This one caught me by surprise. A massive third album from this band, who have only been recording for about three years, and it is one of the sharpest, snappiest, most impressive albums I have heard this year. Now I need to go back and hunt up their first two albums, because this is really high-quality stuff here, and I want more of it.

Sarayasign remind me of the mid-aughts upswell of Scandinavian Prog/Power bands like Communic. Scariot, Pagan's Mind, Circus Maximus, and Anubis Gate. Now, this band does not go as much in for showy playing, but the overall sound is a similar kind of sharp, crisp playing, hooky melodies, and compositions that have a lot of twists and turns, never seeming to run out of new things to keep you interested. The riffing is smart and tight, the lead work is often impressive, and the gloss of the songwriting is just indicative of a band who know exactly what the fuck they are doing. One does not often hear professionalism like this from such new bands.

Singer Stefan Nykvist is another powerful asset to this band, as he is an almost dead ringer for Jorn Lande—to the point where I kept checking to make sure it was not Jorn Lande. He has the same kind of unerring feel for vocal melodies and the same gritty muscularity under the smooth tone. He frankly just sounds fantastic on every moment of this album, and he elevates what is already good into genuine greatness. It's been years since I heard a band do this kind of thing, let alone do it this well. If you miss albums like Andromeda Unchained or Isolate, then you should not miss this one.