You can always count on these guys to not conform to your expectations of black metal, as they have even drifted off into progressive before. They start the album off with clean vocals, before blasting you with the more typical trappings of black metal. The second song finds the synths coming forward in the mix. The sung vocals also lead the way here creating a more Arcturus feel at times. There might be more double bass in this one than blast beats. By the time we get to "Curse you , Entropia" the sprawling prog jam is beginning to sprawl out and is less definable as a song, and becomes more of a jam.
"The Blue Dot" finds the sung vocals creating more of a mainstream metal formula. It swells to a more grandiose dynamic proportion. The spaceship really takes off on "the Road to Awe" It seems like it just going to fly off into the great blue prog yonder, but it recoils back into a heavier dynamic, not going to say it's black metal, though they have solidified their status with that genre enough already. They are just not paying by the rules, more should they. How's that for gatekeeping? Just because you make music in one genre does not mean you can not be expansive. The problem with metal these days is you have straight-up pop bands trying to market themselves as metal. These guys have not forgotten where they came from.
"Ludwig in Orbit' is just an odd interlude. It feels more like the intro to the title track that closes the album. Things erupt with a ringing sonic style of blast beats, that are brighter than stormy. It gives way to the buzzing tremolo guitar that is used in a more ambient fashion. The song eventually just fade out into buzzing and bleeps. I will give this album a 9, it's heavy enough and black metal enough to balance out the more ambitious foibles.
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