I will not say anything different from the thousands of critics on the Internet, this album is a mismash of Opeth, Devin Townsend (blatantly ripping off the song 'Deconstruction' on their song 'Autotheist Movement II: Emancipate') and every other progressive metal band that has basically mixed elements from numerous genres into their respective musical styles. Is this a good or bad thing?
The production is a very clean, crisp sound, which goes well with the Mike Patton-esque atmospherics (the circus elements in 'Deconsecrate' are pure Mr Bungle soundscapes). Guitar is amazing of course, as evidenced by the beautiful solo on 'Emancipate'. Drums, though not spectacularly remarkable, do service well to back the music. Vocals are puzzlingly immature, especially the clean ones. The death growls are what every fan of the band want but I find them very tiresome. This isn't Opeth.
Songwriting wise I could give them a high score, no doubt, these are powerful songs, but where is the originality? Given, this is the logical step from 'Planetary Duality' with the rise of more technical death metal bands, but you should be able to fill in with your own chops if you want to fill in the veteran's boots. This record is undoubtedly one that is full of promise, but is rather messy in presentation, rather than providing a full fluidity of tracks, and sections that do not juxtapose well together. For one, get rid of cheesy voice samples if you are going to do straight off death metal.
★★★☆☆ Average - Half of album is listenable
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