Das italienische Metal Oper Projekt SIGNUM DRACONIS kündigt für den 12. November ihre Doppel-CD „The Divine Comedy: Inferno“ an. Die Scheibe ist der erste Teil einer Trilogie über Dante Alighieri’s „Göttliche Komödie“, weitere mit den Titeln „Purgatory“ (Purgatorio/Läuterungsberg ) und „Paradise“ (Paradiso/Paradies) sollen folgen.

Die musikalische Umsetzung erfolgt mit Hilfe von Duetten mit verschiedenen Gastsängern, Erzählungen und Gesängen und ganz viel klassischem 80er Metal sowie unter Mitwirkung des Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and Choir.

Auf der ersten Single ‚Gate Of Hell (Arrival of Charon)‘ sind als Gäste Mark Boals (Ex-Malmsteen) und Ben Jackson (Crimson Glory) mit von der Partie.

Gitarrist und Komponist Oscar Grace über die Geschichte des Projekts:

„The story of Signum Draconis can be said to begin in 2010, after two years crossing what felt like a personal hell, I was sitting in my car gazing at the sky when a message came to me as it were, a vision clear as day: ‘Put The Divine Comedy to music!’ At that moment Signum Draconis was born. I returned home immediately and hunted out an old copy of Dante’s masterpiece I had owned for years and began furiously reading. Two full years of study and research followed, reading and re-reading all three books many times and even traveling to Florence to visit the 13th Century poet’s own house, trying to envisage what it would have been like to be him and the world in which he lived his story.

It took two years to extract the parts that would form the material for the songs, and a further year working with my good friend Frederick Pollock to compose the lyrics, bringing to each song its own meaning whilst maintaining the thread that binds all the songs together, at all times remaining faithful to the source and paying the utmost respect to the poet Dante with regards to the correct register with perfect meter and rhyme in English.

Und über den ersten Track:

„Chant III of Inferno, one of the best-known chants in the entire Divine Comedy, reflects the moment in which Dante and Virgilio arrive at the gate of Hell and read those famous words as a warning written on the door. These verses were treated with special interest, the weight falling and leaving the absolute prominence to the classical orchestra. As a curiosity, the inspiration for the creation of the melody for the intro, I have to say that it caught me by surprise in my free time and since it seemed perfect I was forced to write it on a napkin. During the song we will be able to listen to another duet, this time carried out by our singer Max Morelli in the character of ‘Dante’ and Mr. Mark Boals as ‘Virgil’. At the end of the song, ‘Charon’ the ferryman enters the scene, played by our guest star Mr. Ben Jackson, who everyone will surely remember as the guitarist of the mythical band Crimson Glory.“

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