Spoiler alert: Patterns in Mythology, the new album from Portland, ME’s Falls of Rauros, is one of the best albums of 2019. From the album’s first seconds to its grand closing, Patterns in Mythology is intensely focused; the end result is sprawling, atmospheric, melodic and the best Falls of Rauros release yet.

Take third track “New Inertia” as an example. The reflective introduction morphs seamlessly into blast beats, tremolo picking, emotive shrieks and melancholic harmonies.

“’New Inertia’ is in many ways about the lingering prevalence of myth in the modern world,” explains guitarist/vocalist Aaron. “And the insidious effects such mythologies continue to work upon humankind. It is both a condemnation of willful ignorance and an exhortation to seek out whatever sliver of truth may be hiding in this world. Musically speaking, ‘New Inertia’ was approached with a self-imposed discipline to restrict the number of unique motifs and melodies in the song to a small handful yet develop and twist those few ideas to serve a full piece. The ‘Waxen Voices’ (from Believe in No Coming Shore) ethos is very much at play here: before adding an entirely new riff into the song, we would try adjusting the arrangement, the harmony stack during a certain passage or maybe just the tone or timbre of the instruments in a particular spot. When a melody line was called for, we would first look for a melody in an earlier section of the song and layer it on top of an entirely different riff later in the song. The goal was to avoid linearity and hopefully wind up with something more cyclical and self-referential. This was the first song we tackled upon entering the studio back in December; it was the perfect starting point in that it touches upon many of the stylistic variations found on the rest of the tracks, effectively immersing us in the mood of the record and preparing us for its demands.”

Patterns in Mythology is out July 19 on Gilead Media.