Gave it a spin, the ''metal'' side is definitely an improvement over the last couple albums at least. Really like Anders utilizing his death growls continuously on the album.
However like the last 2 albums, the overprocessed cleans turn me completely off of basically every song they feature. They are to ''catchy'' sounding and poppy. SOAPF is probably my favorite album when it comes to Anders cleans. A prime example being Where the Dead Ships Dwell. One of my alltime favorite choruses from IF/Anders, and it's purely because of the vocals. They are unique sounding.
I get people like the catchy and poppy choruses, especially people who aren't into the more heavy stuff, for them it can probably be a good bridge dynamically with the heavier sounding verses on the album. But for me it's just fucking boring honestly. It's way to much "anthem" sounding. And even in the verses with clean vocals, like Pure Light of Mind, they have this processed effect which ruins it completely. There is plenty of other songs where he can do the calm cleans in a good way imo, like The Chosen Pessimist, Come Clarity, Dawn of A New Day & Metaphor. Those still sound unique and hard to copy (whether you like it or not), recent couple albums the cleans has lost the Anders touch imo.
I'm sure people a lot of people will love the album though, especially people who love more catchier/poppier sounding clean vocals. That's completely fine, it's just not for me. Rhythm guitars are the biggest step-up imo. I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout most of the album. Drums also really nice.
Pros:
Production is much better than Battles & I, The Mask. Much more crispy, crunchy and clear sounding guitars and drums, without sounding overproduced.
Instrumentally it sounds better than in many years
Anders harsh vocals sound great, especially the increased utilization of death growls
Cons:
The overprocessed poppy sounding vocals completely drags the album down. And the cadence/melodies sometimes just sounds so fucking weird and off to me. And every song doesn't need to go for a catchy chorus with the same formula either..
Sadly, like last couple albums, won't probably be spinning this one much. Maybe it can grow on me a bit like other albums have, we'll see. But I just know the overly poppy sounding vocals does not scream high replay value to my ears.
But then again, I don't really listen to that much IF anymore anyways. But I will say, they sounded fucking great live when I saw them in December. So I will probably catch them live more times for sure.
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