review: Dark Quarterer -- Italian progressive heavy metal

Dark Quarterer

Pompei

Cruz Del Sur Music

6 November 2020

1. Vesuvius 09:23

2. Welcome to the Day of Death 06:38

3. Panic 08:39

4. Plinius the Elder 07:58

5. Gladiator 06:24

6. Forever 08:01

47:03

Apparently, the Italian progressive heavy metal band began some 38 years ago, and this is album number eight. Their recorded output shows them delivering recordings from the 1980s to 1993, and then nothing until 2002 again, and since then they seem to keep going without stopping. The new album is a concept work about the Mount Vesuvius eruption in ancient Italy. As far as the music goes, from the start, the listener hears the skills and experience of the band. That helps to settle down any possible impatience. The music seems like a gritty, sinister form of heavy metal, with deeply progressive flair. Depending on your own imagination, this may sound like a horror story set to metal, a theatrical work, a heavy metal opera, a Halloween prog metal story, a mix of Mercyful Fate and Rush, or something like that. Once you adjust to that framework, the music is perfectly clear. Expect guitar solos, shredding even, a real sense of heavy metal, given that this band is fully committed to remaining a metal band, but they do like to spice things up with a few twists and turns. In some segments, things get a bit weird, but not excessively so. As long as the listener is a bit patient, the album should stand out as a gem, once it is fully heard a few times.

Pompei by Dark Quarterer