Borknagar - Universal (2010)^{Release ID: 5336}

Although Borknagar are a talented group of musicians & I respect what they are trying to achieve with "Universal", I don't think they've quite managed to pull it off. The sound is definitely more progressive metal than black metal these days which is fine as long as it's done well. I find many of the clean vocal sections to be fairly cringe-worthy & the overall production to be a little thin for such expansive ideas. The proggier ideas come across as a bit unfocussed at times & tend to make this album sound more lightweight than it should be (check out the Eastern influenced parts in "Reason" for an example). "Fleshflower" in particular is simply horrible.