Blut Aus Nord never just sit back and crank shit out, they always change things up and do something different, challenging themselves and their audience. I don't know of a single other band of this longevity and stature that so consistently pushes to try new artistic forms and sounds. Not all of these experiments bear fruit, but that's how it is when you are pushing the envelope, and they always have remained a metal band, no matter what else they may try, and that means something these days.

This is compositionally dense, even if the overall sound is rather laid back and melodic, with a lot of development of the ideas and themes that grow and build and change and resolve. There's a real maturity to the songwriting you don't get from a lot of bands, with layers and layers of sound and melody and meaning all stacked up, creating a soundscape that has a tremendous amount of detail. On first listen you might not hear much of this, and this is definitely an album that asks for and rewards closer attention. If you just put it on while you do something else, it will blur by and not leave a mark, but if you delve in, you will find yourself in a moody, multifaceted world of depth and beauty that's not afraid of the borderlands of genre. A very fine album.