I don't mean to sound pretentious here, but as a composer, and someone who has a degree in music theory, this record is anything but weak songwriting. This record has a multitude of examples of a band that has finally realized their unique attributes, and then built upon them, and by introducing new challenging harmonic and melodic ideas, has created a unique sound and record for the ages."
Even though so many people will get worked up by what you said here, and in other comments in this thread, I'm certainly not because you bring up some good discussion points (I may think this album is uneven, but I didn't prepare for 10 pages of comments agreeing with me on that front.)
But I can definitely see why you would enjoy this album, from a music theory standpoint. It's challenging, complex and eventually rewarding. But my experiences with this release have only grown more distasteful with time, because I do feel like a lot of the songwriting in the record follows familiar progressive tropes that I don't enjoy much. Maybe the biggest example here, one I really dislike but didn't find a place for in this review, is "Alpha." The way that song begins and builds up-- man, if it had kept that pace I would've loved it more than any other track here. But as we know, it takes a turn about four minutes in, into that Middle Eastern-inspired melody... And that is frustrating to me, because solely upon listening to those first four minutes, there was absolutely nothing to warrant that shift, especially when the ideas already introduced could have been expanded upon for another few minutes, easily. I like these guys when they work with basic ideas and flesh them out, like in "Cote" and "Deadman"-- that is why a lot of this songwriting is being called uneven, incoherent, pick your synonym. Maybe asymmetrical?
And while I'm willing to entertain the idea of music theory purists getting more out of this than anything else, I also don't think that's something most music should strive for. There's a difference between music that experiments just enough to occasionally disorient the listener, and music that exists in that disorientation-- keep in mind my criticism of "AM War". While it is an interesting take on dissonance, it is certainly not very fun for me to listen to.
But also, thanks for the comments. Glad to have some solid discussion here.
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