Band : Dantesco

Album Title : Pagano

Label : Cruz Del Sur

Distributor : Sonic Rendezvous

Release Date :02/05/2008

Review : CD

Dantesco ’s most notable treat has less to do with their music, but their geographical location, which happens to be Puerto Rico, a semi-autonomous territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands. Formed in 2002, Dantesco has quikly build its reputation around a succesful live activity which has seen them playing with bands such as Judas Priest, Grim Reaper, Exciter, Demon, Riot ,… Four years later Dantescoreleased its debut De La Mano De La Muerte, a release that made the band also know abroad and got them on festivals such as the legendary Keep It True and Doom Shall Rise. After months spent in the studio, the band released locally their second album Pagano which is now licensed by the Italian metal label Cruz Del Sur (Pharaoh, Slough Feg, Crescent Shield, Bible Of TheDevil,…) with two additional bonus tracks, “I came from hell”, the first Dantescosong ever sung in English and “ Gethesemane”, their personnal interpretation of the Jesus Christ Superstar song.

Their sound finds its own niche somewhere between Mercyful Fate, Manilla Road and Solitude Aeturnus. Judging by the Candlemass-drenched Nightfall approach and the ultra high screams that evoke a King Diamond banshee this album shows some serious potential here. Pagano is doom metal-based, but not entirely faithful to the genre, experimenting with some other sub-genres of metal and their musical influences. Bandleader, librarian, historian and operatic vocalist Enrico la Bestia does possess a higher range than most and some of the themes cold be associated with certain Power Metal luminaries, mainly of the 80s US metal persuasion. On the downside, a few of the songs on Pagano are a little too similar and repetitive after repeated listenings, but that has been the curse of other doom and power metal bands as well.

83/100

Cosmicmasseur.