Wrapped Renaissance
Dosgamos
•
January 13, 2023
"Wrapped Renaissance" is the debut album from DOSGAMOS, a groove metal band from Italy. Right away, the album lives up to its genre name, creating gorgeous songs listeners will get lost in. The album's opening song "Beware of Me" starts with a beautiful, almost wistful intro, before diving into an intense, fast-paced metal song that manages to be both heavy and catchy. The vocalist, Michele Altavilla, provides superb unclean vocals, but also provides clean vocals, often as a "call and response" style technique. Another great song on the album, "Frosty Soil," includes fantastic, hard-hitting melodies. "Heirloom" has an amazing guitar opening that jumps into a more subdued melody with unclean vocals. Ultimately it is an intense song, particularly the hook at the 1:50 mark.
Throughout the album, the music and the vocalist create songs with a lot of attitude, which often makes the album fun even though the songs' topics are political in nature. The lyrics, which are in English, are sometimes busy but never dull. Instead, the songs' lyrics are full of story, imagery, emotion, and power. Written during the first lockdown in Italy in 2020, the band says on their website, they hoped to create a sense of claustrophobia with the album. The lyrics often speak truth to power, calling out many of the world's problems, with the intensity they call for. In the single "Sightseeing," for example, the vocalist sings about climate change with both a sense of desperation to do something and sarcastic anger that those with power won't allow it.
"Odyssey" is another single from the album. It opens with the repetition of a single stark guitar riff, very reminiscent of the song "Blind," by KORN. The opening quickly breaks through the familiar to something exciting and unique, a heavy metal song with high energy and attitude. At 3:30, the song takes a short break from the intensity to create a mournful, melodic bridge that is both gorgeous on its own, but also provides an excellent contrast to the almost never-ending heaviness of the drums, guitar, and bass. "Schmoozer" is another notable song for the album for the incredible breakdown just before the two-minute mark. An incredible melody is soon joined by absolutely gorgeous screaming, a feature of metal music beloved throughout the subgenres and vocalist Michele Altavilla delivers.
The album overall is a very cohesive work of breakout groove metal. The songs sound great, and deliver high-energy metal, intense guitar riffs, and fast drums with rhythms and melodies that will catch listeners and get them in the mood to head-bang, dance, or scream. DOSGAMOS shows off incredible chops in their ability to bring beauty forward in nearly every single metal song.
9 / 10
Almost Perfect
Songwriting
Musicianship
Memorability
Production
"Wrapped Renaissance" Track-listing:
1. Beware of Me
2. Common Excuses
3. Frosty soil
4. Heirloom
5. Kinda Alien
6. Odyssey
7. Schmoozer
8. Sightseeing
9. Wrapped Renaissance
Dosgamos Lineup:
Michele Altavilla - Vocals
Vinnie Marco - Guitars
Giulio Garibaldi - Bass
Giuseppe D'Avola - Drums
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