Album Rating: 3.0

This ain't that bad. Compared to Cult of Static it might as well be WDT

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah this is well clear of Cult of Static for sure.

Album Rating: 3.5

i don’t get the apparent disparity in quality between the two volumes

Album Rating: 4.0

There's a mild step down in overall quality, but I also disagree with the level of decline people are talking about.

Black Star is a heater

I think the reason the album feels bloated is because they found more stuff they wanted to finish (hence the delays) but didn't want to make a Volume 3 because then it would feel like they were milking it. Hell, some tracks that were promised even as far back as Volume 1 never made it onto either release because of this (these would have been the re-recorded versions of old tracks like Push it).

Would they have faced backlash for splitting this into a 3rd volume and fleshing out both with entirely original tracks, while also giving themselves a bit more time to complete some of the more difficult to polish demos? Who knows. But they probably didn't want to risk it.

Album Rating: 2.8

i wouldn't have grumbled at a vol.3, the problem is, i don't feel like they handled this one very well. so god knows how a third entry would have looked like lol.