✦✦✦✧ I can say, without hyperbole, that this is the most experimental deathcore album I’ve heard in years, if not ever. It contains all of the genre’s hallmark touches (seismic detuning of mushy guitars, compressed triggered drums, and the cookiemonsterest of vocals), but deployed in novel and unpredictable ways throughout the album.

✦✧✧✧ TAC are best when they aim for over-the-top detuned mayhem. What you get on this album instead are passages of riffs that are more often tepid rather than dreadful, interspersed with flow-killing bits of maudlin atmosphere, ill-timed tempo changes, and other bad choices.

★★☆☆ Rather than the extreme fearcore of “Wormwood” or sluggish tedium of “Death Is The Only Mortal,” The Acacia Strain treat us this time around to a detuned-as-always party album, of sorts. Not that you could ever accuse the band of being subtle, but more than ever they’re wearing this silly excesses on their sleeves.