Shadows & Sound: The Mystery of Afterglow

A storm brews on the horizon, and from the depths of darkness emerges Afterglow, the crushing new track from Dark Chapel, led by the formidable Dario Lorina of Black Label Society. Haunting melodies, bone-crushing riffs, and an eerie atmosphere make this song more than just music—it’s an experience. Tonight, we step into the shadows, peeling back the layers of this ominous masterpiece. What secrets lie within its walls of sound? Join us as we unravel the mystery, one heavy note at a time.

Are you ready to enter the Afterglow?

https://music.apple.com/ca/album/afterglow/1773426920?i=1773426935

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Transcript

[Speaker 2]

Welcome to Mandatory Music, where we deep dive into the music that moves us. Today, we're exploring a hauntingly beautiful track that lingers long after the final note, Afterglow by Darkchapel. With its ethereal melodies, brooding atmosphere, and introspective lyrics, this song is more than just a listening experience.

It's a journey through light, shadow, and everything in between. So, Mike is here with me. Hello, Mike.

Good evening, sir. I'm well, how are you? I'm well as well, well as well.

So you told me about Darkchapel, you're like, because we did Lord Humongous a couple weeks ago, and you're like, bro, Dario has a new album out, and Dario has a band out.

[Speaker 1]

And who is Dario, for those people that don't know? Dario is the second guitar player in Black Label Society. He has been in the band for ten years, and he is every bit a shredder Zach Wilde is, if I kind of think he's better than Zach.

He's good. He's good, the dude can rip, and he can write some amazing riffs, so when I heard, hey Mike, oh this guy's awesome, I love me some Dario playing guitar. Actually, when we see them live, I focus a lot watching Dario instead of Zach, because, you know, I think maybe because- I'm a massive Zach Homer, so I'm just like, I am not worthy!

And yeah, so I'm a huge fan of Dario Larina, and I love this album, actually, especially the song we're going to do, but the album as a whole is amazing.

[Speaker 2]

I do have a question for you, actually, and I know we talk about this kind of in passing in the past on other podcasts, but it's good to refresh it every time, because if we have new listeners or whatever, they can keep up to speed. Afterglow is the first song on the album, it's the first song you hear, it's the first song ever by Dark Chapel, if you were going to put it in a CD or do it. Do you think that artists put any more stock into the organization of their track list anymore, or do they just go whatever?

Like, is there any rhyme or reason anymore to put certain tracks? For example, Metallica used to always do a ballad in the fourth slot on all of their albums. So for three albums in a row, they did a very specific style of what type of songs would fit where.

Do you think that's important for people anymore, or for the listener?

[Speaker 1]

I think so. I think the order of songs, I think, because if you put out an album, an album is a journey, right?

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, but with streaming culture, how many people actually go through the album, first track, the last track?

[Speaker 1]

You're probably right there, probably not a ton. So you're going to want to put the heavyweights in the top five, right? I guess.

[Speaker 2]

I think more than anything in today's society of music, your first song is the most important song.

[Speaker 1]

Okay, so what I said before we started, we hit the record button, I said, this is the most Black Label Society adjacent song on the album.

[Speaker 2]

So it's a strategic way they put it there because...

[Speaker 1]

I think so. Personally, I would have put Hollow Smile as the first track on the album if I was to sequence it myself. So I think it's got this amazing...

[Speaker 2]

But when you say this is the most Black Label song on the album, who is the majority of the people going to this for the first time? It's going to be Black Label Society fans because they're like, oh, I'm a fan of Black Label, Dario just put out an album, let's go check it out. So it's like an entryway into the album.

I think it's very tactical why they put this song as the first one. You're right. You're 100% right that it's so much like Black Sabbath.

[Speaker 1]

It's yeah, it's obviously it's a banger anyway, but yeah, it's... Dude, the riffs for this song are so good. Oh my God.

They're so good. I wish I would have played a little of this on guitar before. I just haven't had time.

But it is meaty. It is fast paced. And it's yeah, it's the guitar is amazing.

[Speaker 2]

I like I I do think the song really takes off after the two minute mark where everything cuts out and it's just the guitar. And then you have that like that chuggy section right before the solo where you just like bottom lip curl and you just want to like, oh, yeah, this is meat. Let's go.

