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Graveland is no news to me, but I had never heard of Commander Agares before this. This split is album length, so there’s plenty to enjoy here. Graveland stick to the epic/folkish sound that they’ve been producing for quite a few years already, not the rawer black metal of their early years, so there are no surprises, though the songs are definitely cool. Well, I say no surprises, but the first song has some passages early on that strangely remind me of Russia’s Imperial Age, a symphonic metal band. I can’t help but stop whatever I’m doing whenever that comes on. Commander Agares was more interesting to me since I didn’t know them. They’ve got that epic feel, but the songs are also "more black metal" and faster, more brutal than what Graveland propose on this split. Those who like harsher stuff are bound to like this "side" more than the other one. Nothing especially original, just pretty much all well executed and the songs from both bands flow pretty well despite the differences in genres and delivery.