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Ulver's music has always been about atmosphere. They've covered a ton of styles over their career: black metal on Bergtatt or Nattens Madrigal, acoustic folk on Kveldssanger, trip-hop on Perdition City (as well as various forms of minimal electronica on a handful of EPs), or abstract, colourful prog rock on Blood Inside. Yet all this music has shown that Ulver, no matter what style they're playing, excel at crafting soundscapes and moods into their music. Shadows of the Sun, the latest addition to their impressive discography, is a simple album; the musical equivalent of painting with black, greys, dull browns and dark greens. The music is subdued, melancholic but not bleak. Occasionally the pace picks up during the second half of "All the Love" and their cover of Black Sabbath's "Solitude" feels positively driven in comparison to the album's other tracks, but overall the songs are unanimously dark, relaxed and moody.

While such a homogeneous album might succumb to being tedious to listen to start to finish, it's not a problem here. The album is short, totaling roughly 40 minutes, and there is no repetitive formula to the songwriting. The instrumentation is varied; the backbone piano and synth are accompanied by theremin, saxophone and cello; and the arrangements have a surprising depth to them. The album works both as soothing background noise and as something to really sink your mind into.

Much like Ulver's other works, Shadows of the Sun is mood music that does not always "click" with me, but when I am in the right state of mind there's nothing else I would rather be listening to (except maybe Sigur Ros... but let's not get into that). Hopefully it's also obvious at this point that comparisons to their previous albums aren't especially useful, even their previous album Blood Inside, with it's jarring dynamic shifts and blending of styles, bears little resemblance to Shadows of the Sun. Overall another hit for the Ulver boys.

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Reviewer: Jeff Mcquiggan Added: October 1st 2007