Having now released more albums since the 2014 reunion than before it, Norwegian gloomsters In the Woods... have returned with an album that builds on their legacy and tinkers with their sound just enough to make it a step onward from previous releases, if not necessarily containing better songs overall. Yet this is still enticing stuff, something like a softer mixture of Borknagar and Arcturus as opener The Things You Shouldn't Know quickly establishes with clean vocals and atmospheric, yearning riffing giving way to brief bursts of blackened anger. The music is undoubtedly compelling and holds your attention despite this opening track being over eight minutes long, guitarists Kåre André Sletteberg and Bernt Sørensen both skilled players who construct the sort of melodic, melancholic riffing that many a gothic metal band would kill for.

This is all somewhat like a slightly more cheerful Green Carnation in a way, the loose album concept of the Otra River of Norway (rather than the Spanish for 'another one'...!) suggesting a pastoral effect held up by slightly folksy vibes to moments like the Amorphis-esque A Misrepresentation of I, which even dips a little towards symphonic territory like a heavier Nightwish! As ever the band are skilled songwriters, making each song feel different with, say, the greater groove of The Crimson Crown, (which isn't at all commercial with the snarls in the chorus alongside the clean singing) contrasting with the gothic gloom that opens the following The Kiss and the Lie.

And although there aren't any real surprises here, the quality levels remain high throughout with the likes of Let Me Sing having a stately and grand feeling to it, the clean vocal performance restrained despite the title. Come Ye Sinners is probably the heaviest track present being largely blackened with a darker feel outside of the clean-sung portions, even having something of a pagan metal vibe shining through it at points. From start to end there is not a bad song present; each having much to recommend it and there being multiple sections where the band achieve the sort of ethereal beauty that they were once known for, despite this being nearly an entirely different line-up than in their early days. Finale The Wandering Deity is one of the finest examples, a rather lovely vocal-led opening moving through melodic blackened catchiness and enjoyably epic prog meandering, ending the album on a high and enticing you back in for replays. A fine album; if In the Woods... can keep this level of quality going forward then they'll become better known for their latter days than their earlier output!