I love their first two albums. Especially the debut is just magical. After those, they changed their style for more aggressive. It's still melodic and not that heavy but it has lost something.

Still, I think this is better than Fires and it was quite enjoyable.

I feel you. The first 2 records are perfect.
The day they released the relict i was shocked. So much agression but in a good way. It grow on me over the years. And its a solid 8. When fires felt strange ad first listen. Older than ancient feels alot more balanced, more mature. The intro of Blood of the sunset feel like the relict. But more melodic and catchy.

Perfectly serviceable ABM sound, could be any one of a thousand albums. Makes really good background music whilst doing other activities.

Any recommendations for this genre are greatly appreciated; I absolutely adore the artwork but never seem to enjoy the music as much.

Although this is but a shadow of the debut it's still a pretty impressive effort by this project. The song-structures are understandably repetitive but between the keys, guitar leads, and backing choir it has a certain majestic naturistic aura you can lose yourself in. I can imagine it's better experienced when trekking through the wilderness rather than at home or a built up busy environment though.

I really think those 2 voters that gave this album a 1 should be deleted. Both voters are Ukranian and this was clearly a political vote. This has been happening a few times recently.