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Those are some of the thoughts that were rushing through my mind the first time I listened to this. Then later that day I listened to it again. Then I listened to it yet again. All in all, I listened to this album 3 times the day I got it. It's not really good based on technical playing, but rather the enormous layers one has to dig through to fully appreciate what is going on. And trust me; there are a lot of deep layers in this music. In describing it, I'd say that it's in the veins of melodic/progressive death metal, but with a more mature style of songwriting than your average melodic death metal band (think Opeth type of maturity). Combine that with many, many layers of music and the walls of sound (the good kind) from a band like The Mars Volta and you're starting to get an idea for what Disillusion sounds like on this album. It's taken me about half a dozen listens to even begin to fully grasp how deep I can sink myself in this album. Saying that this is multilayered music might be an understatement. Every time you listen to this, you're guaranteed to pick up several things in each song that you didn't notice the previous listen.

Unlike many other bands found in this genre on PA, Disillusion is more than willing to write a few extended songs. In fact, 2 of the 6 songs on here are of epic lengths, one around 14 1/2 minutes and the other clocks in at just over 17 minutes. Both of those songs, the title track and The Sleep of Restless Hours, are standout tracks for me. Both have great intros that really build the songs up nicely, the big difference being that the title track opens with violin and the concluding track opens with fairly dark fretless bass. Alone I Stand in Fires is the other standout track for me, and probably the overall heaviest on here, if for the massive amounts of sound thrown at you than for anything else. Vurtox (a pretty interesting nickname) has a very unique voice, balanced with a mix of clean vocals, which are more unique than his death growls. But he pulls both off very well.

I have yet to hear the band's follow-up because of the skepticism I've heard about it. Or maybe it's because I can't stop listening to this album. If you like Opeth, The Mars Volta, or want to hear a very unique and (slightly) more accessible album from this genre, this is a good one to try out. I'm hoping that their third release is as good as this one. This definitely deserves 5 stars for its creativity.

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