The Swedish melodic death metal pioneers newest offering explodes to life with the catchiest of deathness, but there are a lot more flavors being explored here. Most notable are the progressive elements that crop up across The Nightmare of Being, and lavish orchestrations expand the dramatic scope, all of this well-executed and inarguably the work of a confident and seasoned band.

Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie, alongside Savages’ Jehnny Beth, explore the loss, miscommunication and emotional inarticulacy that a married couple experience as they realize their relationship is breaking down. Utopian Ashes draws on the tradition of country soul classics, such as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris’s Grievous Angel and George Jones and Tammy Wynette’s We Go Together, to deal with the heavy realities of love turning sour.