Purists may bristle at the notion, but by 2003, had become the ultimate neo- band. With and exploring the tattered ends of avant-garde experimentation, broken up, still clattering away in the garage, and underwhelming everyone with their too-dense-for-its-own-good major-label debut, , unleashed the stunningly impressive . The CD booklet boasts an artist's rendering of a twisted metal machination surrounded by a sea of skulls and bones, which is a perfect analogy for the trajectory of 's musical vision -- immense, strange, and jutting in all directions, an imposing and powerful monstrosity that's the concoction of a few brilliantly twisted minds. In fact, may be the closest-to-perfect amalgamation of the hallowed genres of / , and -- heavy on the symphonic, because here the bullet-belted, corpse-painted Norwegians collaborate with and reap the benefits with savage glee. The orchestra lends overwhelming and full-bodied sonic bombast to the latter two so vast and epic in scope they seem to spot weld compositional drama to blastbeating nastiness -- and while naysayers claim strings make wimpy, here they're seamlessly integrated and lend power and profundity to the arrangements. Elsewhere, 's songwriting is firing on all cylinders, and there's nary a microsecond of filler on the whole album: the neck-snapping of ; the clanging samples and submerged-in-petroleum vocal effects of ; the off-kilter vocal gnashing and tumbling piano during the verses of While most stood in awe of 's previous album, , because of its stellar lineup -- vocalist , guitarists , bassist/vocalist , drummer , and keyboardist -- finds more songwriting credits belonging to , who lends his hands to the symphony-heavy tracks and may be the band's holy-hell hand grenade hidden among the cloaking personalities of his bandmates. Add in two wonderfully blood-retching "duets" between and former croaker -- on and album-closer -- and the record represents the most precise, calculated, and consistently devastating sound and fury to emerge from the underground in the early 2000s (where it belongs next to 's in the hellish hall of fame). finds gloriously fulfilling the potential exuded on and breakthrough release , and officially staking claim to the heap of bones and armor known as the Scandinavian scene. [The digipak version of includes a bonus-track cover of and the album was released in multiple formats, including an elaborate metal box and a loose-leaf notebook with metal and parchment pages.] ~ John Serba