This is a beautifully brooding album that magnificently illustrates the wonderful fragility and emotional breadth of modern metal. Sólstafir hail from Iceland and combine panoramic Americana with a delicate and distinctly insular version of metal.

After having dabbled with the English language in previous releases, they are back singing in Icelandic. Their use of their mother tongue gives the songs an ethereal and otherworldly quality. It is like you are hearing these songs being transmitted from another dimension.

The songs are quaint and unsettling but also minimal and majestic. They float out of the speakers full of charged emotion and penetrating pathos. They are like metallic torch songs, drenched in despair and longing but also poignant and evocative. Stunningly sparse and wistfully wonderful.

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