Giuseppe Cialone, performing under the name Sommo Inquisitore ("Supreme Inquisitor"), formed his eponymous band in 2020. Influenced by such acts as HELL and KING DIAMOND, SOMMO INQUISITORE meld their classic brand of metal with ancient, traditional Italian music. The band's debut, "Anno Mille" ("Year 1000" or "1000 AD"), released May 14, 2021 by Metal Resistance is described as an epic journey through the dark times of the Middle Ages; touching on themes of war and torture, plague and witchcraft, faith and obscurantism, religion and superstition.

Sommo Inquisitore, who hails from Tivoli, Italy, performs the entirety of the album in Italian and Latin. As he told this web magazine's general manager Lior Stein in a mid-June interview, he writes and sings in these languages because he can't really speak English and is best able to catch lyrical nuances in his native tongue (see www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/musicians/sommo-inquisitore.htm for the full interview). To this end, though I barely understood a word on the album, take my word for it when I say that Italian and Latin lend themselves quite well to metal.

"Anno Mille," the album's opener begins with a dark, heavy repeating line before gradually picking up pace. Sommo Inquisitore's vocals mirror the mood of the song, conveying foreboding. The chorus is grand and the interaction of voices on the track a particular highlight. "Pestilentia" ("fever, infectious or contagious disease, pestilence, plague") starts with the tolling of bells and the sound of wooden cart wheels rolling on the street. After a brief acoustic lead-in, the composition evidences some of the trappings of speed metal played with classical styling. The song has a great intertwining of musical lines and Andrea Matei plays one of his many first-rate guitar solos on the album.

"Torquemada" is an ominous homage of sorts to Tomas de Torquemada, the Castilian Dominican friar and first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition whose name has become synonymous with cruelty. Opening with a melody that carries through the number, Sommo Inquisitore's singing has a nasty streak. "Malleus Maleficaurm" ("Hammer of Witches") refers to the 1486 treatise on witchcraft which advocates torture to obtain confessions and death as the remedy for perceived sorcery. The track is hard hitting from the start, displaying a bit of discordance that relays confusion and unsettledness. At times, Sommo Inquistore's vocals are in back of the musical lines to good effect. Matei does another outstanding job handling the guitar solo.

"Angele De La Barthe" is played as somewhat of an ode to a woman tried for witchcraft and considered by some to be the first person put to death for sorcery during the Inquisition. The song is gentle, almost angelic with church-like vocal stylings during the first few minutes. Its gentleness gives way to a darker, angrier tonality before returning to the way it began. "La Danza Delle Streghe" ("The Dance of Witches") is a galloping a track, having a bit lighter melody than all the preceding songs. Matei's pick slide is a perfect transition into the meat of the number, which switches between rollicking and heavy, harder passages.

"La Mano Di Dio" ("The Hand of God") has a speed metal sensibility, somewhat celebratory at times. "Tortura" ("torment, torture") starts with what sounds like the moans of agony as someone is stretched on the rack. Despite the weightiness of the subject matter, the song's repeating melody is catchy and percussive accents by Piero Anrioni striking. Props to Sommo Inquisitore for a very sinister laugh.

I might not know Italian or Latin, but I can read history and am cognizant of musical tone and emotion. As such, though I couldn't understand the lyrics, I was, for the most part, able to comprehend what Sommo Inquisitore was trying to convey vocally and musically (what do they say about music being a universal language?). "Anno Mille" is metal as performance, metal as opera; ideal for when the listener wants to indulge in something more artistic and contemplative.