Wow.Just wow.
What is this?
The angriest and heaviest album ever made.
It isn't just Devin solo now, it's him, Byron Stroud on bass, Jed Simon on guitar, and Gene Hoglan on drums, and they're friggin' amazing together. This is the emotion of anger condensed into nearly 40 minutes of music.
Byron is alright, Jed really does play along well with Devin, but wow, Gene.. Gene is an absolute beast of a drummer. One of the best drummers of all time, easily, he can drum so incredibly fast with amazing accuracy without ever missing a single beat. Gene and Devin really make this album fierce and brutal. I cannot stress this enough, Gene is an amazing drummer. In the metal world, there's virtually no one I know of that can compare to him.This is an amazing album. Everyone will rip on it for having no guitar solos, but it just doesn't need any. Its atmosphere and heaviness is amazing without it, and guitar solos would honestly feel out of place. There are one or two small ones, but nothing really in your face.
This album is heavy, from the beginning to end. The only times it isn't really heavy is in their Cop Shoot Cop cover of 'Room 429' which is more atmospheric and slow than anything, and their ending 'Spirituality' which has a few heavy moments but is more atmospheric than anything else, like 'Room 429'.
Devin's voice is amazing on this album, from dramatic singing, to screaming, to whispering, to yelling out lines, his voice goes through a lot of work, but every time he attempts something, he pulls it off perfectly, from his singing in 'All Hail The New Flesh' to his rapid screaming that sounds like it's going to literally tear his vocal cords in 'Oh My Fucking God', in which he almost even sounds like he's coughing up blood at one point while he's screaming.
Devin's anger is intense here, and is the main driving force of the album. Sure, metalheads often have anger problems, but not nearly as much as Devin does. He has mental problems, intense anger from being screwed over in the years, his bipolar disorder, use of drugs and medication screwing him over, to his frustration with daily life. He lets it all out here, and it genuinely sounds like he's angry as hell when hearing these songs, with such choice lines as "I'm sick of lying, I'm sick of trying, I'm tired of waiting for fucking nothing!" appearing in 'Underneath The Waves', and the infamous "You failed like God in me" line from 'Home Nucleonics'.
After hearing this album and fully enjoying and understanding it, all other music just sounds so much quieter, and other metal seems less aggressive. SYL just perfected metal on this album. Nothing brings it down.
If you're a metalhead and haven't ever heard this, you're stupid and need to get on this right now, unless you're afraid of Devin ruining all other metal for you.
I can't decide whether to give this a strong 9/10, or a full 10/10. One or the other, the album is just friggin' good, Devin is a madman and a complete evil genius. Byron and Jed are good, but Gene is an absolute beast at his instrument. He and Devin work together perfectly. It's almost worth hearing the album just to hear how insane Gene is on his drumset.
What're you waiting for? If you like metal, there is no reason why this shouldn't be in your library. It's essential.
Recommended Track(s): All Hail the New Flesh, Oh My Fucking God, Home Nucleonics, Underneath the Waves
