Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Beyond All Temples and Myths is a 1999 album by the heavy metal band, Winds of Sirius. The album art is an altered version of the 1961 Gustave Doré painting, Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell.
Many of the song titles are biblical references as well, including; “The Light Beyond,” “Wise Men Keep Silent,” and “Everlasting Souls.”
Buy the album here.
Read more about the painting here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa.
“The original album from these Swiss doomsters was only released on vinyl last year and reviewed by our resident ultimaniac Scott Waters. Roxx Productions decided to make this rare piece more available to the headbanging public by reissuing it in two new formats. The single-disc version has the seven original songs and adds the bonus tracks ‘Golden Voice’ and ‘Lines.’
[. . .]
“The lyrical content is strictly biblical, and when singer Matt Brand kicks into his gravel-tongued mode, there’s heaviness aplenty, especially on the tune ‘The Stream of Forgetfulness.’ Pylon’s cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ disassembles the original with its slow delivery. I can appreciate the doom metal more than the stoner rock here, but all in all, I’m glad the light of day has shone on this band – surely we will hear more from Pylon.” –Chris Gatto, HM Magazine
This album art uses Gustave Doré’s 1861 painting titled, Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell.
Listen to the album here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa.
“Secondo demo per questi Stige, death/thrash band da Taranto. Il quintetto ha finalmente assestato la sua line-up dove svariati cambi. . . Infatti le quattro tracce presenti in questo ‘Vortex’, sono sì furiose e violente, ma peccano pesantemente sul versante originalità. Gli Stige si rifanno palesemente alla scena americana, sia nel riffing serrato che nei solos sparati a duemila all’ora ( come gli Slayer insegnano ). Dentro di loro serpeggia anche una vena hardcore, decantata a pieni polmoni dal singer Gianfranco Liuzzi, il quale modula la propria voce su uno screaming acidulo e tiratissimo per quasi tutta la durata delle canzoni; ogni tanto Liuzzi tira fuori degli acuti Halfordiani, tecnicamente validi, ma che cozzano con il suo cantare ” classico “. Durante l’ascolto dei brani emerge anche una discreta cura nell’inserire linee altamente melodiche, questo grazie ai due chitarristi, Marcello Bruno ed Emanuele Giummarra, particolare che conferisce un pizzico di ariosità a canzoni comunque potenti e quadrate.” –Andrea Pizzini, metal.it
The 2005 demo Vortex by Italian band Stige uses the illustration Styx-Philippo Argenti by illustrator Gustave Doré.
Find the album here.
Find the illustration here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa.
Hexperos’ 2020 release, “Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life” draws inspiration from Canto I of the Inferno.
“‘Midway upon the journey of our life, we could found ourselves within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.’ Never there was a sentence more apt to describe the disturbance we all feel at some point of our lives, when we feel lost, empty and we don’t know if the road that we have chosen, the journey of life undertaken, is actually the right one for us.
“The songs are stories of life, of sharing as well as in the Divine Comedy. As a matter of fact, who is in pain, often makes new encounters, shares their stories, through sharing and listening to the experiences of others we grow, we find a light in the darkness.” [. . .] — Alessandra Santovito, Hexperos
Listen to the song here.
Learn more about Hexperos on their website, here.
Album art by Nicolás Menay
“American progressive metal band Symphony X’s 2015 album Underworld is based on the Inferno.” —Wikipedia
All submissions will be considered for posting. Bibliographic references and scholarly essays are also welcome for consideration.
Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.
