SANCTUS IGNIS

Having been satisfied with the "Underworld" album, my journey to Adagio's music continues with "Sanctus Ignis" - the band's debut album in 2001. To my surprise, I also enjoy this album very much. Now I understand why my colleague metal friend Michelle told me long time ago that the band named as ADAGIO was a great and I thought that it must had been a metal band. Why? I heard the name of the band from a friend who is a metal head. He always talk about metal bands - of course including Dream Theater, Kamelot, Stratovarious and Yngwie Malmsteen.

My first spin of "Sanctus Ignis" just started, I think, about a month ago when I made a decision to ride a bicycle to work. Well, nothing matter actually for most people but it meant something for me. The first day I biked to work was started while listening to the full album of "Sanctus Ignis" and I did enjoy it very well. My journey of approx 50 KM (home - office - home) knew nothing on being tired or bored with the journey, even it made it fruitful and entertaining. Especially, I used a decent Senheizer earphone with a good audio quality that made my PDA MP3 player transmitted great quality. Of course, I did not enjoy this album only while biking. I did spin it also at home to get full enjoyment of the album.

Why liking this album?

There are many reasons on why I like this album very much despite the fact that this kind of music can be heard with bands like Symphony X, Kamelot, Yngwie Malmsteen, etc. Well, what I can tell you is that Adagio music is much grandiose than the others especially on combining the orchestra into their power metal style. I elaborate the reasons on liking this album as follows:

Power. Oh yeah . this album has "power" to elevate your emotion - well, it does happen with me in many occasion. There is no such thing as mellow track offered by Adagio throughout the contents of this album. All tracks full with energy and they flow nicely from opening track "Second Sight" right way through to bonus track "Niflheim". When I heard the opening track "Second Sight" my pulse ran faster than normal rate and my emotion boosted like a rocket. I feel like I'm running to my final destiny of life. It's very captivating right from the intro part, interlude of guitar solo by the band's leader Stephan Forté. Oh yes, of course there are some transition pieces where the music take curve lines into softer part with a very nice (and wonderful!) clavinet work like in approx minute 5:29. Oh my God . I like this music break! It continues beautifully with great guitar solo and powerful riffing of second track "The Inner Road" (5:45) where my pulse run even faster now because the music is more energetic. The peak of all power the music of this album produces is when the album title track is being played. Oh man .. It's so powerful and it serves as true pulse accelerator for me. This title track might be considered as normal power metal tune but it has great melody and wonderful interlude parts with classical touch and stunning guitar solo. Oh, I almost forget, that this also has powerful riffing!!!

Neat Composition. Power itself does not mean anything for me if the music is not neatly composed and put in an excellent arrangement. Fortunately, Adagio seems masterful on this issue because all of the nine tracks of this album are neatly composed. Bravo Stephan! And remember . this is just the beginning of the band's career and they demonstrated their capability already to the progressive metal world that they can compose excellent music. Why I say so is because of throughout the music Adagio offers many great subtleties that are lumped together nicely into the music. This includes how the band combines orchestral parts into different movements of the music. Of important notice is the band's interpretation of Led Zeppelin's legendary song "Immigrant Song" which the band takes instrumental approach to express their interpretation. Oh man, this is one of great covers that I ever encounter in rock music world. Adagio takes different approach in melody of the song and only maintains the riffs. The interlude part with eastern nuance plus violin work is truly amazing!

Melody. This wraps up everything required for an excellent music. If I got power and neat composition without excellent melody, it's gonna be a catastrophe for me. But that is NOT the case with this album. Each individual has its own nice melody that makes the music flows naturally and beautifully without any little flaw. The band has combined all the elements nicely: power, composition and melody so that the result is very captivating. Imagine if the band only sings the melody without good arrangement and necessary power (to add "drive") - it's gonna be a "dull" music. Even with the simple melody like track 3 "In Nomine ." (5:04), it tends to be boring. But the band has brilliantly added the classical touches and orchestration, plus excellent guitar and keybord works. It becomes so wonderful.

Why (you are) NOT liking this album?

Even though I appreciate this album highly, it might not fit your tastes. I try to figure out things that might not favor you for liking this album. First, if you do not enjoy any music with metal parts / influenced, you'd better not to buy this CD. Second, if your tastes so far are revolving around symphonic prog music like old King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, it's gonna be difficult for you to accept (and therefore appreciate) this album fairly. Third, you might be an Yngwie Malmsteen fan and feel getting bored with what so called neo-classical metal. Fourth, you want to hear something new because this kind music is not invented by Adagio. There were bands that did similar things before Adagio.

For me personally, this album deserves five stars rating. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Share this ADAGIO review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Gatot
• Report this review (#110650)
• Buy ADAGIO music online with PA partners
• Show all ADAGIO MP3/Stream
• Go to ADAGIO page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Sanctus Ignis page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ADAGIO related discussions