From Bandcamp, “The music on "...By The Shadows" does remain dark and fierce. It is also clearly still growing out of its roots in the black past. Yet Espedal has willed his band into becoming a far more layered beast and set it free to roam in an avant-garde dimension – with the dissonant sound at times even turning towards the experimental. TRELLDOM have awakened from their slumber and "...by the shadows..." is a spirited manifesto for artistic freedom as well as a grand declaration of war against nostalgic stagnation. This album poses a challenge that states: love it or leave.”

The album has seven songs, and “The Voice of What Whispers” is first. From the opening notes, you can tell this is going to be ride through uncharted territory. The music is dark, unique, and Progressive in nature, and the band makes use of crescendos for impact. “Exit Existence” is a bit more straightforward, but you get the sense that you have only begun to peel back some of the layers on this album. Sad, melancholy tones abound, supported by violin, and the music is ever shifting, though ardent passages and more gentle ones. “Return the Distance” is a shorter song that is full of tension…the kind akin to a drawn out rubber band that is about to snap. “Between the World” has plenty of ominous, crushing tones that are just a bit off in the distance. It’s almost like watching a storm rage just a few feet from where you stand, but none of the fallout reaches you, and you remain dry.

“I Drink Out of My Head” rushes quickly through your thoughts with a hasty pace. For me, it has the perfect combination of Hard Rock elements from the 1970s with modern ones, almost like OPETH, but not as weighted. “Hiding Invisible” uses more hushed tones. Wolves howl in the background, and the night comes alive. Your imagination begins to work overtime, to the point that you can’t tell if what you see and hear is real.  The title track closes the album. A dark and steady riff augmented with saxophone notes carry the song forward and time seems to shift without regard for centuries passing before your eyes. The winds pick up, howling all around you, and you lose your sense of where you are in the storm, and suddenly, without warning, it ends,

The album is dark, a place where melodies twist and turn through corridors of haunting echoes and sudden, sharp dissonance, creating a wall of sound that is both crushing and exhilarating. Vocals emerge from the depths like tortured whispers, and rhythms pulse erratically, at times lulling you into a trance-like state. There’s a feeling that something is always lurking just out of sight, something that haunts the spaces between the sounds. It’s like being trapped in a fevered dream that teeters on the brink of nightmare, compelling you to keep listening, even as it pulls you deeper into its embrace.