RIGHT ASCENSION BY ALBERTO RAGONE
Deinòs was formed in 2020 by the guitarist and leader Alberto Ragone, previously known for his writing in Berith’s Legion and Psychotria, bands of the extreme North-Italian metal scene.
The band debuted with the album Right Ascension, with Giacomo Mineo (Antikythera Mechanism) and Jei Doublerice (Despite Exile) as session vocalists, denoting a heavy but melodic sound characterised by Death, Thrash and Metalcore influences. In 2021 Deinòs wrote, recorded and self-produced the self-titled EP, scheduled for January 2022 via Rebel Pyro Musick, from which the single “The Elemental Drive of Existence” is extracted. It falls perfectly between the more technical side of death metal and the more catch side of djenty-type metal like the old Veil of Maya.
More than a guitarist, I consider myself a composer. Writing music of all kinds is what I love to do the most. Deinòs was born from the need to produce extreme metal music, my first teenage love. The writing phase, both for the first album and the self-titled EP, takes place very naturally; everything starts from an idea or a main riff on which different arrangements are built. After the first stage of arrangement, I take care of the song’s structure and the emotional dynamics that will evolve in the track. When I have a good melodic and rhythmic base of the whole piece (guitar, bass and drums already well defined), I proceed with the final arrangements: this is the most fun phase in which I can operate with pure feeling.
Regarding the recording process, I proceeded regularly in steps: first, I program all the drum tracks, then I record all the bass and guitar tracks, and finally, I program synths and keyboards. The vocal tracks are recorded autonomously by the individual session vocalists, who follow a vocal line previously pre-produced by me. The first album was mixed and mastered by Federico Maraucci, while the forthcoming EP was completely self-produced.
Deinòs uses Philosophy, Literature and Mythology to express different themes: Introspection, Dualism, Balance, but also Anger, Loss and Frustration. To narrate these, I made numerous quotes from Dante’s Inferno, Brahms’ Lullaby, the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, the Slivers of MTG, Naruto’s Akatsuki, Final Fantasy VII and X and more. The single ”The Elemental Drive of Existence” takes inspiration from Asimov and Bicentennial Man to treat humanity as a destination and not as a passage but also as non-belonging. These lyrics are abundantly metaphorical to allow the listener to interpret with maximum freedom.
I don’t have a particular mindset for recording an album. I tend to produce everything by myself in my basement: the right atmosphere and time are all I need. I have often written songs together with other musicians by assembling different jams, but the method I prefer is the independent development of the idea.
I love anything imaginative and fantastic as long as it stays that way. I love music, visual art, cinema, video games, literature and everything that allows escape, release and relief. As a child, I listened to little music until a friend of mine made me listen to 9:0 Live by Slipknot during a cultural exchange in Edinburgh. I fell madly in love with that music. I found a connection with the entire genre that I had never felt before: fast drums, distorted but melodic guitars and energetic vocals quickly became my language. When I listened to Trivium’s “Ascendancy” the following year, my love for Metal was definitively consolidated.
Music, like all art, is a universal language. This, although less practical, can be much more profound and effective in manifesting a feeling or an emotion. It is undoubtedly an essential form of expression. Furthermore, since our emotions are so complex, I like to think that there is a shade in the colour palette of Music suitable for each of these: metal was the colour that most helped my catharsis.
https://www.facebook.com/deinosband