Absolutely. And it's not it's not very fast. It's just it's a good pace.

[Speaker 1]

It's almost like a halftime feel of sort of like the chorus. And it's yeah. And so I'm a little before that right now.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, yeah, it's the bone, but you're boned.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, it's like Black Sabbath all day long.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, like it slows down and then everything cuts out except for I'm assuming it's just Dario playing and then it's just like, yeah, it's it's it's so it's sequenced so well. Like in the way it flows. And did you notice that in the guitar solos?

I know I'm jumping ahead, but in the guitar solos near the end of the guitar solos, it modulates to a whole bunch of different keys and the solo follows it follows into the keys. So it gives like tonally it gives a lot of like pleasant shifts and growth in the song. So you're not always hammering the same key, you know, and like key modulation gives so much freaking flavor to a song.

[Speaker 1]

Well, so just being in a pentatonic the whole time, it's yes, it's rotating around and giving it because sometimes solos for me, like my ears, I'm not the hugest guitar solo guy like I because a lot of times it just sounds like, well, I just they all not all sound the same, but I kind of. A lot of times for me, like especially like Metallica solo, OK, great, they all sound they're all starting to sound the same.

[Speaker 2]

Well, I mean, there's a very good reason for that, right, Kirk? Let me just be officially said, Kirk, do better, do better. Don't don't do this like I'm going to feel the solo.

Don't feel the solo, craft it, just craft it, craft a damn solo.

[Speaker 1]

But this is I think one reason why I like this record so much is because there is so much I know we overuse the word diversity and.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, I was very surprised with the different style of songs on it.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, because it goes from like Black Label Society to Judas Priest to piano blues.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, there's like a piano, soft piano song on a soft piano song.

[Speaker 1]

There's like 70s rock. There is absolutely like his whole gamut of influences come out in these was 11 songs, 10 songs and these 10 songs. And it's awesome.

Absolutely.

[Speaker 2]

Were you surprised at what you were listening to like before you heard anything? Like what was your initial feeling of what this album was going to be like? And then what was your reaction after you listened to it?

[Speaker 1]

I'll be brutally honest. When I heard Afterglow, I was like, oh, it's just like Black Label. Great.

That was my seriously. That was my very first thought. And I'm like, I'm like, no.

And I'm like, I'm like, no. I'm like, you do this in the other band. Then Hollow Smile comes on.

I'm like, aha, here we go. We got diversity. We got we got something a little different.

I'm like, yes. And then the whole every song is just different.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, there's there's diversity for sure.

[Speaker 1]

Which is really cool. But getting back to Afterglow. So right before the the vocals start, I'm going to see if I can find the time.

There's this amazing, you know, like in Fuel, the song where Kurt plays. Yes, there's not that. It's it's more like when they play it live and Kurt does that, like revving car engine with the with the slide.

Yes. You look that way and we like this. If you listen carefully right before he starts singing, there's this way with with the slide and then he boom right into the vocal.

I'm like, oh, my God, that is because I was listening to it before when I was making dinner. And I'm like, oh, yeah, it's all these little nuance things. And I was like, whoa, that is really cool.

It's not super flavor, man.

[Speaker 2]

It's flavor. Subtle flavors that just gives so much texture to the song.

[Speaker 1]

And in the slow part you were referencing when it goes when it's sort of just the guitars only guitar and drums. I think it just is. The second guitar has a phaser on it.

So you can just hear going up and up and up and then back down, down, down like the modulation. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is cool. Yeah, pretty sure it's a phaser phaser or flanger.

I can't remember which one it was. I'm it's it's funny. This time change.

I've never been affected by it, but hey, I'm just like a complete.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, it's Daylight Savings, by the way, yesterday.

[Speaker 1]

So I'm a space cadet. I got out of bed and I'm like, what? Then I go look at my phone.

I'm like, what? And I'm like, no. And I go in the kitchen, get my coffee maker.

I'm like, oh, it's now. Oh, that all makes sense. Yeah, right.

So I've been a complete space cadet today. Same, same.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. So like when I saw the album cover and the name of the band is Dark Chapel. Yes.

And I was expecting more do me metal stuff. Yes. I was expecting this like this is going to be different than Black Label Society.

