The sophomore opus from the Maltese metal-monger Albert Bell's SACRO SANCTUS offers no quarter, forging a unique style of old school epic and primeval blackened heavy/doom metal. Expect a barrage of savage riffs, sometimes more on the doom, other times on the thrash side, intended especially for the initiated in the arcane paths of olde. Bell conjures references from a rich tapestry of hallowed sources such as VENOM, ROOT, TORR, NEMESIS, CELTIC FROST, SABBAT (UK), ATOMKRAFT, ZEMIAL, MORTUARY DRAPE, BATHORY, ANCIENT RITES, Abbath's I or SAINT VITUS. He has also become much more confident as a vocalist, exploring various styles of expression. Lyrically, the album picks up where the debut left off, charting the last crusades, the Templars' discovery of ancient hermetic texts, their persecution and executions, the curse of de Molay, and the infiltration into several secret societies by the surviving ones. "Ad Aeternum" is a brute, gauntlet-clad fist in the face of all hipster pretenders and trenders. None shall be spared!
