Hump Day Hot Ticket: Caligatum “Dante”

Band photo

Normally each week, I try to share a video that is fairly “hot off the presses”, or recent enough to check out while it is still new; but every now and again a video will come my way that has been out for a while, that I just have to share anyway.

Opening for bands such as Rhapsody and Dark Moor in their native México, Guadalajara's Caligatum is moving up the ranks in their local metal scene. Citing bands such as Tristania and Draconian as their musical influences, Caligatum's gothic sound and imagery really comes through in the video for their song “Dante”, which was released last year.

The video starts with a full moon and dark clouds, as a woman sits in a candle-lit room, looking over old papers with ancient writing, as a black cat curls up at her feet. The band plays in a dim setting with very minimal lighting. The woman is seen carrying some sort of cauldron, and again reading tarot cards. The exchange of “beauty and the beast” vocals between vocalist Arianna Dheva (who is rocking a very cool-looking headdress!) and the guttural male voice of guitarist Robert Noir is accompanied by imagery of the video's main female character standing in the middle of a pentagram, casting a spell. The video continues to alternate between shots of the band, and the woman standing in the mist, chanting her spell. A man shows up with a giant snake at one point, and things involving this invocation seem to take a bad turn from there! I won't give away the ending, but perhaps the phrase “be careful what you wish for” might come to mind.

For more information on Caligatum, visit their official website.

Special thanks to Demas Miller.