Doomed Confessionary: Dario Vicariotto (IV Sigillo)
IV Sigillo (Quarto Sigillo) was born in northern Italy at the end of 2021 from the ashes of the epic doom metal band Thunderstorm, from which they inherited the rhythm section with Omar Roncalli on bass and Attilio Coldani on drums. They were joined by Emiliano Cioffi, the voice on the first two albums of the doom metal band Epitaph and previously with All Souls’ Day. The line-up was completed with Dario Vicariotto, the axeman of the heavy/speed metal band Menace.
The band got down to working on their debut album soon after. Almost all tracks started from a bass line and keyboards parts recorded at Omar’s house. Attilio boosted them with thundering drums, Emiliano charged them with his charismatic voice, and finally, Dario added his dramatic guitars.
IV Sigillo have just released their debut album »Quarto Sigillo« on April 25th, 2025 via Metal On Metal Records. A must for fans of Epitaph and Thunderstorm, as well as those into The Black, Paul Chain Violet Theatre, Black Hole, L’Impero Delle Ombre, Black Oath, Witchfield, Black Sabbath, Legionem and Sesta Marconi.
Can you please say a few words about your band?
IV Sigillo includes former members coming from different Italian bands. Attilio (drums) and Omar (bass) are from Thunderstorm, a cult doom band active since the 1990s.
So this project is close to their roots. Same path for Emiliano (vocals): he joined All Souls Day and Epitaph, both historical doom bands. About myself, Dario (guitar), in late 90’s I founded MenacE, a classic metal band. IV Sigillo proposal is actually very different from MenacE stuff, but I always loved the typical Italian dark sound of the 80s/90s and Paul Chain has always been an idol of mine as much as Tony Iommi. So, for me this one is a great opportunity to play a music that I strongly love. To play this “magical” and occult music you need a specific character, I think.
Omar and Attilio gave birth to the band after the Thunderstorm adventure ended. We met each other coincidentally thanks to mutual friends who gravitate to the musical environment (webzine editors and other musicians).
We are living in different areas of northern Italy, however the experience and passion for this genre ensured that the feeling between us was immediate and was easy to find a common way bulding our proposal.
The musical direction, in terms of style, lyrics and genre, is not entirely defined and determined yet. There is room to explore again in the future. Surely the base mood of our music is focused to evoke mystery and gloomy pictures.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
The biggest hurdle is to live so faraway each other, as previously said. Luckily nowadays the technology helps a lot sharing ideas and stuff to work on and it’s easy make a video call in order to discuss both the artistic and management band aspects.
The most important challenge, however, is to be able to produce a music that is interesting and enticing avoiding to litterally make a copy of seminal bands but at the same time respecting those musical aspects and “colors” that are peculiar in the musical genre we love. In fact talking about originality today almost makes no sense, unless if by originality you mean some strange mixture of things that already exist.
Therefore, the artistic challenge is to not fall into the obvious while remaining somehow ‘traditional’.
What can you be most proud of so far?
The cohesion between us, no doubt. We have been playing together for a short time, but the contribution and commitment on everyone’s part has led to a result, our first album, of which we are very proud and satisfied.
We recorded the album playing basically live in the studio. Perhaps it was an uncomfortable choice , but it is what we wanted.
We are very satisfied with both the hard work in producing the album and the people feedback to the gigs done so far. Few gigs to be honest, we hope to play more accordingly the album releasing.
What was your biggest regret?
The fact that we didn’t meet each other before! 😀
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
So far, we have played live 6 gigs in Italy and 1 gig in Germany, always getting very good feedback. Personally, the best was the first one in september 2023 at an independent festival in Italy (Metalburg), where we played our songs for the first time, still unknown to everyone.
To receive appreciation and good vibes from an audience who had never seen us before was great: priceless!
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
No big surprises…
Most likely it’s due to the fact that many of my heroes are now in their old age but nevertheless still go on very long tours and still give great performances and excitement.
I am always amazed and surprised by that.
In the music area the surprises are unfortunately negative. I am surprised by how the productions are so aseptic and computerised. On many albums I feel like robots are playing on them. I am also surprised by the fact that many fans enjoy this music that has been faked in some way to obtain a result that is powerful and crystal-clear, but artefactual and tasteless.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Recently I’m not listening to much music. Mainly music I composed for the bands I play and compose in. I’m using to listen to music by underground bands, to attend their gigs and to buy and listening their albums.
However, in my “music zones” there’s always Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin ready to play hahaha.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
“Raise the mids” and “pay attention where you throw off your money!”.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Spending my money on old guitars. Watching and re-watching old horror movies. Reading old comic books. Reading old books. Playing old video games. Going to see concerts performed by old bands. Hanging out with old friends. Riding my old motorbikes. Listening to old records…
These are what I can tell you. The rest is secret!
Sins must never be confessed…
Can you say something more about the current music scene in Vicenza?
Speaking about the area were I live, Vicenza province (Veneto, northern Italy), I can see bands performing every weekend. In Vicenza there are many good bands playing many different genres, very skilled in live shows. I can say that the musical scene, not only in Vicenza, is healthy. The problem it’s that most likely there are more bands than venues where they can perform.
Venues are often structurally unfit to host a concert. Live clubs, on the other hand, are too big or too expensive.
This is probably the main problem: one well-run venue can give birth to a whole scene in a city but unfortunately, the Venue’s owners-managers have a different approach and point of view.
In Italy there is no shortage of concerts. Furthermore I use to go also around Europe attending Metal Fest. The scene is alive but… for how much longer? Without a doubt the thing I notice is the rise in the average age of the audience. Rock has now become a subject for specialists and die-hard fans.
Actually, big events are often attended by casual people who often only superficially know the band they are going to see.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Our first album has been just released and we are planning some gigs. The imminent one was at Church Of Crow Fest May 2nd, where we shared the stage with so many brilliant bands!
What are your plans for the future as a band?
As all bands, our aim is to produce good music and perform as much as possible.
The music on the first album was born without haste and we worked on it until it seemed to be perfect to us. The modus operandi will be the same for future productions and… we already wrote some stuff!
How can people best support your band?
People can support us in the same old ways: spread the word, buy merch and our music (CD and via all most common platforms) and of course come to our concerts.
Our task is to give them good reasons why this has to happen.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
The message is the following: come to see us when we play in your city.
I am sure you will not be disappointed! I would also like to encourage you to support the bands you like and you think are worthy. The world moves fast and many of the things we like today may disappear or it may not be so easy to find them anymore.
Music has been very important to me in my life and I think it has been for you too. It is something we could never renounce. Going to see musicians performing is a great pleasure and the energy and, possibly, the support you can give to these artists is a great value and really important.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well