Right. And then you hear Afterglow and you're like, yeah, this is Black Label Society again. Part two.

I can see why he's a guitarist with Zach. Their tone is similar too. Oh, big time.

The guitar tone is almost exactly the same as what you would hear Zach play in Black Label. It's that like sludgy, fuzzy drop D tuning. I assume Afterglow is in drop D.

It sounds like it probably is.

[Speaker 1]

It sounds like the whole guitar is in D to me, but.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, it's a lot lower than normal. Right.

[Speaker 1]

But I think there's a lot of songs in standard E as well. There's a bunch of like the bluesier ones. They might be tuned down flat.

But, okay, you referenced the name of the band, Dark Chapel, because there's another band called Whitechapel. Yes. Tell me it's a spinoff band.

Because I've never heard Whitechapel before, but I just wanted to see the comparison. Dark Chapel sounds like a doom band. And Whitechapel, it's not really my style.

It's a little much.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

It's too much for me.

[Speaker 2]

They should headline a tour together.

[Speaker 1]

The chapel tour? Dark Chapel opens for Whitechapel. Yeah, these guys are like deathcore and it's just not my flavor.

I can't do it.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, those are too extreme. Like deathcore and slam metal and that stuff is usually too extreme for Mike and I's taste, honestly. But all the power to you if that's what you're into.

We don't understand it that much in terms of like, you know.

[Speaker 1]

But hey, there's a place for it. Yeah, there's a time and place for it. If that's your thing, that's your thing.

It's just to my old ears, it's just not my thing. But anyway, so speaking of vocals, this is a good segue. So as we said, Dario sings for the first time on the record.

What did you think when you first heard the vocals, whether it's just Afterglow or the whole record? What was your...

[Speaker 2]

Well, I mean, you can kind of tell that he's not like a... I'm going to be nice here. He's not a seasoned vocalist.

He knows how to sing. It all works. I'm not really offended by the singing, but you're not listening to it for the vocal lines and the melodies, right?

[Speaker 1]

No.

[Speaker 2]

I wonder if he will ever consider getting like an actual singer to be in the band.

[Speaker 1]

Interesting.

[Speaker 2]

You know, and just go off and do the music and lead work. Yeah. He does harmonize a lot.

[Speaker 1]

Yes.

[Speaker 2]

So like in a lot of the songs, he, you know, in the recording, he's adding layers of voice in to give a more cool sound for the choruses, chorsey things. Because I know. I'm not wowed by the singing.

To be honest with you. But I'm not like, oh my God, this is terrible. Like at all.

[Speaker 1]

No. My first thought was, okay, he's singing for the first time. That's a huge step.

Because like even with what you and I do, we're finding our voices slowly, but surely we're honing our craft.

[Speaker 2]

I have mad respect to anyone that wants to step up to a plate and sing.

[Speaker 1]

Like it is not easy. So it is not easy. No.

So I was thinking, okay, it takes some, you know, it takes some big balls to get up there and you're, you're a master at your instrument, but now you want to try something different. Okay. So you're going to sing.

I think he's still finding his voice. I think he has a great voice, but I don't think he, it's, um, it's not mastered yet. And I think give it a couple more, a couple more records.

And I think.

[Speaker 2]

Honestly, I think with some vocal training, like some hard vocal training, like, and so that like his voice can open up a little bit more, like it sounds like, I don't know if it's the recording or the choice of the mastering or whatever, but it feels like the, the voice is a little subdued a little bit. Like it's not up front and center. Like it's, it's kind of lost a little bit in the mix, um, cause it's very guitar prominent.

[Speaker 1]

Yes. Well, that's again, that's why, that's why we're all here is for his, um, I, I think it's a confidence thing. I think it could be like, he's just right.

It's just, or it could be like a subconscious comp, but I still think he has a fantastic voice and I think give it some more time, um, and a couple more records and just keep doing it and keep at it. Just right. He's, he's awesome.

He's awesome in every way.

[Speaker 2]

And I have mad respect for the man to get up and say, it's exciting to, to see what his career path is moving forward. Right. Like, is he going to stay in black label?

I assume he will.

