The opener track hooked me quick has tonally it owes more to rock than metal, but it does work off a grim tension that is still explosive. The second song finds that this was not luck on the part of this Swedish band, but they are skilled weavers of sonic gloom, it's still punchy with a hint of 70s rock. The instrumentation is warmly recorded in analog. The retro thing is not the band trying too hard to capture a bygone era. While the press release got my attention by referencing both Beastmilk and In Solitude they do have a sound that is very much their own. At times like a more rock-oriented version of Rope Sect in terms of their sonic space, the vocals are more dynamics as the singer belts it out with a great deal of convincing power.
" I Am the Midnight" is consistent without being redundant. The verses on this one expands more to give the vocals room to breathe. "The Sky is Coming Down Again" has a more rock n roll groove. There are lots of epic guitar harmonies that mange to stay more haunting than epic. The more reckless mood that colors the up-tempo "Chronophobia" is more aggressive, but I prefer the less overt tension of the previous songs. Halfway into the song it slows into something darker that plays more to their strengths as a band. It is not a power ballad but there is a moodier shift to "And the Name of the Star Was Bitterness". If evolves into something more dynamic.
"Echoes of Decline" returns to the more wild running riffs. Not what I would call punk, but it does carry that kind of energy. This is not to say I only want these guys to contemplate in morbid reflection at all times, they prove on the last song they can drive with their foot on the gas as it is done with more of a gallop, not Mercyful Fate like, but driving in that direction. I will round this up to a 10 as the faster songs will grow on me. It scratches my dark rock itch, lets see how it holds up for the rest of the year,
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