| 4.5 superb |
| Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill |
| Akira Yamaoka Silent Hill 3 |
| Amesoeurs Amesoeurs |
| Anaal Nathrakh The Codex Necro |
| Anaal Nathrakh Vanitas |
| Anaal Nathrakh Endarkenment |
| Animals As Leaders Parrhesia |
| Archspire Bleed the Future |
| Bic Runga Beautiful Collision |
| Bloodbath Resurrection Through Carnage |
| Bloodbath Grand Morbid Funeral |
| Blotted Science The Machinations of Dementia |
| Cocteau Twins Iceblink Luck |
| Daniel Avery Drone Logic |
| Dark Funeral Attera Totus Sanctus |
| Dark Funeral Angelus Exuro pro Eternus |
| Dark Tranquillity Atoma |
| Dark Tranquillity Of Chaos and Eternal Night |
| Dark Tranquillity Moment |
| Dawn Nær sólen gar niþer for evogher |
| Decapitated The Negation |
| Decapitated Organic Hallucinosis |
| Dismember Death Metal |
| Dismember Massive Killing Capacity |
| Earth Rot Black Tides of Obscurity |
| Edge of Sanity Crimson II |
| Edge of Sanity Purgatory Afterglow |
| Empyrium Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays |
| Empyrium Into the Pantheon |
| Entombed Left Hand Path |
| Equipoise Demiurgus |
| Eucharist Mirrorworlds |
| Falls of Rauros Vigilance Perennial |
| Falls of Rauros The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood |
| Fallujah Dreamless |
| Godflesh A World Lit Only by Fire |
| Grave Endless Procession of Souls |
| Grave As Rapture Comes |
| Havnatt Havdøgn |
| Ihsahn Ihsahn |
| Ihsahn Arktis. |
| Ihsahn After |
| In Flames Colony |
| Inexorum Equinox Vigil |
| Intervals Circadian |
| Intervals The Shape of Colour |
| Lord Belial Enter the Moonlight Gate |
| Majesties Vast Reaches Unclaimed |
| Master Boot Record Internet Protocol |
| Mgla With Hearts Toward None |
| Mgla Groza |
| Mgla Exercises in Futility |
| Moonlight Sorcery Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle |
| Musk Ox Woodfall |
| NAILS You Will Never Be One Of Us |
| Noriki Dream Cruise |
| Obscura A Valediction |
| October Falls Marras |
| Opeth Still Life |
| Opeth Ghost Reveries |
| Panopticon Autumn Eternal |
| Samael Passage |
| Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Grand Opening and Closing |
| Spiritual Beggars On Fire |
| Spiritual Beggars Ad Astra |
| Spiritual Beggars Mantra III |
| Swans The Seer |
| The Faceless Akeldama |
| The Halo Effect March of the Unheard |
If this came out 20 years ago, I would've rated it an instant 5. Stanne is wonderful as usual, and the addition of more acoustic guitars is welcome. And while it's certainly better than the debut, with a far stronger focus on those colourful harmonised riffs that defined old In Flames, there's a certain rote aspect that holds it back. The formulaic song structures and mid-tempo focus mean it is a very pleasant but shallow experience (3.0, good rating).
EDIT: I revisited this album and realised I was too harsh on it. I'd listened to it many times over many days to form my initial opinion, but sometimes it takes a fresh listen, on a different day, with a different state of mind, to fully digest an album. I marked it down for following the well-worn tropes of the Gothenburg sound, but it was this sound that I fell in love with in the early 2000s, when melodic death metal seemed ubiquitous and celebrated in the metal world. DT is still a top 3 band of all time for me, and I wish they'd return to a more riff-focused approach, which this album has in spades.
I'd been listening to loads of very technical and progressive metal in the lead up to this release; 2024 was a fantastic year for that, and I think it made this album seem very quaint by comparison. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but it nails what it sets out to do.
I'll leave my first comments up. Better to show a change of mind and own it. |
| The Moaning Blood From Stone |
| Thy Catafalque Vadak |
| Thyrfing Vansinnesvisor |
| Triptykon Eparistera Daimones |
| Triptykon Melana Chasmata |
| Windir 1184 |
| Wintersun Wintersun |
