Possibly one of the finest EMPYRIUM albums.
On this record, the band completely abandoned screaming, and indeed all black metal influences. "Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays" is crafted with acoustic guitars, flutes, keyboards, cello, and clean male vocals. There is a great deal of acoustic and instrumental material throughout. The closing track "When Shadows Grow Longer," originally released on their second album in '97, was especially pleasing, and the male polyphony on the final track in particular conveys a sorrow untouched by anything else.
This album in EMPYRIUM's discography is like a gust of wind in a nighttime forest and the whisper of leaves during rain — light, faintly sorrowful, and serene... serene as the mist between branches, as pre-dawn fog over marshlands, as stars on an August night...