This group's debut, "Shrouded Devine", came out of nowhere and blew away everyone and everything in its path. They absolutely own the sound they've created, implementing a variety of guitar techniques and grooves to beef up an otherwise very esoteric atmosphere. And while "Monolith" can be seen as a solid follow-up, those expecting the same level of variety and experimentation as their previous effort will be sorely disappointed.

The music here is very evidently the same group - you can pick out their sound in a matter of milliseconds. The problem they run into is pure and uncompromising stagnation. It sounds like one long song the whole way through. And it is not to say that this was not their intention, as even on the debut album they would occasionally switch back and forth between songs. The difference is that with the new material, it gets stale before the halfway mark. It feels like THE ARCANE ORDER's sophomore release, as it is very respectably written, but extremely exhausting to listen to.

IN MOURNING seem to have tried too hard to create something long and artful. As hard listening goes, they're not OPETH, and so they need to focus on the various aspects of their sound rather than beating to death the one element they know they have down pat. It's a commendable effort, but I recommend their debut a million times over it. The best thing for fans to do is to go to their Myspace page and listen to a few samples before going out and buying this thing.