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This one is long-awaited. I was rather underwhelmed by 2011's Redemption at the Puritan's Hand, as while it had some very strong songs and a good vocal performance, the production was weak and sucked all the fury and fire out of the guitars. This is the eighth studio album from a great band, and I am glad that it makes up for lost ground and stands as a powerful return to form.

The opener and title track is a massive, riff-driven fist in the face, and it sets the tone really well. This album has a good mix of pummelling workouts of metallic fury like "The Seed of Tyrants", which is one of the faster songs Primordial have done in a decade. But the majority of the songs are at the epic mid-pace we expect from this band. The guitars sound big and raw, and while they may not wield the incredible shades of sound to be heard on To The Nameless Dead, they still sound deep and heavy and up front.

So while this does not quite hit the highs of Spirit the Earth Aflame or The Gathering Wilderness, it is still a step up from the band's last album, and proves that Primordial are far from done. Darker, harder, and more intellectual, this has lost some of the band's visceral impact, but it remains dense, serious, and powerful stuff.