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I thought I had the previous albums by Acerus, but strangely, I don't. Oh well. The Caliginous Serenade is packed with melodic heavy metal that packs a lot of crunch and occasionally comes off sounding pretty epic, with a sound reminiscent of modern epic heavy metal bands. And that's it right there. While practically everything labelled "heavy metal" that comes across my desk lately is more of the '80s revival variety (which is fine), Acerus' sound is much more modern (and by that I don't mean the modern garbage that's often labelled as "modern metal," which is code for "the suck") and doesn't trigger the nostalgic vibe, rather giving hope for the future of heavy metal bands and showing you can play the genre without being too stuck in the past and, above all, not resorting to incorporating garbage in their sound just to do something different. The music is very melodic for the most part, but there's also a lot of speed and aggression and those guitars sure hit the right spot on several occasions. The vocals are clean and, while I'm not fond of some of the vocal melodies, especially in the first few songs, for the most part the singer does a great job of delivering the goods. I wasn't especially sold on the album on the first couple of listens, but eventually the good stuff got more noticeable, and I've been listening to it on a daily basis, often a few times in a row. If you need a break from revival bands or just want some really good heavy metal, this album should be just what the doctor ordered.