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Opera IX have covered a lot of ground through their 30+ year career. Originally a Goth band, they made their mark in the '90s with an oddball female singer named Cadaveria, and were a kind of Death/Gothic hybrid before transitioning into a kind of Viking Metal sound and then on to full Black Metal. I have not liked an album by this crew since 2004's Amphisbena, which I thought was a bit disjointed but otherwise pretty good. Their last one I heard was Strix back in 2012, which was so unmemorable I forgot it existed until just now.

Opera IX seem to have locked into a sound somewhere around old Emperor or Dimmu Borgir—a very '90s sound of harsh Black Metal accented by plentiful keys and a dramatic songwriting sense that kind of recalls their goth days. It really is a retro sound these days, and it's actually kind of cool. This sounds more like an album recorded in 1997, composition-wise, than any kind of modern work. The production is much better this time out, with a better guitar tone and much better drumming. Vocalist Dipsas Dianaria is just kind of there, with a hollow rasp that gets the job done but nothing more than that. Overall I like this album way more than I ever expected to.