✦✦✦✧ This album, more than most, feels like a product of the CoViD-19 pandemic, for good and for ill. By way of delays and other exigencies, Ne Obvs were required to spend years on this album, and the resulting level of refinement and honing on display here is without equal. There is no filler, no fluff; this beast is all muscle and precision.

✦✦✦✧ Ironically, as Ne Obvs bring on ex-Cynic bassist Robin Zielhorst for their third album, their sound evolves away from Cynic-inspired, and into more of an Opeth-meets-The-Faceless groove. This is excellent prog, although at times it may come across as a little long and overprecious. Still, worth at least one listen all the way through (the 14-minute eponymous album closer is a Must).

★★★☆ The closest thing I can compare this to is Cynic’s “Traced In Air.” But I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that this album reminded me of UK’s first album, and of BTBAM in one of their less carny moods. Here are a group that manage to intersperse violin solos and flamenco guitars with blast beats and furious palm-mute riffs in a way that feels organic and reasonable, as all of it combines to a lavish soundscape that’s hard to pin down.