����� Wasn't much fanfare around it, but Amber Asylum's first new album in nearly six years just arrived via German label Prophecy. I wasn't even sure that these gloomy Bay Area chamber-rock artists were still around, but Sin Eater proves otherwise with a full album wrapped in beautiful, somber sheets of sound. A continuation of the mix of mournful strings, classically-tinged darkness and doom-laden atmosphere that band leader Kris Force has been championing since the mid 1990s, this nonetheless delivers a few surprises, including an interesting choice of a cover song midway through.

����� Once again, the group's meditative, melancholy strings are at the center of the music, a mix of cello and violin that drifts above slow, deliberate percussion. Opening with the droning instrumental "Prelude", the album then shifts into the spellbinding gothic beauty of "Perfect Calm", as Force's soulful voice floats in over the spare instrumentation, her vocals sharing some of the solemn grace of Jarboe's work with Swans in the 1990s (herself a previous collaborator with Force). The funereal feel of "Beast Star" follows, steeped even more in sorrow and regret, a slow, sad lament that with just a handful of acoustic instruments and the ghostly glow of Force's voice manages to exude more emotionally wrought drama than an entire funeral doom album. Those flowing, folky violins and the funereal strains of cello are at the forefront of Sin Eater's sound, lush and layered and atmospheric., but some sparse drumming does appear, sometimes shifting into a somber processional. And there's some heavy, mildly distorted bass guitar that also kicks in at a couple points, emerging as a deep rumbling presence that brings added weight to the music, accompanied at times by sheets of reflective feedback and screaming distorted violin, moments that take on a vaguely metallic edge; on songs like "Executioner", all of that can rumble with a portentous power similar to the likes of Neurosis.

����� One of the most striking passages on the album though occurs when the band suddenly lumbers into a mighty miserablist epic about halfway through, and lo and behold we're hearing them performing a cover of "Tot" by doom metal legends Candlemass. And they effortlessly remake the song in their own image, maintaining the dread power of the original, especially when it kicks into that immense mid-tempo riff later in the song. Another highlight is the title track, where they introduce searing, distorted synthesizer into the stark, cold instrumental, a combination that ends up making this vaguely resemble more atonal and abrasive European prog rock. It's all rather grave and elegant, though, even when it's all stripped back to just the sound of strings and piano, full of dark, magisterial power.

����� Another elegant collection from Force and company, sure to thrill fans who've been aching for a new full length since 2009's Bitter River. It's available on both six-panel digipack CD, and a limited edition double LP pressed on 180 gram vinyl with an etching on the last side, in gatefold packaging with poster, limited to five hundred copies.