After coming off of the brilliant STAR OF ASH debut album and EMPEROR’s technical behemoth Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise, this now duo was poised for even bigger and better things. However, nothing really prepares you for the avant-garde masterpiece that is Lost in Reverie. Just as the album title implies, PECCATUM plunges the listener into a realm of heavy thoughts and emotions. Musically, the band utilize various instrumentation (i.e. guitars, piano, various samples), genres (i.e. classical, black metal, 70’s prog rock, jazz, electronica) and vocal stylings (i.e. whispers, screams, croons) to build the multiple layers that compose each song. The song arrangements are brilliant in the fact that they can be powerful without strictly depending on heavy guitars and drums. The dynamics are also a strongpoint as the songs possess such a natural flow that has both peaks and valleys. Highlights include Ihsahn’s soulful (clean) vocals on the chorus on “In The Bodiless Heart,” the black metal eruption and the instrumental bridge of “Black Star,” and Ihriel’s haunting vocal solo in “The Banks of This River is Night.” PECCATUM can be proud to have accomplished the seemingly impossible task of creating an avant-garde album that can keep ARCTURUS’ masterpiece, La Masquerade Infernale, company. This is a body of work that will take multiple listens and some time to begin to absorb what is presented here. But once that initial layer is cracked, the brilliance of Lost in Reverie is impossible to deny. (The End Records/Mnemosyne Productions)