✦✦✧✧ On this album, the guitarist from Creed leads us on a deeper study into the question, “Who exactly is this album for?” The divide between metal-as-fuck music and radio-friendly vocals is wider than ever.  Also, for some reason, when the metal lets up a bit, the experience is noticeably worse (as opposed to being some of the best parts of the predecessor “Cauterize”).

★★★☆ From an instrumental aspect, this album is metal as fuck. The pacing is excellent, and the extremes are as extreme as I could ever ask of a band with a hard rock pedigree. But vocally, it lies somewhere between King’s X and Saliva, and that’s hard to not hear. Still, this ill-fitting formula works really well when the metal eases up a bit, and the more emotive songs on this album work a kind of retroactive magic on the more jarring fist-to-face tracks.