You’d think you’d get rusty after over a decade, but Saturnus delivers exactly what you want from them like having never been away. This album gels—every riff has its place, the songs create a beautiful, dynamic flow, the heavy/pretty contrast plays tug-of-war with the senses, all carried by the expansive, seamless sound they’ve nailed.
All of the above makes for an album you might need another 11 years to change in any way not for the worse. Looking at 2023’s releases in hindsight, this came quickly to mind as better than most, if not all, of the year, and most, if not all, of The Storm Within could hardly have been a more powerful comeback statement.