Dark Sanctuary from France are one of the original purveyors and legends of dark atmospheric music scene. Now, thanks to Avantgarde Music, they release their brand new full length opus, and this is the first one in fourteen years. The title of the album means a lot. Cernunnos is an ancient Gaulish god who symbolized cycle of nature, from birth to death, thus symbolizing the death and re-birth of Dark Sanctuary. This new opus contains eleven songs of beautiful dark ambiental atmospheric music. This borders between dark wave and neoclassical with such excellent and beautiful female vocals which vary from chanting to delivering almost opera dramatic melodies thus adding to the already dramatic orchestration and songwriting. This is indeed music which takes you as a listener to the whole another level, some other dimension, when you open your heart and ears and listen to this beautiful album. My personal favorites on this one would be ‘Yksin’, ‘Mater Oceanum’ and ‘Asphodele’ but as I turn and listen to this opus over and over again I hear in some songs what I didn’t hear upon previous listening so that is another plus for this excellent opus. Great, great album!

10/10