[Speaker 1]

I assume so.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

I hope so. I got it. I wouldn't want him cause him and Zach together, like especially live, like there's such a great, a great duo to feed off of each other.

And you know, they can each take solos and there's no like, well, you're going to shoot, they can't show each other up really. Cause it's just, they're like on, in my mind, they're on an equal playing field. Um, like he's, he knows, like he knows his shit big time.

Like he's clearly, he went to school and learned and.

[Speaker 2]

Oh yeah. He's very, he knows, you know.

[Speaker 1]

He knows the fret board and he knows all the scales and all the keys and every mode and modulation you could possibly think of, which is good. Cause a chump like me doesn't know anything.

[Speaker 2]

I don't know more than you gave yourself credit for. Well, I'm. There is tones though.

Like when I listened to, when I listened, I listened to the whole album, like twice, I think. And then obviously listened to Afterglow a bunch of times, but there's almost like an Alice in Chains feel to the way he sings. Like you can see it on We Are Remade a lot.

Um, when he sings on that song. Yep. Um, but yeah, he reminds me like he's channeling some Jerry Cantrell.

[Speaker 1]

I was just going to say he channels Cantrell big time cause his voice is very Cantrell-y. And I, and it took Jerry a long time to really find his voice too. Yeah.

Right. So, but you're right. I was, that was one of the things that I, uh, that, that I took out of it was like, okay, it's he's, he clearly, he was, I don't know how old he is.

He's obviously younger than we are. Um.

[Speaker 2]

Let's look it up. Are you going to look it up?

[Speaker 1]

No, you can look it up. Um, but apparently he began his professional career at age 16 as a touring guitarist with the late Jamie Lanez of Warrant. That's crazy.

So can you imagine going on tour with a dude from Warrant when you're 16? Like, good God. Um, yeah.

And he joined Black Label in 2014. Um, and those dudes.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, he was 16 in 2006.

[Speaker 1]

Oh, so he's young.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, I guess.

[Speaker 1]

So that was 19 years ago. So he's like 35. He's a young, he's a young fella.

Um, okay. Wow. Yeah.

Oh, good for him. I think that's awesome. Um, he's also had two instrumental.

Oh, two instrumental solo records. Uh, one namely Dario Lorena and Death Grip Tribulations. No, it's 34.

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

He's a Leo baby. Oh, August 6th, 1990.

[Speaker 1]

1990. So 1990. Good God.

And listen to us old farts talking about somebody so young. Um, but I just, there's just something about the way he played. He plays guitar.

I just, I am completely drawn to it. I just, I love watching him play. I love listening to him play music.

It's just, it's cool. It's just, you know, I could put it on for my wife and she's like, nah, she's not a big. This isn't like metal though.

So not really. So, and, and I, I've been putting on some stuff for her. She's like, yeah, no.

Like I put on Paper Tiger by Art Jeremy. She's like, no.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, I'm going to have words with her.

[Speaker 1]

Right. And I'm like, come on, man. How can you not like this or.

Whether we're doing that song next week. We, yeah, we have a bunch of stuff. We have a full, a full slate coming.

Full month of planned stuff. Because I also want to do the new Go song.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, we're doing that.

[Speaker 1]

And I want to do the new Volbeat song, which should probably take us 15 minutes because there is not a lot going on.

[Speaker 2]

Deep dive the stuff out of that. Don't worry about it.

[Speaker 1]

Wait till you listen to it. Because it, uh, I'll just give you a little, uh, never. I will wait till we do it.

Um, but yeah, so everybody out there go listen to Dark Chapel. If you like sort of, you know, modern hard rock, that's kind of.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, there's one other thing to, uh, uh, talk about here is because we haven't really gone into the lyrics. Lyrics, there's nothing really crazy. It's, it's safe.

Yep. Like the lyrics are safe. There's basically two words for the most part in every line of the verse.

Nice. You know, so it's very, it's very safe choices. Um, but yeah, he's a guitarist first and foremost, right?

So you're listening to it and it's metal. So you're not listening to it for like the lyrical complexity or the vocal complexity. You're listening to it for how it all works together musically and it's riff rock, riff metal.

Like we're listening to a band that's been inspired by making good riffs and solo work over top of that. So, um, but yeah, I urge people to actually listen to the solo in it and how it modulates through different keys. It's so good.

