RUUN

Progressive black metal? hmm who'd have ever thought it? Well me, but thats not the point, this is the ninth album from this band from Norway, and what can i say that wasnt already said? Full of dark atmospherics and Pink Floyd like textures, and of course i love the addition of the heavy riffs and singing growling dynamic's going on here, the riffs are often very catchy and seem to stick in your head more than the melodies on this release but at times this can be a good thing, songs like the key single PATH TO VANIR is beyond epic and has some beautiful clean- growl vocals interplay. A lot of the keys can sound too Pink Floyd at times though and can be offputting but meh. The production on this album is also beautiful with some very cool early black metal production with a slight modern twist (being you can hear the vocals as well as the instruments) there never seems to be too much of each instrument as well, which is good as i think every instrument can provide something different to the experience, if you get bored of listening to the voclas lets say, you can listen to the cool keyboards or the heavy riffs and leads provided by the guitars, which can be a rare thing in black metal;

Entroper - 8/10 Path to Vanir - 9/10 Fusion of Sense and Earth - 9/10 Ruun - 9/10 Tides of Chaos - 7/10 Essence - 8/10 Api-Vat - 8/10 Heir to the Cosmic Seed - 8/10

My Conclusion? in my opinion this is Enslaveds best release to date and gets a very high recomendation from me. 4 stars.