Third album for the New England survivors — literally: Mark Whelan beat cancer, and you hear it in every theme on the record. The press, meanwhile, splits: Kerrang! goes 4/5 while Angry Metal Guy stays at 3/5, for a 70/100 aggregate. Notably, the public runs hotter than the critics: 77/100.
On execution, full agreement: this new lineup (Patrick Merson on guitar, ex-Slipknot Jay Weinberg on drums) flattens everything. Kerrang! hails vocals that « have hit a new peak, with gutturals conjured straight from the seventh circle of hell », and the « never sleep » refrain of « Vivid Revelations », « an absolute wrecking ball ». Even AMG, the most reserved, singles out the title track and its ethereal clean vocals as an absolute highlight, and signs off on the production and the grooves.
The disagreement is about direction: AMG misses the creativity and atmosphere of Last Day of Sun, hears simplified lyrics and songs that bleed together; Kerrang! instead calls it « yet another rock solid chapter » on « a destructive course of death metal supremacy ». Split the difference: 7, and let the mosh pit settle it.