Even more so than their 2004 debut, , 's second album drinks long, greedy draughts from the well of '70s . starts with a lengthy sound-effects intro that eventually lumbers into the epic which sounds like the doom-laden marriage of and at their respective peaks of overblown bombast. And yet, because overblown bombast is in fact not necessarily a bad thing in the world of , it somehow works. One major change between albums is that female singer has largely dropped the operatic vocals that are the benchmark of female singers, in favor of a much more direct and effective "clean" vocal style. Unfortunately, her male counterpart, , has backslid in the opposite direction, lapsing into the same dopey "death growl" voice as every other male singer far more than he had on . The songs are even lengthier, and the tempos a bit more plodding, which means that doesn't have as many of the dynamic shifts that enlivened the debut, although the comparatively speedy (quite possibly the most ironic fun-in-the-sun song of all time) makes a nice changeup about halfway through this long, intense album. Less distinctive than their debut, purifies one side of 's sound, but at the expense of some of the other things that originally made them interesting. ~ Stewart Mason