Mono's music has long been on a trajectory established pretty firmly by their first few albums. There have been changes and tweaks along the way - mostly in the instruments' tone - and the introduction of new elements here and there - like the guitar or keyboards in place of the bass at times. Regardless of such alterations, though, Mono is Mono. They play long, slow-building songs that rely heavily on crushing distortion and widely varying dynamics, and they are a rock quartet augmented on occasion by strings.

The last bit is where Mono makes their incremental change on their latest release, Hymn to the Immortal Wind. The album sees the use of the largest chamber orchestra yet, coming in at 28 pieces. The orchestra figures pretty heavily into most every track on the album, though the quartet that is Mono-proper still dominates - particularly when the distortion pedals are hit. The band also opted for a much more explicit narrative than is typical this time, too, stopping just shy of song lyrics by including a short story in the liner notes, with each song corresponding to a portion of it. It's a concept album of sorts, though I imagine that would be easy enough to ignore if you felt like it, given that all the songs are instrumental. Still, there's a sort of post-apocalyptic narrative of isolation, sorrow, death, togetherness, and hope if you choose to read it - and the music does follow it.

Ashes in the Snow sees Mono introducing the album in the fashion most representative of their style and the music they've made thus far in their career. An early break into subdued distortion eventually receeds into a pairing of clean and quiet plucked chords and a tremolo picked melody, which in turn builds with the help of bass, drums, and orchestra into a furious, distorted climax. Burial at Sea is my favorite piece on the album, the stop-start quiet of the first half giving way as it does to the catharsis of the later half. It's the album's most furious, intensely emotional song, and correspondingly, the high point. Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn completely removes the rock instrumentation from the studio, leaving the chamber orchestra to build around a simple piano line. It is, as one might expect for such Mono arrangements, lovely in a sorrowful way. Pure as Snow is a delicately pretty track, reminiscent of Are You There in its slow, careful movement toward a climax, though Pure as Snow opts for the use of distortion where Are You There did not, even if it is fairly understated distortion by Mono standards. It's a bitter-sweet tribute to happiness lost, like Halcyon (Beautiful Days), but with a sharper, more painful sense of loss. I'd put it behind Burial at Sea as my second favorite on the album.

Follow the Map is a typical Mono interlude, short, simple, and pretty. The instrumentation here is slide guitar, piano, glockenspiel, and strings, with the slide guitar and piano carrying the melody but the strings seeing most of the focus. The Battle to Heaven is the album's dark and ominous piece, like The Kidnapper Bell or The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain - at least in the first half. The bass and drums rumble, building slowly towards the climax that you know is coming from the opening bars. Like the latter song in arrangement, and unlike either in tone, however, The Battle to Heaven's second half is triumphant. Everlasting Light is a fitting closer, as it encompasses both the Mono of old and their new approach. A simple piano line is accompanied by tremolo picked, echoed-out guitars for the better part of the song's length, the whole of it fleshed out by the chamber orchestra. The song winds to a hopeful and, again, triumphant climax in which the distorted guitars are on almost equal footing with the orchestra. When I listened to the album the first time though, I didn't need to look at the liner notes to know that the end of Everlasting Light is the end of the album; it is certain in the music itself.

Hymn to the Immortal Wind is another spectacular Mono release, set very firmly in their style. There's nothing here to win over detractors or alienate long-time fans, and there's enough change and growth to keep those of us that have been around awhile interested. Mono is as excellent as ever here, building slowly from quiet and pretty to loud and furious, this time with the aid of a sizable orchestra. It's beautiful, powerfully emotional stuff, and is precisely the kind of music that I absolutely love.