1988) to be already
well established. They're often saying that they created a sort of
epic progressive heavy metal and I can definitely agree with that
assessment. It's sort of mixing the epic charm of early Manowar
without the unhealthy amount of cheese with some slight English prog
or Rush influences (this airy narration in “The Etruscan Prophecy”
reminds me of the
epic tracks from Caress
of Steel.)
The true progressive elements will have to wait for their later
albums to truly appear (such as War
Tears and
Symbols)
though.
While the first Dark Quarterer
albums can be seen as their proto progressive metal era, an era of
exploration perhaps, it's no less of an extraordinary writing lesson
in terms of epicness and richness. The songs are long, intricate and
feature a high level of musicianship that will continue with the
addition of their current guitarist in 2002 but Fulberto Serena
(later of Etrusgrave) is quite a beast in his own right. He composed
all the music on this album. Both the riffs and his melodic leads are
enormous and he shines on the classical guitar interlude “The Last
Hope”. This musical lavishness is omnipresent in their songwriting,
they're as opulent as the Etruscan civilization before its downfall.
Even if the songs are lengthy, it's not slow, it's coherently mid
paced and there's no time wasted anywhere. Some songs may take two or
three minutes to get going but you're never bored, it's essentially
building awesome crescendos that are grasping your heart with their
long-winded solos and I'm not asking for anything else than
that.
Songs like the title track or “Devil Stroke” are the
purest definition of epic akin to the colossal epic “Colossus of
Argil” from their debut, people should use misusing this tag so
much to describe everything with longer songs, lyrics about dragons
or bands taking their pictures in old European castles. Powerful,
catchy riffs with a primal production associated with these weird,
unorthodox but completely awesome high, clean vocals singing about
mythological stories. This is what epic metal is all about.
While
it's mainly epic heavy metal, there's a sort of epic doom feel in the
longer songs, you can feel a sense of similarity with bands like
Candlemass, maybe it's because of the early power metal influenced
vocals that most epic doom are using as well. I'm not just trying to
justify their inclusion in my Italian doom series, I swear that they
have doom elements even though it never was the main component of
their sound. Fans of actual bands like Solstice or Atlantean Kodex
could easily connect with Dark Quarterer and should really check them
out before they decide to release a new album so they'll be prepared.
I guess we're due even though they released a remastered anniversary
of their debut two years ago, that's something I don't quite like,
let history speaks for itself and not through modernized versions of
your old compositions. I can understand the necessity for these
musicians to redo their under-produced material but the recording is
often part of the charm. Trying to recreate it seems sterile to me.
Compared
to the Shark, Nepi's talent as a vocalist is undeniable (may the
Manilla Road fanclub be understandable toward my criticism, I don't
want Failsafeman to kill me.) His powerful vocals at the start of
“Angels of Mire” when there's no instruments playing is so great,
it filled me with so many emotions. Their music is so uplifting, oh
my god. Even though he has a thick Italian accent, it's in no way
cancelling the enjoyment I get from his vocals. He's certainly one of
my favourite metal singers and should get the recognition he
deserves, he melds poetry, power, originality and passion into a
mighty mix. He
delivers everything with so many emotions, he's like this great
comedian playing one of the best Comedia dell'arte plays and putting
everything he has everyday, under any circumstances. Screaming his
lungs out, telling tales of old, tales of gold.
His
lyrics are also impenetrably
deep, they're romantic with a sense of urgency mostly unattained by
non anglophone bands. Maybe the sometimes inapt English could scare
some listeners but that's another proof of the existence of
Anglocentrism. Sure, Italian lyrics (or even Latin like The Black)
would had been cool but it's fun to relate to their themes and metal
is a global phenomenon. The 80s weren't so kind to foreign languages,
some bands like Pokolgép, Sortilège or Aria were doing it but it
was far from trendy. Nowadays most of the bands using their
vernacular languages are mostly folk, pagan or black metal bands, I
think it's fun to hear the traditional sort of metal in Polish,
Italian or even Japanese!
I
consider this album to be almost perfect, perhaps falling short
compared to their debut in some regards, maybe in terms of
originality and vision but I do think they go hand in hand. “Angels
of Mire” and “The Etruscan Prophecy” are maybe their two best
songs but the debut seems to be more consistent. It's their Crystal
Logic and
The
Deluge
but compared to the Road, they never quite came back to this epic
heavy sound and managed to use it as a foundation for their
progressive metal days. Dark Quarterer is a band with a long career
but not many studio recordings and you can really the dividing lines
between their distinctive eras. It's fun to see a band that doesn't
churn releases every two years without any feeling of exploration,
great art shouldn't be forced and it's really what the Italians
always did.
Long
live Dark Quarterer and their unique, excellent epic legacy. They're
totally underrated and that's unjustified. Praise the god of tits and
wine for their well deserved appreciation.