There can't be too many bands that combine tribal electro-industrial dance music with Baroque tones and pseudo operatic vocals. At times, this Canadian combo sound like a cross between Carmina Burana and The Prodigy.
The album opens strongly with the multi-facetedMother Of Crows and the stirring Bloodline but things start to fall apart when more traditional rock/pop vocals enter the heady mix.
On Break The Sky these consist of a weird fusion of bland Euro-pop and the angry growl of Keith Flint. And speaking of The Prodigy, the snatches of Bollywood on Snakecharmer and Narada, suggest that Smack My Bitch Up may well be on the band's iPod.
Worst of all is the pompous New Romantic-esque silliness of Society Of Dogs ("we tear apart what we despise") and the bombastic title track, The Methuselah Tree which gloomily declares "we are catastrophe bound".
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The best tracks are those that eschew vocals altogether or which sample voices merely to create an exotic atmosphere.
But even then, the effect can be overbearing; for example The Doorway and Eclipse suck you into a relentless vortex of trance groove overkill.
You have to admire the album's overall scope and ambition but, rather like repeatedly hitting your head against a brick wall, it's nice when it stops.
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