This new album of Sol Invictus, now on the German Dark Vinyl label after the demise of World Serpent Distribution, again goes back to the early days of the band. The songs resemble that era more than the recent work did, since that was richer in instrumentation and had more experiment in composition. This time the power is in the songs of „The man with the guitar“ again and with this the record perfectly resembles classics like „The Killing Tide“ or „Trees in Winter“. Songs with a strong nostalgic feeling and historical consciousness, embedded in the enchanting effect of the for the fan familiar guitarplay of Sol Invictus. Sometimes inspired on traditional songs, and sometimes not. Sometimes venomous like in „A Steed for the Devil“ and sometimes accessible like and easy to sing-a-long to like „There Did Three Knights Come From The West“. Tony Wakeford gets musical help from old regulars like Karl Blake, Gary Parsons, Renee Rosen and Eric Roger. Matt Howden and Sally Doherty are not there anymore. The atmosphere of the record is dark, like the album title and the beautiful artwork by Tor Lundvall, already suggest. This is a record that feels like a warm bath when listening to it, so recognisable and yet so good this is. With this i can enjoy myself pretty well. Sol Invictus doesn?t let itself loose it?s head but with this solid album prove to still remain to the absolute top of modern European darkfolk. (Gothtronic)