Playing a style of music like traditional heavy metal is so often a tricky business, in that the quality and integrity of the artist almost always becomes a subjective questioning of their seriousness of intent. I don't believe there to be another heavy metal band on the planet so dedicated to the mythological ethos that the genre has obsessed itself with since its inception.The sound of the band is so traditional as to be progressive, as the material on this disc has studied the form of the old masters so reverently that it goes far beyond simple imitation or homage and passes into classic territory of its own. Sweeping, powerful riffs that evoke the semi-folky tendencies of late-period Bathory charge ahead of mournful, keening vocals in such honest and emotional fashion that you can't help but be kept enthralled by every twist and turn that these massive songs decide to take. The entire album retains a wonderfully warm and full sound that greatly compliments the incredibly ambitious subject matter. The band has gone into greater depth than I can, but The White Goddess, as with their debut, borrows heavily from concepts familiar in comparative mythology to display universal constants of the human condition as stemming from the fountainhead of various old faiths and rituals. If their ability did not match this uncompromising ambition then the album might have become an overloaded mess, but this is metal that enjoys itself unabashedly and shamelessly. It's music that genuinely demands to be taken on its own terms.To think that this relatively young band so easily surpassed the maturity and mastery of their debut is an almost frightening concept, but rest assured, this is an album that no true fan of metal should be without.