Catapulting to the top of the list of metal bands doing something genuinely captivating are Destrage – an Italian 5-piece who’d be easily, albeit lazily, thrown into the prog category. Truthfully, their sound lends itself to a smorgasbord of genres, as is the case of most of the bands we consider progressive today, and isn’t quite so readily classifiable. The band’s recent completion of a European run with Periphery and The Contortionist might give you an idea of where they stand sonically and positionally in the scene, but it’s best to let the music speak for itself.
Guitarist Matteo Di Gioia took the opportunity the tip-tap through the eclectic riffage in “Blah Blah,” taken from their last record, A Means to No End. The track’s an overall jittery (but traceable) one, devoid of any dull moments or dead spots, probably due to the care that was taken to complete A Means to No End. Matteo had this to say about the album’s conception:
We took our time with this record. We put aside the urge to impress, to rush, to jump from here to there like mad dogs. We challenged ourselves by not giving in to what we know we can do. We know how to eat fire, we know how to go wild, we know how to surprise, to shake, to disturb people. But this time we wanted to write a solid album. Not fireworks. Circus days are over.
While I might argue that “Blah Blah” still holds the power to “shake” and “disturb,” it’s thoughtfully composed in a way that perhaps Destrage’s earlier work wasn’t. Mission accomplished, dudes.
To hear more from A Means to No End, have a go at it in a variety of formats here.
