Despite now having two albums out on Moribund that produced a uniquely desolate sound that I've really been digging, Canis Dirus have remained one of the more overlooked American black metal bands to emerge in recent years. I still think that their 2009 debut A Somber Wind From A Distant Shore turned out to be one of the better US black metal albums of the past five years, distinctly American in fact, with a swirling guitar sound that seemed to hint at both a heavy blues influence and echoes of the chorus-rich guitar sound that could at certain moments remind me of the classic Nephilim sound. Of course, the sheen of noisy high-end abrasion that the band drapes across their songs gives their music an uneasy feel that isn't going to be to all tastes, nor are the overwrought high-pitched shrieking vocals, which are more aligned with the hysterics of Silencer and Marblebog. With their second album Anden Om Norr, Canis Dirus crank up the intensity several times over, opening softly at first with the sounds of soft ambient whirr and nocturnal wildlife (a continued presence on the album, evoking the wildness of Minnesota's northern boreal forests) before launching into the frenzied, fuzz-drenched gloom of ""The Hunted Stag", where the band begins to shift between speedy blasting black metal and slower heavier riffing. The droning guitars are swathed in a peculiar high-end fuzz and those vocals are as intense and distraught as ever, an extreme high keening screech that's naturally reminiscent of Nattramn from Silencer, but then trades off with deeper guttural growls. The songs all have this strange dissonant quality that comes from their use of layered discordant feedback, warped minor key arpeggios and ugly atonal leads all buried beneath the buzzing riffs and gloomy melodies, creating an effect similar to that of Xasthur's albums, but blending that sound with soaring bluesy Floydian leads and layered kosmische synths that add loads of droning texture to Canis Dirus's moody, mournful sound. The band also work in some subtle piano and acoustic guitar sounds into their songs that give this some extra added depth, but the shimmering dissonant guitars and bursts of murderous mid-paced blackened riffs are always at the core of Anden Om Norr's sound, giving this music a feral, ugly edge even when Canis Dirus are in the throes of their most mournful moments. This is one of the few albums that I've heard that has been able to successfully draw from both the frenzied despair of the "suicidal" black metal sound and the moody melodic power of Drudkh, and ends up in a strange, rural black metal sound all their own. Recommended.