If by "fairly" you mean "mostly," I would disagree; but it is definitely slower than the previous two, and features less black metal. I simply find the guitar lines, despite their lethargy, to be incredibly beautiful, and I think the overall atmosphere of the album scores. Lots of the reviews I've seen say it's happier than the previous two, but I don't agree at all. I think you just have to be prepared for something other than black metal; it's more like a weird kind of doomy prog, or something.
At any rate, I just think it's a great composition. And I dig the clean vocals.