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Rating: In 2001, Adagio was born, in French territory, and thanks to these excellent musicians, "Sanctus Ignis" was released, an album that blends various musical genres, primarily progressive and power metal. Identified as a meeting point between our own Labyrinth and the all-American Symphony X, our musicians present us with 10 delightful tracks in which the prog component prevails above all others, resulting in a sound that may seem cold to many, as technique often overrides emotions in several passages. Let's analyze each song one by one.
The album opens with "Second Sight", a song that immediately showcases the technical qualities of the group's five members: the song navigates prog/power realms, with Stephan Forté's guitars setting the rule throughout the piece. The numerous tempo and key changes of the excellent vocalist, along with a beautiful atmosphere, make the 6 minutes and 7 seconds pass very quickly. Track number 2 is represented by "The Inner Road", an excellent song beginning with a very fast and precise guitar solo: the structure of the song is varied and complex, with very high and top-level vocal peaks and impressive keyboards. The only note is on the drums, which, in my opinion, uses the cymbals too little in favor of perhaps excessive double-bass patterns. "In Nomine", the third song, is certainly the strangest track on the album, as it opens with a very peculiar keyboard with a vaguely medieval flavor: however, when all the instruments join in, the song becomes much more aggressive, also thanks to an organ with a rather dark sound; this time tempo changes are less frequent, in favor of greater linearity in structure. Splendid guitar solo towards the end of the song. The 4th song, and again the presence of an organ, but this time it does not help make "The Stringless Violin" a representative song. Considered somewhat the weak point of the album, the song is still appreciable regarding the vocal lines and the very pleasant central guitar solo. We come to the album's longest song: "The Seven Lands Of Sin", a beautiful song that proves to be aggressive in some parts and more evocative in others, utilizing its length to unleash various tempo changes, solos, and technical prowess, among which the best seem to be those executed by the piano. "Order Of Enil" is another of the album's strong pieces, presenting itself as an aggressive piece rich in tempo changes where the guitar once again "reigns": completely instrumental, the track flows pleasantly and lightly. The seventh track, also the title track, seems to me the least incisive song on the album, presenting as a fairly classic and predictable prog/power piece, which remains a good song but nothing more. We return to intense action with "Panem Et Circenses", certainly the best song of the lot, spectacular and dark, the song flows with pleasure, and among tempo changes and dark, almost gothic keyboards, the singer offers a truly deep and heartfelt vocal performance. "Immigrant Song" presents itself once again as an excellent song, but this time much closer to power territories, with double bass roaring everywhere and guitar solos galore. The 4 minutes and 54 seconds of instrumentals unfortunately go by excessively fast and lead us to the album's outro "Message To Stephan Forté", a track which unfortunately feels as unfinished as Schubert's (for clarification, the one that opens Angel's Cry by Angra).
So we have reached the end of the album, which, although not a record that will go down in metal history, presents itself as a high-quality product with excellent production and an excellent performance by all band members, except for an almost absence of the bass.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Second Sight (06:07)
I foresee ages of chaos,
But my ordeal has yet just started
For these ominous signs,
Are bound to plague me
Haunt for centuries to come,
My healing incantations
Are destined for failure
My unremitting warnings and threats
Will go unheeded, such is my curse.
Why should it be incumbent upon me
To redeem their faults ?
You, The one who spurns the past
Are now, But worthy to be last.
Thy choices are errors;
I shall thus abandon thou
To thy gloomy fate.
I can see the future
In the light of the past.
I cannot stop this ineluctable doom
From raining over the world.
Alas, this obnoxious portend
Will turn out to be abiding truth.
From time immemorial,
Man has taken refuge in oblivion.
They've exchanged there future
for the present enjoyment.
Nothing will change, History has set
Her implacable march into motion.
There will be no escape.
You, The one who spurns the past
Are now, But worthy to be last.
Thy choices are errors;
I shall thus abandon thou
To thy gloomy fate.
03 In Nomine... (05:05)
Your grace was the key to cast our sins.
In a world of sorrow and despair
So that one day we'll jin him
Rise eternal filled prayer
Ave Maria
The voice, of thou Forever
In our hearts
we rejoice your sacred words.
Betrayed by the victims of desire
On an endless journeyto paradise
If you obey this evil,
Your reward will be sacrifice.
Ave Maria
The voice, of thou Forever
In our hearts
we will pray for all of our sins
Ave Maria
The voice, of thou Forever
In our hearts
we rejoice your sacred words.
Ave Maria
The voice, of thou Forever
In our hearts
we will pray for all of our sins
05 Seven Lands of Sin (11:42)
Golden Tears
Form from my eyes,
The blast of sand on my face
Marks the beginning of my punishment.
But now it is too late to regret.
Wandering the labyrinth of tears
Scaling the pyramids of despair,
The gods have now decided my fate
I have to go through the seven lands of sin.
The breath of air
Gets heavier and heavier.
My body and soul
Are torn apart in turn.
Beholding the infernal ballet
Of the roaring elements
I'm left facing my fate
Like a helpless slave.
Wandering the labyrinth of tears
Scaling the pyramids of despair,
The gods have now decided my fate
I have to go through the seven lands of sin.
Encounter with the Wind God
I yearn for conquest and blood
Once again I become a warrior
I shall not put up
With this sanction without rising up
Only blood will tell, pure or tainted,
Whose decision, will go unheeded.
The chaotic power of steel
Has just marked its boundary.
I fall, overwhelmed with pain,
Evil shall never prevail again.
Eternal Downfall
My agony shall linger
I beg for no mercy;
the six remaining lands of sin
That's where I'll wander
Bound with rage and dignity.
08 Panem et Circences (05:22)
All we've done is provide them
With food and mindless entertainment;
They easily renounced their liberty.
Hence deprived of will of their own,
Lobotomised, forced into docility,
They were turned
into obsequious slaves.
We've tacitly accepted
this preposterous situation
In the name of that
accursed social cohesion
Now they will tolerate no subversion
Retaliation is out, of the question.
They've insidiously concealed the truth
Ostensibly in the cause of Equality:
We've been coaxed into lethal apathy,
Desperately clinging to an abject safety.
Loathing our predicament
in this inimical world,
Stultified, we are unable to regain
our blighted hopes.
We've tacitly accepted
this preposterous situation
In the name of that
accursed social cohesion
Now they will tolerate no subversion
Retaliation is out, of the question.
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