Prog Power Metal Italian band STARBYNARY chooses Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedyas the setting of their second record, two years after its sophomore "Dark Passenger", released via Revalve Records. For those not used to Italian literature just a quick refresh to introduce the central themes of this concept album. Divine Comedy is an allegoric poem written in the XIII century by Dante Alighieri, considered one of the fathers of modern Italian language, telling his allegoric voyage from Hell to Heaven, passing through Purgatory. These three "Canticas" are different both in place setting and mood: the one this record is about, Inferno (Hell), sees the protagonist starting his journey lost in a dark forest by the gates of Hell and climbing his way up to salvation. Although probably unrequested, this literature lesson is necessary to understand how this LP is structured and laid out: the 11 songs take lyrical materials from 14 out of 34 cantos which compose Dante's Inferno. Lyrics are actually a mix of English paraphrase of extracts from the cantos and translation of original quotes from the poem.

The band sound is a sleek modern prog metal, with a good balance between technique and theatricality and no excessive use of solos and lead breaks, always well laid out and not too verbose. Although Joe Caggianelli's English may be perfectible and may make English listeners turn up their nose a bit, his voice hits the target in transmitting the right dark feeling of the lonely travel through hell, in which Dante is guided only by Virgil: in the same way STARBYNARY lead us from the opening The Dark Forest, highlighting both the band musical skills and songwriting, to the Gate of Hell, in which we witness Joe's vocal extension, accompanied by soprano Bea Sinigaglia. As the band wisely often does throughout the album, ballad In Limbo takes the variety and complexity of Dante's original material, characterized by sudden changes in the mood and soul of the protagonist, as a starting point to give the song an alternate pace - growing from keyboards into piano, seems to be on the verge of collapsing, stops and relaxes and finally explodes into a foreseen burst of emotion. Paolo e Francesca well translates into music, thanks to Accardo's keyboards and touching vocals, the love that will curse both lovers into eternal damnation. "Medusa and the Angel" is the most power track of the album, with bursting drums well blended with piano and guitar, before growing into alternated choruses.

"Stars" 11mins gothic power suite in which we run through dark spurts of power metal, orchestral hiatuses brutally raped by quick restarts and power mid tempos, dominated by theatrical vocals, leads us out to "forever leave hell rising to the heavens, eyes towards the blue to return to the bright world / turn my back to pain aiming to the everlasting love fill my heart with light like a sky full of stars" and to the end of this 1 hour and 7 mins journey. While a musical translation of Dante Alighieri opus may seem impossible, STARBYNARY achieve the first step in their difficult trilogy, resulting in a must have for power and prog lovers, but also an enjoyable listening for those, although with different tastes, can spot a technically and musically cured release, with an impeccable production. See you in Purgatory!