+The good news is this album moves in a more focused direction and finds Manuel conceding to the fact that this project has never been black metal, nor is just screaming "where is your fucking god " make it so hear as it holds more in common with Slipknot than Darkthrone no matter what era of Darkthrone you want to compare this to. The almost tapped vocals of this "Death to the Holy " confirm this, though nu-metal was already a more diverse, here so this is where the hype sets in. To his credit the songwriting here which is nothing groundbreaking is certainly better than the previous albums. What he was praised for in the past I have felt that the band Algiers always did better.
Yes, there are brief period of blast beasts going into the more down tempo electronic of " Emersion" and did does at time come close to something Deafheaven would do, but news flash Deafheaven is also not a black metal band. If you are then questioning what black metal is hang tight as next month is Black Metal History month here and that will be cleared up for you. Once again to his credit the vocals are greatly improved. There is more of a Wovenhand vibe to "Golden Liar", it is more like Hozier here and I would say Eugene Edwards out gospels this guy every day of the week. "Erase" brings back the more stompy nu-metal, with touches of death in the vocals though, there were plenty of nu-metal albums with death metal growls, hell even System of a Down did that. Whose names bears repeating as the more I think of them the more this reminds me of them.
"Bow" marries soulful rock industrial percussion. By the time we get to "Feed the Machine" we are back to less focused songwriting that tries to rely on jarring dynamic but does so in a manner than it much less effective that what say Faith No More does. If the fact this is nu metal does not catch your ear on "I Caught You" then you do not want to hear it. What is funny is all the hipster blogs who would never cover Slipknot because they are too cool for mainstream metal, will praise this to show how diverse their tastes are, and they do not just listen to Deafheaven and Iron & Wine all day. The lack of focus and dynamic shifts from soulful Hozier like folk to heavier passages continues. By "Church Burns " it begins to become tiring. Metal core would also be a better definition of what they are doing here than black metal when the album reaches its heaviest, but metal core is pretty much nu-metal reaching its final form anyway. There are some col sounds here and there and nuanced guitar playing they have grown into, but from where this album begins with a better sense of self to devolving back into chaotic denial of their strengths is a disappointment. The electronic piece it ends with is pretty pointless, but I will just write it off as an outro and not count it further again the final score of this album If I was to disregard all the hype and accept this as a new nu-metal album then I can around this to an 8, well produced and performed, but much like fast food it's empty calories. But if I am honest about does this accomplish what they set out to do the lack of self-awareness as song writers forces me to give it a 7.5
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