Tenth album, and a frankly schizophrenic dashboard. On the press side, the only aggregated review on Album of the Year is a rapturous 9/10 from Blabbermouth; Metal Hammer Germany tempers it hard at 4/7. On the public side, a rout: 25/100 across 174 ratings, one of the worst user scores of the summer. Rarely has a record so cleanly separated the people reviewing it from the people listening to it.
On the music itself, though, almost everyone meets. Blabbermouth hails a « harder and heavier » band that, « after two decades, still knows exactly what they are, and they’re not interested in slowing down »; even the German critic, no pushover, concedes maximally tight riffs from Zoltán Báthory and Andy James on « Legacy », « De Oppresso Liber » and « Scapegoat », plus immaculate production. « Eye of the Storm » and « Nails In The Coffin » are the tracks that keep coming up.
The sore point is the lyrics: Metal Hammer sums the record up in one lethal line — it « captivates musically and repels lyrically » — flagging Ivan Moody’s « whining undertone » and victimhood posturing. Add the public’s massive rejection and you get a verdict to handle with tongs: a solid FFDP record for the converted, a red flag for everyone else.