Sigur Rós's 1997 debut, recently issued in America, has the group exploring a dense, dark and forbidding subterranean, underwater cave, from which sharp icy tentacles protrude and hellish rumblings shake the firmament.

Missing in action are the achingly beautiful, uplifting melodic inventions of the groups subsequent two releases, though the title, Von means “hope.” The cover, featuring a drawing of an infant's face with an ambiguous expression, can simultaneously look angelic and “Chucky-like.”

All of the song titles and annotation is in Icelandic so I cannot begin to tell you what any of it means. The music has to do the explaining and it does so emphatically, though of course, impressionistically. The first track, “Sigur Rós,” which means “Victory Rose,” (the group and the tune were named after the lead singer Jón Bór Birgisson's little sister), begins with ominous bell-like sounds, as if an unfelt wind is blowing from deep under the ground. That's followed by a descent into a hellish void, on the other side of which can be heard and felt room shaking low frequency depth charges, teeth-grinding, tortured screeches and all sorts of nightmarish sonic apparitions. Don't listen alone late at night!

Once the descent has been accomplished, the remaining tracks explore the ambient world introduced in track 1, accented with ghostly voices, echoey sound effects, dripping water, backward tape loops and other disorienting musical ephemera, with one track flowing gracefully into the next.

Track 5, “Myrkur,” is the most musically conventional of the 12 song set (one track is 18 seconds of silence), with a catchy melody backed by a steady drumbeat, steeped in echo. Track 8 will have you thinking the surrounds have popped from your woofers and the world has ended, while “Von,” which comes next, is an uplifting hymn that finally fulfills the album's “hopeful” title.

While the group's musical horizons grew considerably between this auspicious debut and its future projects, this is a surprisingly mature and fulfilling set, with the ensemble's unique musical outlook already in place.

Sonically, Von is nothing less than spectacular, with a low end reach that will shake your world if your system can handle it, and an enveloping, deep and wide soundstage that will immerse you three-dimensionally in the group's sophisticated sonic vision. Who needs home theater when your mind can paint the most fabulous pictures thanks to Sigur Rós's fully realized sonic vision. Way recommended!