Discordant Hemispheres - ""Inferno+Paradiso"/"(24) Dicembre" (Independent, 2017)

Band: Discordant Hemispheres
Title: Inferno+Paradiso
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Year: 26th November 2017
Time: 18 min
Total rating: 70/100













Well guys, this article is about a kind of band that usually, as you know, I don't review since Discordant Hemispheres have (almost) nothing in common with an (old-school) extreme metal. But they comes from my city, Rome, and they are a very young band with a lot of talent and creativity. And another thing is that now I'll review even two releases in a single occasion. Precisely, these last ones are the first two singles that, respectively titled "Inferno+Paradiso" (Italian for "Hell+Heaven") and "(24) Dicembre" ("(24th) December"), will be released on a physical edition within one month since they are now available only in a digital format. So, stop with these bullshits and let's go to discover this quartet called Discordant Hemispheres!

Curiously, the first single opens with "Hell", that's an heart-wrenching ballad for vocals and keyboards only. The keyboards are played by a Riccardo Cafini literally on fire also because he is very able to give to this song a really dramatic and sad atmosphere until an end with an even macabre vibe. But this particular atmosphere is also given by the vocal performances of Marco Patarca (the main singer) and the guitarist Andrea Scarinci singing about a working class man that, due to the overwork, can't see his child when this one is growing up. But before I said "curiously" because, although "Hell" is very good, isn't an intro but a real track but I think that "Inferno+Paradiso" might be better if opened with a metal song able to give already the right intensity and energy without the sadness of "Hell" but that's it! Anyway, Discordant Hemisheres have published on their YouTube Channel the video of "Hell", shot by their manager Flavia Antonelli (watch it below).

Fortunately, that intensity and energy comes from the 7 - minutes track "Paradise (is not here)", where you can finally hear the real sound played by the entire Discordant Hemispheres band so to include also the excellent basswork of Andrea Manno but without forgetting the participation of the session drummer Andrea de Carolis. Said this, in "Paradise..." there is a sort of progressive death metal in which power, complexity and grace collide, embracing the listeners with a great melodic plot created by every instrument since each of them have their own fundamental importance. But you have to consider that, at the end, the death metal elements regards only some riffs and, especially, the vocals of Marco, a very talented singer that range from deep growls to (very used) melodic clean vocals. I would like a more frequent use of the most aggressive vocals so to emphasize better some passages but this is a personal taste of mine. In brief, "Paradise..." is an amazing song that showcase a creative mixture between Tool and Atheist (during their most progressive era, surely), but playing always in a mid-tempo oriented approach. The lyrics? Well, this number is about the risks on the work place and, through a speech of an old Italian President named Alessandro Pertini, it ends with a call to the revolt against the businessmen that exploit the workers to their own fuckin' advantage. As third number, there is also an instrumental version of "Paradise..." but it adds nothing new to the entire discourse.

Band: Discordant Hemispheres
Title: (24) Dicembre
Genre: Prog Metal
Year: 24th December 2017
Time: 7 min circa
Total rating: 70/100













Now, speaking about the second single "(24) Dicembre", it consist only of the titletrack, and this is a shame. Anyway, played with another session drummer named Fabio Mancinelli and with the guest vocalist Roberto Mascia (the producer of both the singles), it shows an approach more focused on a pure prog metal without any extreme metal elements (apart for the vocals). But the result is particular because this number has a dark but sad atmosphere while Marco alternates the Italian with the English language, creating in this way a strange effect and taking inspirations, for the lyrics, from "The Process" of Franz Kafka. The performance of every musician is really awesome here, and you can hear keyboards and bass solos. But what I like best about "(24) Dicembre" comes from Marco, that gives an unpredictable performance singing mostly in clean and showing a lot of versatility so to range from hallucinated vocals to desperate screams. Very intense is also the climax constructed around a spoken part in the middle.

In conclusion, we are in presence of a band that promises a lot of good things for the future days to come, although two metal tracks+a ballad are too few to judge completely a band, so, since the smallness of the stuff (especially the second single), I have preferred to condense the rating of both the discs in a single total one in order to give a 70/100 as if I had reviewed a regular demo. I hope that Discordant Hemispheres will still continue to grow up by releasing minor productions of this kind (demos/EPs/singles...) before to realize already a full-lenght album as many metal bands with a modern approach do, unfortunately, today without developing, with patience and perseverance, their own sound, also because this Roman quartet was formed only during the 2017 Summer. But now Timpani allo Spiedo 'zine must returns to talk about some raping nuclear metal holocaust with an old-school "FUCK OFF ATTITUDE", so see you soon and 666!

Tracklist "Inferno+Paradiso":

1 - Hell
2 - Paradise (is not here)
3 - Paradise (is not here) (instrumental version)

Tracklist "(24) Dicembre":

1 - (24) Dicembre

Line-up:

Marco Patarca - singer
Andrea Scarinci - guitars/vocals
Andrea Manno - bass
Riccardo Cafini - keyboards
Andrea de Carolis (session) - drums ("Inferno+Paradiso")
Fabio Mancinelli (session) - drums ("(24) Dicembre")

Guests:

Roberto Mascia - vocals (screams in "(24) Dicembre")

BandCamp: https://discordanthemispheres.bandcamp.com/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/discordanthemispheres/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfD6xx57smbuXlgk3OA47g