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Varus are a relatively young band from Bavaria, and this is their second album, coming six years after their debut. There's a lot of good musicianship on display here, and a really pro-sounding production job, so I am surprised to see this act is still self-releasing their albums. This starts with a sweeping, epic sound with a lot of folk elements in the compositions, but when they speed up they go almost full Death Metal, with blasting drums and high-speed riffs. When they lean on the speed they sound much less individual, and the best parts of this album are when they lean into the folk/epic sounds and you get pounding riffs mixed with symphonic keys, losing the harsh sounds almost entirely. The gravelly vocals of Konstantin Raab are decent, but they are far too monotonous to work with music as varied as this. There are elements of Bal-Sagoth here, also some similarities to bands like Moonsorrow, Manegarm, or even Ensiferum. If there is a problem, it's that this album is pretty disjointed, with the more melodic, epic sequences at odds with the faster, harsher elements, and they don't blend. Still, a band that can produce songs as good as the title track on this definitely has potential.