This has always been a weird band, starting with their old Nile/Behemoth sound jazzed up with unconventional songwriting, and they have been getting more experimental ever since. This third album shows them still refusing to be held down by genre expectations, and also still not managing to produce music as good as on their debut.
This has the same bellowing, echoing sound, heavy riffs, and inventive compositions, but the vocal approach here ranges from acceptable to, well, un-acceptable. Rather than standard death growls all the way through (which are good when they are used) this album often relies on spoken-word muttering like a bad poetry slam, or a kind of yelled monotone that is just painful to sit through. I always appreciate when bands refuse to be locked into a formula, but sometimes experiments don't work out like you wanted.
