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Moonsorrow have been making great music for so long it became actually kind of proverbial, and then their last one was really kind of disappointing and lifeless to my ears, so I started to wonder if maybe they were slipping. After all, even a great band can't stay great forever, and Moonsorrow's last inarguably great album was V: Havitetty – and that was almost a decade ago. How the time flies.

I think this one is better than the last one, but it lacks the greatness of past works like Kivenkantaja. Part of it is the production. The mix favors the keys to an egregious degree, to the point where the guitars are almost an afterthought. The melodies are pretty good, but they lack bite with the smooth, wussy guitar sound buried under a layer of effects and electronics. They are trying to make their music sound more epic, but instead they are just making it sound artificial. The frequent choral vocal passages are good, and invoke a pagan atmosphere, but the compositions lack drama, and the flat mix makes everything sound colorless and unexciting. The music lacks depth and shade, and so the effect is of just one long song that never really goes anywhere.

I don't actively dis-like this album, but it just is not exciting, not in the way this band used to be. A decent production would kick it up a notch, but it's less about how it is recorded, and more about where the focus is. The band seems less interested in metal and more in making smooth, atmospheric music that lacks drama and songwriting power. Passable.