Luca Turilli's Symphonia Ignus Divinus semi-review/experience thing
Nova Genesis (Ad Splendorem Angeli Triumphantis): Choirs split into male and female chanting passages from Psalm 68 and the Apocalypse of St John. Duke Nukem speaks Latin.
Il Cigno Nero: Starts off sounding like it's going to be slow-paced but quickly turns fast and choir-supported as well, with high notes from Alessandro Conti singing quite beautifully, but I have no idea what about because it's in Italian. The last passages of this, with heavenly choirs and trumpets, sound like what I'd expect from the final song on any album by a reasonable person.
Rosenkreuz (The Rose and the Cross): This was one of the singles released before, so I thought I would be prepared for this, but the choir of the apocalypse is still here and is now joined by a very active string section which gets its own solo.
Anahata: The first track not to feature any Latin. But what it does have is a glorious John Williams-styled orchestral beginning that turns into a mid-paced song without quite so many choirs (then again, this isn't saying much) but with an equally pompous horn section.
Il Tempo Degli Dei: The booklet quotes Jesus Christ. (Equally applicable: "The booklet quotes. Jesus Christ!") Like Il Cigno Nero, this is entirely in Italian, it's upbeat and wondrous and I have no idea what it's saying.
One Ring to Rule them All: Gollum!!! I can't tell if it's the Andy Serkis version from the films or just an impression of it, but it's Gollum and his precioussss. I seriously thought that this song was in Orcish or some other made up language, but it's actually entirely in English (the first track to have this honour) with enough layers on top of it to disguise it as such. It's what you'd expect, seven minutes of being absolutely stunned by the excess of it all.
Notturno: I think we're actually calming down a bit here. By this album's standards this is a fairly low-key performance, still full of orchestrations but slower and dare I say it, calmer.
Prometheus: No, that was just to make you think you were safe. We've already covered this - the lyrics hide a code that somebody managed to work out a part of, and that's that the pre-chorus lyrics encrypt a binary number that works out as 81, which the explanation tells us is the Perfectum Numerum Quem Noviem Novies Multiplacata Componiunt and invites us to use this as a starting point to decode the rest of the album. You absolute wankers.
King Solomon and the 72 Names of God: I seriously think this is in Yiddish or Hebrew or something. Possibly both. I don't even know if I can make intelligent commentary any more. Very technical track. I'll need to listen to this another twelve times before I can even process it.
Yggdrassil: There's so... much of everything. I don't know.
Of Michael the Archangel and Lucifer's Fall Part II: Codex Nemesis:
Chapter I: Codex Nemesis Alpha Omega: You...
Chapter II: Symphonia Ignis Divinus (The Quantum Gate Revealed): ...absolute...
Chapter III: The Astral ConvergenceL ...wankers.
Chapter IV: The Divine Fire of the Archangel: What?!
Chapter V: Of Psyche and Archetypes (System Overloaded): I seriously can't do this any more.
Thundersteel (Cinematic version): It is a bonus track.
You absolute wankers.
Ten out of ten.