Nota Profana - The Devil’s Playground
CD Info
2013
Independent Release
11 Tracks
English Lyrics
Nota Profana, from Caracas, Venezuela do a slightly different brand of Symphonic B & B. They don’t approximate the orchestra, they ARE the orchestra. They were originally formed in 2005 by Jose Luis Castillo as a Haggard a cover band named "Proyecto Haggard". We’re way beyond a guitar, bass, drums and a keyboard here. Instruments range from each of those to violins, flutes, oboe, and a number of horns. And, these are trained musicians with outside interests in the classics on most occasions. Vocals on this release are delivered by Renzo Lucena and the one and only Gaby Koss. Both are devastating. I haven’t heard growling like this since Morton Veland from Tristania and Sirenia decided to go more commercial. And Gaby Koss, well, no further commentary is necessary there, one of the great vocals in Gothic metal. The rest of the musicians are generally associated with the famous Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela, among others. So, musically, you have about as solid a line up as you can get.
The music is diversified. You get metal, lots of metal, but that’s not the end of things. You want your Beethoven, no fookin’ problem. You want a taste of Mozart? I got cher Mozart, right here. And, in each occasion, you get solid musical backgrounds to cover even stronger vocals. I was able to interact with Gaby and band leader Carlos Mosquera who provided some insight to the Nota Profana perspective on things. I am told that much of the music is developed by Daniel, a violin player. He also does a lot of the lyrics and we’ll get into those directly. They’re dark and delicious in a very Gothic kind of way. But, the clear leader of the band, er, orchestra, is Carlos. Gaby talked about him, "Also for example our bandleader Carlos was listening to the Yngwie Malmsteen e-guitar orchestra concert and wrote down by ear the whole score/particularly for the orchestra and e-guitar and played the concert. He also writes down a lot of different arrangements of songs - also metal songs what are known - for his percussion pupil group one of the most amazing kids percussion group - he is leading with another teacher." Clearly, this is a guy into the music.
Music like this is more than a little complex, this is classical music, but with Gothic themes. And you’re not writing musical scores for a couple musicians and a singer, you’re writing for a small orchestra. This is a big effort. Again, I asked about the musical philosophy and the intent. The response, "I like to think of music as a haven, a place where everything is possible; and I say this as both listener and writer. There is joy when you listen to a song that stir your emotions and creates an almost palpable atmosphere that resonates within yourself. I try to make music that pleases me with the hope that maybe other people would like it too so that they can resonate with our songs. That’s the ultimate achievement."
Describing the music is also a topic of interest, Carlos described it as follows, "When writing music I always think of emotion, so to me each song has a distinctive feeling or mood. To describe the Devil’s Playground in few words I would say it is definitely dark, with great moments of utter madness (e.g. Nightmare) and fear (e.g The Lake). But there’s also uncertainty, love and even compassion." Clearly, this range of emotions is something that takes a lot of music to address, nice to have a full orchestra to work with, especially one with the range of capabilities found in NP.
Beyond the music there is the lyrical content, and, in this case, that content is solid Gothic. Again, I asked about that direction and received the following, "The main idea behind the lyrics is the destruction of innocence. Is about taking the most pure, fragile, uncorrupted thing in this world and destroy it. So a six chapters story developed from that idea and became The Devil’s Playground. The story is about a man that is being haunted by a strange nightmare that puzzles him, and tries to find out the meaning of it. While searching for answers he goes to a place he knew when he was very young. Once there, he notices an entrance to a dark pathway he didn’t quite remembered, and discovers an eerie lake and dead children dancing right above the water. Terrified and unsure if what he sees is real or not, he runs home. While running he stumbles and falls just like he did when he was a little child and realizes that his nightmare is a piece of his shattered memory. He gets home to take care of what he loves the most, which is his son. That same night, he has a nightmare, but this time he is part of it, he is ‘living"’ the nightmare as if he was possessed by an evil force that later makes him kill what he cherish most in his life. In the end, surrounded by the walls of an asylum he recovers his memory and the sad truth behind it."
Well, that covers much of the music, until we get to Beethoven and Mozart, so let’s look at this thing from a musical / lyrical perspective.
The music starts out with a classical musical structure, sans vocal other than the choral thing that is a requisite of this type of music these days. . . just a little better. I mean, after all, we are dealing with a truly classical bunch here. But, it evolves quickly into the second selection A Warning and a Dream. This is where the metal cranks up, and where the male death vocal begins to explain that this will be a little different than the typical classical rendition. Of course, Gaby enters the fray at some point to provide the beauty, that’s what she does, and the combination is as solid a B & B as you can get.
The music tends to move in this direction for the first nine tracks, covering the topic described above. The music is exceptional, the vocals demonstrating a corresponding level of excellence. Several are of note. Some, however, present an exceptional level of darkness. Nightmare takes us to the depths of Gothic remorse. Again, the lyrics are delivered with a solid B & B sound. They take us to darker places:
No emotion, no restraints, no regrets / As I grab the inherited knife of sin
This night the silvery lake will dance / And feed from the pain of my own heir
Devouring madness… compelling need to kill
Defenceless, and awoken by my touch / My own flesh, my son shall breathe no more
Well, it’s all blood and gore in the finest tradition of the genre. You gotta love it. But, at some point, we have to consider the classics. They take the music and link it to interesting thoughts. The first is Allegretto - Beethoven's 7th and, it don’t get much better than this. I mean, can you see the Beiber doing this? The message is grim:
Can you forgive me / my weak desire / I can not flee / my heart´s on fire
Longing is sadness / painful alone / but I am fearless / as love has grown
And, of course, the second classical selection is Mozart. Dies Irae, Requiem, is a classic beyond pretty much anything in popular music. Many a Gothic troop has attempted this selection, but few are capable of achieving this level of excellence. To see this included here says much about the musical capabilities of this release.
Well, the main thing I can say about this release is that it pretty much covers all the basics, and does it with style. What more can you possibly ask for? You get the metal, the symphonics, the vocals, the interesting story, and the classics. Fer Christ sake, what else is there? Write it down, this one gets it all, it’s a 10.
