The moments with an opera choir like in the beginning of "Immortal Desire" are my favorite. I think metal + opera is a super effective formula; it's always epic.

Perhaps a slight dip in quality compared to the last one, but overall a rather solid and tight effort from these guys. The record shines the brightest when they go all out on the bombastic, theatrical, or technical moments, though sadly we don’t see as much of that as I’d like.

To be honest, I was unrealistically optimistic that they’d write a whole album in the vein of the final bonus track of the deluxe edition of their last album, “Chemical Carnival”. No idea how one of the best riffs of the year (even though it was part of the rerelease a year after the original) could be diminished to a mere bonus track. Most of the song is good, but that riff…it just surprises me how there’s so much variance between that and most of their songs.