Once you get past the stupid album title and awful album art and to the music I'm not sure how much of an improvement it is...ok I'm joking the music isn't as bad...I guess. The opening track "Hollow" has been kicking around the internet for a long time now and I am still not all that big of a fan of it. Sure it sounds like classic AiC but overall it's a pretty boring droning song with a barely average chorus. The albums current single "Stone" is another one of those tracks that comes off as forced and disingenuous. Jerry and company sound as if they are trying to hard to be AiC from the 90's Dirt era and that just isn't possible anymore. The excellent "Voices" picks up in the dynamics department but is a little sterilized from the production. After the surefire hit finishes a very cool groovy psychedelic title track comes in at a whopping 6:38 which is far too long for this sort of song no matter if it is good. "Low Calling" finally brings it together again which sounds like old school AiC but has enough of a pop groove that it should be considered as a single at some point. The band are much better when they lay off the Black Sabbath debut sludge rock and just write concise rock songs (if you can consider five minutes concise).
It's obvious that when Jerry writes more commercial material he's much more honest to his craft. He has a skill to write a decent hook and one listen to the albums best track "Scalpel" is proof of that. This is what I expect from the band even without the talented Staley on vocals. A near departure in all thing AiC is "Phantom Lab" as its more uptempo on an album that is very slow and plodding overall. Once again the song is too damn long to make a real positive impression on myself. I am not against long length songs I just want them to be interesting like Rush or Yes make them even Supertramp is more entertaining over seven minutes. The bands very "Black Hole Sunish" "Hung On A Hook" is nothing but a droning mess of nothing. One of the albums worst tracks that goes nowhere and is coma enducing. The band apes David Bowie's Ziggy era for inspiration on "Choke" to close an album that is much too long and should have had way more focus on creating songs that don't drive the listeners crazy with their over the top length and unnecessary
droning that sometimes feels like it will never end.
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