That's like the highlight of the song for me. It's like the two minute to like a three and a half, four minute, like the last half of the song really takes off.

[Speaker 1]

Um, let's just take us cause this song has multiple solos and I think that it doesn't make it. Cause sometimes when songs have multiple solos, it's like, yeah, okay. Like say hanger 18, there was like 928 solos.

[Speaker 2]

Oh, but it's such a good song though.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, I know. But it's, but they're all, they're all in the same. They're all in like that E minor.

They're all there. And this one is, is sort of just, it's spreading the love to, to every other, to everybody else, which I, I, I don't know.

[Speaker 2]

Cause I think it's sort of the key changes in music, like modulating to different keys in music is such a good way to add different flavors and texture to the song because you're sitting there and like, let's say you're sitting there in whatever minor pocket and you like modulate to like the major of it or whatever, it completely changes the flavor of the song, right. And, and that is such a mass for like being able to do that flawlessly. So it doesn't sound jarring when you change keys.

Metallica does that a lot, actually. So faith of faith, the black, for example, modulates through a bunch of different keys, right. Throughout the whole song, like the solo is at a different key than the verse and the chorus, like it's all different.

So it's just, it's always nice to see bands that can do that very well and masterfully because it is had so much texture to a song for sure. So yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I think that's, I think that's that.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Afterglow.

[Speaker 2]

Fantastic song.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, exactly. You couldn't have said it any better. For all of you out there, if you haven't left a review, wherever you get your podcasts, that would be wonderful.

If you even just five star, if you hate us one star, but you know, reviews are good wherever you get your podcasts from. We have email mandatory music at gmail. Mandatory music show at gmail.com.

We're on all the other mumbo jumbo socials, which are exhausting to be perfectly honest. But yeah, we should just hire someone to do all the socials. It'd be so much easier.

My God, it's. One day. One day.

Yeah. One day. I'd be amazing to hire someone like, you know, you get my daughter when she's allowed to have social media because she's really not.

So because she's 13 and she doesn't need it. Anyways, but yeah, no, but honestly, like if you, if you listen and you, you feel like it, you don't even have to say anything. Just click any number and amount of stars you like.

Fives are great. We obviously would love fives. But if you think we're, if you think we're hot garbage, you can give us one too.

It's fine.

[Speaker 2]

Because just delete the review, but that's fine.

[Speaker 1]

Whatever it is, what we're not for everybody. But we, we, like I've said a million times, we're learning, we're getting better every week and we're just, you know, just, we're just, yeah, we're just, we're doing it.

[Speaker 2]

We really love talking about music. We really love, Mike and I really love exploring music. One of our, the best thing that happens all week long is us discovering new music.

Like I'm telling you, we live for this stuff and we love to share what we find with each other and hopefully with our community that's slowly growing. So that's the whole concept of this podcast is to find music that inspires us or that we're like, Hey, this was interesting. Let's share this with the world.

And that's what we want to do. We want to bring that to everybody and share our passion with you guys. So yeah, let us know if there's anything that we, you want that we haven't covered or anything that, you know.

[Speaker 1]

Anything. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Anything really.

[Speaker 1]

There's so much out there that, you know, you can, you can rabbit hole any band and go down. Hey, if you like this, you might like this. And if you like that, you might like this.

And you just, you just go through the whole, that's the one, that's the one good thing about streaming is like, it's literally.

[Speaker 2]

If you like this, you might like that. It's a giant ocean of French bands that have two, two people in the band that play one string on a guitar or something. Yes.

[Speaker 1]

Like as I'm listening to synth pop right now and which is kind of this metal side project, but whatever. But there's stuff for everybody and stuff you've never heard. So anyways, that's, that's our show for this fine evening.

And yeah, next week we're doing, what are we doing next week? We're doing, are we doing Paper Tiger? Yeah.

A little Arch Enemy action. Yeah, man.

[Speaker 2]

That might be one of the best songs, metal songs I've heard in the last couple of years.

[Speaker 1]

It's really good.

[Speaker 2]

It's so good, but we're going to dive into that next week.

[Speaker 1]

We are. So thank you. And we will see you next week with some Arch Enemy.

See ya.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)