What Once Was... Liber III and its predecessors are leaning towards the earlier, more extreme material of the band, rather than the more mellow direction they took on with the 777 trilogy. It has the cold industrial production the band is well known for and features guitar work full of twisted and howling dissonance. This release makes perfect sense in the context of its superordinate concept and once more shows, how diverse a band with a signature sound can still get. Simon Sludge