Dark Quarterer
Symbols

THE REVIEW

There is a heavy metal increasingly bound to patterns, increasingly closed in on itself, that takes the safe route by repeating established models or tries to achieve success with reasoning, basic calculations, and technical setups that have very little artistic value.

And then there are bands like Dark Quarterer who for over twenty years have sought original solutions, interesting ways, writing musical pages still unpublished, both in form and substance. These artists have found in My Graveyard a very reliable partner, and their latest effort titled "Symbols" definitively consecrates the moment of grace that the Tuscan band is experiencing. We are faced with an album of the highest level that much more famous bands would have had difficulty even conceiving. We owe only to them this high-productivity masterpiece: they conceived the album, wrote it, and produced it, creating a record destined to remain in the history of our homegrown metal. It is not entirely accurate to say that it is a purely metal album, however, compared to previous works, our musicians have showcased elements more linked to rock and progressive, without completely abandoning their metallic vein.

"Symbols" consists of six long tracks, between nine and fifteen minutes, exclusively dedicated to a character who marked the epoch in which they lived during history: Tutankhamon, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc represent the most significant and memorable tracks of this masterpiece. Dark Quarterer can boast that they have managed to give each of them a musical fresco, rich in compositional energy, full of technical inventiveness, and excellently curated in multiple atmospheres. The themes of the various lyrics recall the arcane curse of the Egyptian pharaoh, the rise and subsequent sudden fall of the Roman dictator, we witness the total faith of the maiden of Orleans who fights to the end and does not even stop in front of the stake. We find ourselves running with the fugitive slave, ready to lose everything just to save their skin and gain their freedom, we live the determined ferocity of the Mongolian leader, witness the fall of the indomitable Apache chief, stopped only by the betrayal of what was called a superior civilization...

It is incredible how Dark Quarterer manage to recreate the perfect sounds to best define each single track, like in a hypothetical soundtrack, epic and descriptive, dreamy and aggressive, at the same time metallic and melodic. Another admirable quality is its immediacy: six songs for seventy minutes of length, during which you will never find yourself incessantly glancing at the clock waiting for it to end as soon as possible. Each passage was placed there because they deemed it necessary to proceed in that particular way; every moment is therefore functional to the track it contains, without being overly complicated to listen to.

I feel obliged to recommend this work to a much wider audience that does not only include true epic/progressive metal enthusiasts but also all those who will appreciate the musical creativity developed in a country like ours.