✦✧✧✧ Some people really get off on slam death metal: the lack of subtlety, the cookie monster vocals, all of it. Even within that niche subgenre, this is not a great example of the form. It’s definitely a step up for Pathology, and I can hear them trying to do new cool stuff. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Why is everyone trying to go industrial in 2019?! I mean, I get that cultural trends come back every 15-20 years, but why not bring back early Mastodon or Slipknot? Considering the greatness of the band’s previous album, the post-djent masterpiece “Mesmer,” this feels like a step backward when considering any criterion imaginable. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Uninventive, uninspiring, and unnecessary. This is industrial by the book… if the book is from the mid-90s. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Who even wants to make industrial anymore? This is fucking awful. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Less entertaining than the band’s prior album “Forever Becoming,” this collection of instrumental sludgy post-metal songs asks too much indulgence in its aimlessness. I’m sure I’d like it a lot more if I was baked out of my fucking skull, but that should be a value-add, not a requirement. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ “Vintage” is right; this album feels stuck in time, comprised of a lot of ill-fitting parts. The slop-like production only makes things worse, but the bigger problem is a poor sense of pacing, seemingly in service of mood but actually the album’s biggest enemy. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ What is this, Deafheaven? See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ This album feels like an unholy blend of every major nu-metal band’s example of their One Album After Their Last Good One. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ This self-described “black metal meets negro spirituals” feels like a double case of smarmy cultural appropriation. At least it’s unusual. See the rest here
✦✧✧✧ Limp Bizkit meets RATM meets Butcher Babies meets Soulfly meets Body Count with just a hint of past-their-prime Ministry. In other words: a hot mess. See the rest here
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