Twelve tracks reflect a wider range of songwriting -- and with them a necessary change in production, allowing the guitar to have more clarity, capturing a more gothic sound in the truest sense: often resounding a synthesis of Misfits (circa _Earth A.D._) and Darkthrone. The slashing, militaristic riffs of "Deviant" and "Sickening Voices Without Speech" display a handle on catchy rhythm breaks that were either non-existent or previously indecipherable in earlier works. There is even a racing but somber instrumental track, complete with closing guitar solo. Imperial's vocals abrasively plow through the storm of sound, belching multi-layered screams that do not stray drastically from his unique and familiar style. But once the ceremonial, trodden tones of "Venus in Furs" (Velvet Underground) enter, Imperial is able to sing-scream over the slow chord changes, which is surreal enough and compounded by the euphoric stupor of the music itself. In a genre so accustomed to masking so much sameness in bloated and overused descriptions, there is only one term that truthfully describes this type of sound, in a word (most innocently): Separatist.