The eponymous 2016 debut from the ex- frontman and guitarist ( ) relied heavily on material that was originally intended to appear on his former group's next album. As -esque as that set was, it showed a willingness to infuse the frosty bleakness of black metal with a bit of classic metal pomp and circumstance, an approach that the group takes even further on the punishing and confident . Commencing with the aptly named "Calm in Ire (Of Hurricane)," which rolls in like a colossal Nor'easter, the nine-track set spends just as much time applying meaty riffs as it does corpse paint. At any given moment, neck-snapping blastbeats give way to crushing midtempo grooves and gnarly, NWOBHM-inspired guitar solos. To be fair, this was kind of 's modus operandi, but feels a little bit more locked in to the sonic architecture of trad-metal-skewing black metallers like -- sans the keyboards -- especially on the lumbering title cut. Still, this is an joint, so the majority of the album is spent in the icy realms of tonsils-be-damned black metal. Standout cuts like "Bridge of Spasms" and "Harvest Pyre" are ripped from the handbook, which should please fans who are non-plussed about the current -led iteration of the group. Innovation is pretty much anathema to the genre, and and company are stalwart black metal enthusiasts, but somehow feels both familiar and forward-thinking; a fresh peek into the eternal abyss. ~ James Christopher Monger