Circle VII: Sins Of The Lion

This is a track from the North Carolina post hardcore band Alesana's fourth album, A Place Where The Sun Is Silent. The LP is a sonic interpretation of Dante Alighieri's 14th century poem Inferno, which itself is the first part of his epic work The Divine Comedy.

At 62 minutes, the album is the band's longest to date. Vocalist-guitarist Shawn Milke told Noisecreep that this was because they had a lot to say. He explained: "We did and we had the characters on the record to write to, so the story is what it is – we were not about to mess around with Dante's Inferno, [laughs]. As far as squeezing a lot of music onto an album, the eye opener for me was the album Colors by Between the Buried and Me. It was more than an hour long, which was such a bold thing to do. I remember hearing that and thinking, don't ever compromise your music just because of length. Do what's right for the music. That's an amazing record that really changed how I look at things."

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet from Florence. The Divine Comedy, an imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, is generally considered the greatest poem of the Middle Ages. Written by Dante in the Tuscany dialect, it was only completed a few months before his death. So successful was Dante's work that the Tuscany dialect became the standard language of Italy.