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I have been a defender of Falchion since their demo days, and despite what other people thought, I liked their debut Legacy Of Heathens quite a lot. That's why this album is kind of a let-down, as this is not nearly as good as their past work. It's not terrible, but it lacks something.

Some of the riffs on here are just as good as on the last album, and a lot of the guitar work is quite impressive, but the songwriting overall is not up to the same level. A lot of these songs seem to have kind of the same speed and background rhythm, so a feel of sameness creeps in as you listen to one song after another. The production is okay, but the mixer should be shot, as the vocals are way too loud, burying the music constantly, and the guitars are too dry and in the background. This is a much more Death Metal styled album, with the 'drums-and-vocals-are-TOO-LOUD' mix of a lot of bad DM albums. It gives the whole album a much more Gothenburg feel, which is not good at all. The songs seem to sort of plod along, wasting the solid folky guitar work without creating much excitement. Also, Falchion seem to have ditched the pagan lyrical themes for more generic subjects, and it renders them more generic as a band.

This isn't worthless, and I'm not writing this band off for good, but this is a step back from their strong debut, and they are in danger of becoming just another melodeath band in a very crowed scene. I have hopes that Falchion can come back around and be cool again.