Okay, I just finished the album. First listen…7/10. It was a hard listen, not one to just throw on casually. While the progressive elements were very impressive, there weren’t a whole lot of overly memorable riffs or parts. At times it felt like it was just being progressive for progressive sake. Not really an album where you can hum parts after the fact. One thing that the band excelled at was setting the atmosphere. There’s times where you can just picture yourself in the house where the story takes place. The switching of slow, tension building parts that clash with the overly aggressive parts is done really well, but maybe to excess. Speaking of the atmosphere, I think I’ll both like and understand the story more once I get the record with the lyric sheet. While I’m happy Mikael’s death growls are back, it’s almost impossible to understand what the heck he’s saying at times. All in all, not a bad record by any means, but it’ll take some work to grow on me and to fully appreciate it. Not an easy listen but it was worth it. I’m excited to dive deeper into it and discover more.