In the list of world literary giants, Italian poet Dante Aligheiri would have to rank pretty high. The 13th century scribe is generally credited with creating the modern Italian language in his massive work "The Divine Comedy," which detailed Dante's fictional travels through heaven, hell and purgatory. As incredibly imaginative as Dante was, I doubt if he could have ever imagined that his works would inspire an album by a Brazilian thrash metal band in the 21st century.

That's just what we have here. "The Divine Comedy" is a surprising and ambitious choice of inspiration for Sepultura, who have had little respect since the acrimonious departure of their former front man Max Cavalera in the early 1990's. Strangely enough, the unorthodox subject matter has resulted in Sepultura's best album since the mighty "Chaos A.D." many moons ago. "Dante XII" is a lean and mean thrash beast that clocks in at just under 40 minutes, showing admirable restraint for a concept album. With the exception of final track "Still Flame," every song is focused and to the point, hammering the listener with razor-sharp aggression.

Sepultura has never been afraid of adding new touches to their sound and this album sees the addition of classical instrumentation like strings and horns to certain tracks. Once again, they are very judicious in using these instruments, never overwhelming the guitars and drums. The classical touches embellish the record, they don't dominate it. The band does not reinvent themselves completely here, as any fan of their recent work will enjoy Dante XXI, but they do sound much more intense and focused than they have been. I'm not sure what Dante Aligheiri would have made of this, but I'm guessing Joe Metal-head will eat it up with a spoon.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2006 Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.