The first song on the disc, ‘In the Still of a Northern Fullmoon’, is, I suppose, aimed at surprising the listener with it’s length (four of the six songs on the album are four or five minutes long, yet tracks one and three are twelve and fourteen minutes long respectively). It opens urgently for the first two or three minutes, the drums using full-on double bass with blast beats, pausing only to insert thunderous rolls; the line slowly builds in intensity as more and more layers are added, the keyboards and vocals coming in last. The synth here is tastefully done, adding atmosphere but not detracting from the guitar line. At slightly before three minutes into the song, Setherial relaxes from the hard-hitting opening and settles into a more melodic style while still maintaining the tempo; the next few minutes of the song are spent moving back and forth between melodic, (relatively) soft passages and heavier selections where the vocals are used. Around five and a half minutes into the song, the riff which is the mainstay of the rest of the song is introduced, and the rest of the track supplies the listener with variations on the same riff used to separate different, longer sections from one another. Since the riffs for the most part expand out from a similar theme, the song seems unified; another reason for this unity is that the same level of movement and energy are maintained throughout the track. On one level I dislike the simplicity of using a single level of movement throughout such a long song; there should be at least some variety (if nothing else but to alleviate monotony). Nevertheless, the track makes the point that Setherial can maintain a twelve minute song using only some changes in tempo and none in movement and yet still make it work. The melody and structure of the song are good enough to ward off any lagging you might expect the song to suffer from.

The second song, ‘Mörkrets Tid’, sounds much more anxious and energetic from its beginning, but slips into a brief and beautiful acoustic section forty seconds into the track. The melodic part sets up for the next heavy section, which comes as a heavier version of the melodic passage. The rest of the song is carried by excessive melody and great drumming, but is rather predictable; in fact when I first listened to Nord… this song was where I concluded that Setherial (sadly) reduced their writing technique to a formula: heavy sections separated by soft melody and followed by heavier sections which imitate or refer back to the initial melodic parts in their composition. The formula is good enough that their songs avoid monotony, but listening to this song in particular still bugs me. The third song, ‘Över Det Blodtäckta Nord’, is the longest on the disc and is perhaps meant to be its pinnacle (being in the center of the recording as it is). Whereas the previous tracks indulged in over-riffing and melody at the cost of emotion, Setherial take time on this track to form actual atmospheres and static progressions. After the required initial brutality, the guitars become stationary and the music gets and empty feel, the drums for once backing off and allowing the atmosphere to take precedence over movement. The middle section of the song suffers from some fumbling, and near the twelve minute mark Setherial insert a lovely acoustic passage free of the other instruments. My normal complaint with bare acoustic passages, such as in the first track of Ulver’s Nattens Madrigal and Frozen Shadow’s ‘Lunes Funèbres’, is that they last too long and spoil the ugly atmosphere of the music. Setherial, however, stop the acoustic guitar far too soon and replace it with a gay riff that sounds almost medireview, ruining the end of a rather well executed song. I personally would have preferred the acoustic passage being extended and the song ending with it in a fade out, but everyone else I have talked to seems to find something enjoyable in the fruity ending as it is. Overall, the track is not the epic opus I suspect Setherial intended it to be, but is still a fine piece of work.