Possible hot take: this isn't that bad.

good song. production doesn't do it any favors tho. drums are particularly empty-sounding. if they're going for the "we recorded this at a neighbors house" vibe then i guess they're rockin it

Clean vocals are nice.

Sucks ass

The Ø gimmick for this album cycle is so funny

"an absolutely monstrous groove"
- the author

poop song

Are mainstream metal bands in competition to see who can write the most banal song in existence or something

it's alright honestly i don't think it sucks; the cringe feelers only go off on the "going crazy" line imo

but it is on the borderline of "is there anyone out there"

like im half considering calling the review "Through the Blackening of Catharsis")

Pretty meh but still big step up from the awful last album

Not awful, not great.
Second half is a lot better.
First half feels like there's an idea, but they took minimal effort to get there.
3/5 probably.

And the thing about the "monstrous groove" is that, yeah that's generally one of the band's strengths, but over-glorifying it and leaning on it instead of putting the anticipation and whatnot on equal ground kind of cheapens it a little. And I don't mean like "don't play these riffs so much" or anything like that; I mean anchoring a track to a specific recurring riff doesn't hold up unless that riff truly moves the song in each context its placed in. I feel like because the "groove is monstrous" he ended up playing it a couple more times verbatim than he should have instead of coming up with an alternate version. Just my take.

I def feel like Rob Flynn would come off like he had more balls if he showed more humility whenever he did something good.

UPVOTE THIS HARD

You wonder what my civil unrest review was about lmao

Also lol the groove Pales in comparison to beneath the silt

Bass sounds like ass

Unhallowed be machine head

Worst single of the year. Rob has good politics though

Purplespartan sorry I tried a hallowed be thy name pun