The Eighth Symphony - DGM perform brilliant passages on "The Passage

It only takes a few moments until the band DGM is named and the bow to Symphony X is made. "Of course we were proud that their guitarist Michael Romeo played the lead guitar for our new song 'Dogma'", DGM bassist Andrea Arcangeli makes clear. But especially with their meanwhile eighth album "The Passage" the Italian band certainly doesn't bake small rolls anymore. Symphony X are certainly still a great influence, but the songs of guitarist and band boss Simone Mularoni are often very genre-typical, but they can certainly compete with the best tracks of Romero's New Jersey group.

"It's always amazing what high-quality song material Simone comes around the corner with," says Arcangeli. "As long as that's the case, we can concentrate on the footage. And it just blew my mind about The Passage songs. I thought to myself, now Andrea, now concentrate to do musical justice to these pieces. I think this is the most ambitious work ever published under the name DGM." The band's performance on "The Passage" has become almost ingenious with the DGM, which in the past had been thrown into turmoil by several changes of line-up. The praise goes not only to Mularoni and Arcangeli but also to the current keyboarder Emanuele Casali and drummer Fabio Costantino.

In addition, in contrast to the US-Americans, they process considerably more hard rock and thus more earthy elements. On the other hand, this new stability also has something to do with singer Mark Basile, who has been with the band since 2007. "That's right, he's crowning our songs." But isn't it funny to play in a band in which not a single founding member is in the line-up anymore? "On the one hand it is, because DGM started in 1994 as an instrumental prog band and made some albums, but the band as it is now developed only when Simone joined in 2003. And I'd say from 'The Frame' on, there's DGM on the trail." You can say that about the band that tours Japan regularly. Especially with "The Passage", which she's on top of.

* * * Michael Lorant

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