Iced Earth, Dante's Inferno

Link: Dante's Inferno by Iced Earth 

So this is a song by the heavy metal band Iced Earth. Because it's heavy metal, it gets pretty intense, but the lyrics are what drew me to this song. It's also about eighteen minutes long, as it summarizes the Inferno.


Through the fiery caverns we sail
Virgil at my side my guide and master
Questing through the nine plains of hell
Infernal wisdom shall fill my soul
Slowly now the days departing
The darkened air releases me
Frightening visions of my journey
Entrance me to limbo I'm not
Free

The first stanza starts of gently sung, kind of flowing until the last line when the singer says "free" very darkly. It is like a preface of the journey: Virgil will guide him through the nine levels of hell, and this journey will help give Dante knowledge so he will be able to move on and eventually reunite with his love, Beatrice.


Abandon all hope who enter here
Enter the gates, Charon awaits

Abandon all hope who enter here
For this is where all things are left behind
Every doubt and every cowardice must die
Souls of rage and anger whipping in despair

This part is more dark and angry, sustained through the rest of the song, the tone paralleling the words "Abandon all hope who enter here," the words above the gate into Inferno. 

The souls that wail on this plain pray for death
Denial is the reason for their suffering
Forever being stung by wasps and demons breath
The blood and tears that fall serve the maggots need

I don't think this stanza really captures what the first circle is about; in Limbo, these souls were unbaptized babies and the "virtuous pagans" whose only sin was not worshipping God above all other gods. This is supposed to be the most involatile circle, but the song makes it sound harsh and awful. Perhaps this is to keep up the notion that all of Inferno is a horrible place where no one wants to end up.

Descention, thrusting to the second plain
Minos judges as his tail twines
Lustful thoughts and greed whip these wretched souls
A hurricane of hate mocks their helpless pleas

This stanza, about the second circle, I think is a good basic summary of the lustful. Mentioning the hurricane, Dante's contrapasso, describes the punishment here well: no matter their cries, these souls will forever be swept around in a "hurricane of hate" because in life, they allowed themselves to be swept into a hurricane of lust. 

Drifting now down deeper, into eternal flames
Awake at the third circle, the cold and filthy rain
Punished for their gluttony, languid for all time
The earth it stinks of corpses, damned for all time
The vicious beast Cerberus, three heads, blooded eyes
Tears his talons through the air, all the sinners cry

At this part in the song (5:30), the music calms a bit, and the tone is smoother, emphasizing the words here: it slows down, because these gluttonous souls are to be "languid for all time," the tone here mirroring the meaning of the words and the punishment. 

Down, be still thy cursed wolf
The master scorns its name
Dive to the next plain
The sullen and the vain
Suffer for greed
The prodigal they bleed
For all eternity
Plutus holds the key

Here, the song gets intense once more, as Virgil forces Cerberus back, so they can move on to the next circle, or "plain," as the song calls it. They combine circle four and five here, probably because they're in the same Canto, not really explaining about the sullen, vain, greedy, or prodigal. It sounds like they think all of these souls have the same contrapasso, even though they are quite different between the prodigal/avaricious and the wrathful/sullen. It's also pretty hard to understand all of the words here, because they're kind of shouting rather than singing. 

Damned, the wrathful and the vain
Suffer the fifth plain
Cross the river Styx
Heed your crucifix
The mudded corpses cry
Howling to the sky
Reach the other side
Open wide the gate

Now, the song explains a little better that there is a difference between the prodigal and the wrathful, but they don't actually address the punishment for circle four. This is a good stanza, I think, about the contrapasso of circle five, how they're in the Styx, and they're "howling to the sky," which is a bit of a dramatization of what they're actually doing (more of a chanting, resigned to their fate in the Styx). 

Enter the sixth circle of barren land and flames
Passing through the gate of dis the furies scream her name
Belching forth in agony invoking her to rise
The spirit's rage consuming us the evil in their cries
Queen of vipers, queen of serpents
Cast their souls to stone
Spread to wealth of Gorgon's power
Medusa's inner soul

This part kind of glosses over heresy, only mentioning how barren it is. Also, they place a lot of emphasis on Medusa, probably because she is a well known mythical monster, and she gives a scary image. It is not sung, but kind of chanted.

We're drawing ever closer to the seventh hell
They violate their neighbors, their god and themselves
We're sailing slowly through the boiling river of blood
Immersed in the depths below souls scream in agony
The twisted beast he laughs, he draws his arrow back
His sights on anyone exposing of their flesh
He impales their hearts with ease
And shrugs their piercing screams
Pity is they'll never die
They'll suffer here eternally

Again, the tone changes in this stanza; slower, more calm, emphasizing this sin--violence against neighbors, self, and God, and how it is the worst Dante and Virgil encountered so far. I think the second half of this stanza is refering to the centaurs possibly, but I'm not too sure. 

Imagine a place where every horror comes to life
Where every torture is real and time stands still
Eight fiery steps and we're closer to the end

In a cold and timeless grave buried head first in shit
Praying all the while for a quick & painless death
Scratching furiously at scabbed and oozing wounds

Lucifer ... angel of light
Cast below god of ice
Ruling hell unholy trinity
The traitors freeze for all eternity
Lucifer ... betrayer of god
Tormentor ruthless and cold
Judas' screaming here in agony
The traitors freeze for all eternity

We haven't read the rest of the Inferno yet, so this last bit is hard to fully analyze. They clearly spent most of the song on the first half of Inferno, and quickly going through the last couple circles without really making it clear what was happening. Although, if we had finished the Inferno, this part may have been more clear to me. The song overall is not my taste at all, but I think has some merits if it is being used like this--to enhance understanding and appreciation for the Inferno (even though some parts seemed inaccurate to me, or too exaggerated). It does a decent job of explaining/ summarizing the basics of most of the Inferno, but if someone hadn't read it listened to this song, they probably would get the general gist of it, just some of the circles and punishments would be unclear. I honestly didn't like the song, because it sounds too abrasive for most of it, and I will never listen to it again. It was hard to get through once. But I think the fact that the song exists at all is a testament to the Inferno, and how it is still being interpreted in many ways, and some of the lyrics I think put that particular part into good perspective. Overall, the song was okay, but the Dante part was pretty awesome.