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Been a while since I got a Forgotten Tomb album to review, in fact the last time was the excellent Love's Burial Ground back in...2004? Shit, has it been that long? I missed their last disc, so I was keen to see what this odd band was up to.

I can't say this is a bad album, but it doesn't match the bleak atmosphere and melodic power of their older works. The depressive feel of older FT works has been traded in for a very accessible and catchy vibe that reminds me more of Amorphis or later Paradise Lost albums. There are still some great riffs on here, as the band still has an ear for sweeping, powerful melodies, but the production is too bright and poppy by half, and even the vocals have lost their edge. Far from the tortured wails of the old days, we get a rather bland melodeath rasp mixed in with some iffy clean vocals and a cringe-worthy goth moan.

On the one hand I kind of enjoy this album, as it is catchy and sometimes affecting, but then I remember that this is fucking Forgotten Tomb for fucks' sake and I get all depressed, and not in the suicidal way, I just get sad that a band that was once so uncompromising and nihilistic has become a wussed-out goth-rock version of itself.