From their record label, “This full length of more than 50 minutes brings you once again at the roots of a mighty oak, where the shown animals share secrets about human quests. Musically, meet the synth composing Hyver once again, this time backed by Stefan Traunmueller on guitars, drums and production, and topped once again by Joanna Maeyens on all vocals and What to expect? Epic sympho-dungeon synth, with heavy production, glorious hymns, huge build ups and cinematic choirs, as if LOTR was told you by epic wild animals beneath a tree, except here the concept is not LOTR, but what inspired LOTR.

The album has seven songs, and “Dans le Crystal du Givre” is first. The Dungeon Synth qualities come out right away, as the organ like keyboards combine with spoken words. From there, harsh vocals and guitar join in, and it has a harder and more harrowing edge to it. “Le Trésor dans l'Onde Noire” has a more complicated sound that blends traditional Black Metal with Dungeon Synth, and even some clean passages. The drums sound like the song is marching off to war. “Sur les Toits d'une Tour” has that LOTR feeling to, like the Battle in the mines of Moria, or even Helm’s deep. Confidence doesn’t play a roll as armies of men and dwarves gear up for the war, they are simply defending what is theirs.

“Aux Jours de Chasse” is another song that sounds like a march to war, and each heavy drum strike sounds like the boots of soldiers on the hard ground. There are also slower, and more pensive passages, and they make the more aggressive ones even harder. “La Croix entre les Bois” is a 10-minute opus, giving the trio plenty of time to explore the dark lands in front of them. One again, the majestic opening passage reminds me of a war march, and once again, the slower passage provides some reprieve from the more aggressive ones. “Un Duel de Rois” has a softer opening, but in comes the heavy marching sequence once again.

“Retour vers l'Aube” closes the album, and its somber tones are the first real amount of variation on the album. The harder elements are very weighted, and the heavy snarl of the vocals helps in the contentiousness of the song. Although it was a good album, too many of the songs sounded similar to one another. If the band could find a way to break some of them up, it would go a long way to the improvement of the album. But it was an enjoyable listening experience for me.