THE DIVINE COMEDY

Despite the sub-par production of this album (I thought it was recorded live when I first heard it) it is an excellent piece of work that I always enjoy listening to from time to time. The singer's voice takes getting used to, for sure, but I don't mind it at all. The music is fantastic, the musicianship is high and there is both metal and melody in equal amounts.

"Inferno" is a sprawling, half-hour long track that is mostly excellent, but is not without it's lackluster moments. If the band had made it shorter it would have worked out much better, I feel, but all in all it is a great track (and I just love that riff when the heavy part first comes in at the beginning!)

"Purgatorio" is my favourite song on the album. Starting out with a beautiful intro, it only gets better, changing from driving prog-metal to symphonic neo-prog and back again. A very well executed song.

"Paradiso" is beautiful (as suggested by the title), and is a great way to end the album. Fantastic synths abound on this one, and there are some excellent guitar solos.

All in all, not a perfect album, but a very good one. If you like melodic prog-metal (and don't mind a heavily accented voice) you'll like this album!