There are a lot of things going on in this album and overall it is far more streamlined. Early tracks possess something of a Swedish death metal sound, in particular the heavier more brutal bands like Unleashed. There are also still several tracks that have that familiar Hellenic black metal sound, like "Excremental Magic". Those tracks still possess the riffing style familiar to Hellenic black metal, just sped up somewhat and aggressive where they were traditionally done in a more atmospheric style. Then there is the mostly instrumental, "He, Whom the Gods Hath Feared", which seems extremely out of place given its soft, gothic nature that would fit in better on a mid period Tiamat album than a Thou Art Lord release. Still other songs have gone in a decidedly blackened thrash metal direction, sounding much more like Aura Noir than the Hellenic sound the band exhibited before.
This album suffers from a lack of identity. It is clear that the band was trying to move away from being Rotting Christ Jr., but somewhere in that effort, the band lost the sound that made them so damn good in the first place. I am happy to see the band trying to forge their own identity, but in so doing they sort of lost their identity. I guess that is a vicious cycle.
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