Style: Atmospheric black/doom metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: eight hymns that celebrate the destruction of all things
Thoughts: "I raised this stone as a ghastly memorial!" If there was a thesis to this entire album then that declaration is it. The entire album has been raised as a ghastly memorial.
There have been several major changes to the band's approach on this album. The first and most drastic is the production. Instead of the murky production of the first two albums, now every instrument is clear as day. The second is the increased role of keyboards in the music.
Where the first two albums had keyboards added in for atmosphere, most of the time the guitars handled most of the melodies. Here the keyboards play a major part in not only the atmosphere but the melodic portion as well, especially when the music falls more into the doom territory.
While both of these changes feel like they should create a fundamental change in the music's atmosphere, I'm not convinced that it does. The music is still as evil and suffocating as it always was in the past, maybe even more so with the inclusion of the increased role of keyboards. Either way, the album marks the first major shift in the band's style, and I for one consider it a positive change.
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