✦✦✦✧ This is one of the Finnish band’s best efforts to date, improving on its predecessor Heart Like A Grave in all aspects except for pacing, which does tend toward the overblown. Still, a fine almost-hour of melodeath, best served cold.

✦✦✦✧ This melodeath album wavers from run-of-the-mill Insomnium to goddamn-great Insomnium. I wish the production was a little crisper (although that might just be my Gothenburg bias showing through), but otherwise the shredding and epicness shine brightly enough. Stand-out tracks like “Valediction,” “Pale Morning Star,” and “Twilight Trails” are must-listens, in any event.