Although it wasn't released in the United States until 2004, VON is actually Sigur Ros's debut album (released in Iceland in 1997). The band made a grand appearance on the world stage in 1999 with AGAETIS BYRJUN, and were quickly heralded for their evocative, majestic guitar-scapes and their ability to conjure the mythic expanses of their native country with a blend of instrumental post-rock, ethereal vocals, wild experimentalism, and swirling shoegazer aesthetic. Fans of that album might expect VON to be a blueprint of AGAETIS, yet it is as markedly different from its successor as () (the band's third album) was to its predecessor. The lengthy opening track (named after the band) contains a cacophony of unsettling sounds and minimal electronica, putting the listener on notice that VON is not your average indie rock outing. The rest of the album veers between dreamy, gentle, floating-in-space ambience and atmospheric, guitar-heavy excursions that owe an obvious debt to My Bloody Valentine. On several tracks vocalist Jon Thor Birgisson lets his lilting, androgynous voice float above the fray, putting the defining stamp on the group's sound. Unique, engaging, and full of sonic surprises, VON is a bold first statement from one of the more original and compelling bands to emerge from Europe at the turn of the century.