A lifelong connection to the gods and goddesses and culture of the ancient world, annual visits to the temples and sacred sites of Greece and Italy, and a yearning for dramatic storytelling full of blood, sweat and tears, dried in the sands of time – all this came together for former NYHC guitarist Gabby Abularach (CRO-MAGS, VOODOOCULT) with the inspiration to tune his handmade flamenco guitar like an ancient Greek lyre and he soon began to write the first melodies that would later become the songs of DEA VELATA.
Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman music, the romantic period of classical music, flamenco, classical Spanish music and symphonic metal, DEA VELATA began with purely acoustic music, but evolved to add classical orchestral instruments as well as symphonic and folk metal.
At the beginning of 2017, Gabby had just begun to explore and study the harmonies, mathematics, tunings, modes and aesthetics of ancient Greek and Roman music. Combined with the beguiling soprano voice of Angela Hicks, the result is a combination in a class of its own, embedding the listener in the golden fleece of DEA VELATA’s mythological musicality.
DEA VELATA’s second single „PHEBEVS FVROR“ (Phebean Wrath), which is included on the upcoming album, is based on the first book of Homer’s Iliad and tells the story of the rescue of the Trojan girl Chryseis from abduction by the Greek king Agamemnon. Her father Chryses, the Trojan high priest of Apollo, was insulted by Agamemnon when he came to ransom her and prayed to Apollo for help. Apollo, enraged by the insult to his priest and the abduction of his daughter, helps Chryses to rescue his daughter Chryseis and punishes the Greeks with a nine-day massacre. In Greek mythology, Apollo is a multifaceted deity – he is not only the god of music, light and poetry, but also the one who punishes and destroys.
This duality is expressed theatrically and metaphorically in the new music video for „PHEBEVS FVROR“. In it, Angela brings the performing arts of ancient Rome and Greece to life – she not only sings, but also acts in the video and slips into the roles she sings about in visual form. We see gloomy warehouses, brawling gangsters and fencing duels in contrast to Angela Hicks‘ graceful performance as a pure, angelic figure who embodies the natural, fragile feminine beauty that men fight over and that ancient empires perished over in the past.
A lover of all things ancient and medieval, Angela Hicks perfectly embodies the spirit of this mythological and musical journey.
Watch here the video:
The band’s eponymous first album „DEA VELATA“ will be released on 16 October 2024. With eleven tracks, the brilliant ensemble aims to revive the sounds, consciousness and spirit of the ancient world in modern times.
The sound of DEA VELATA truly offers something unique, something new, something that heals the soul, uplifts the spirit and connects people to the beauty and magic of the classical world of antiquity. Italian poet Stefano Losi writes the lyrics in the form of contemporary poetry in imperial Latin, which are then gently carried on symphonic metal grand pianos.
„The lyrics and poetry offer a personal perspective on the existential restlessness inherent in human existence and all its concrete manifestations, from the deepest despair to the purest love.They provide an imaginary link to the lyrics of the 1st century Poetae Novi, which reappear in my own poetry, filtered through a clear contemporary sensibility that recasts the eternity of life and the timeless value of emotions,“ says the talented lyricist.
The full album „DEA VELATA“ will be released on 16 October 2024.
In eleven tracks, it celebrates contemporary poetry in classical Latin – woven
woven into the music of Greek and Roman antiquity with a neoclassical flavour
and a strong thread of symphonic metal.
DEA VELATA online:
https://www.facebook.com/deavelataofficial
https://www.instagram.com/deavelataofficial/
https://www.youtube.com/@DEAVELATA
http://deavelata.bandcamp.com