RIITIIR

I was very impressed when I first heard the album and thought it must be Enslaved masterpiece. Then I listed to their discography multiple times to understand how the band developed, matured. It goes beyond saying that Enslaved got more and more progressive after 2000'. They have also slowly abandoned the darkness or evilness of the first records. The poppy/rock section heard in the 3-rd minute on the first track "Thoughts like hammers" would be unacceptable on any album prior to 2005. Yes, Enslaved opened up like a flower to embrace more accessible rock elements like clean vocals and harmonies and also maintain complexity - to a certain extent being instrumental - but to a more extent in the compositional avenues. Each track here, albeit quite long, has numerous ideas, suprising development and no classic pop/rock chorus/verse structure. Tracks are memorable, well constructed, matured. Growling and black/death-metal are heavy but do not sound as convincing as in the past, simply because they are mixed with progressive music or lack the atmospheric element. All tracks are at least of average quality and better but let me name the last one that has irresistible post-rock and doom-metal spirit, something you will get immersed in.

This album is highly recommended to any fans of progressive heavy extreme music.