A lot of folks here were essentially calling this DOA but in my eyes - they were very much wrong. This record is awesome and that opener y’all... so good!
A couple listens in it gets better. I like it a lot. It probably won’t be classic status like their first three records but it’s a worthy entry. Psyched to dig in more. I like the way it kind of connects HOHW back to SILY stylistically. Die Contrary is epic.
His vocals on Son.. were pretty run of the mill, sure, but his vocals on this record are a lot better if you ask me. I actually really like it here.
TJ isn't a perfect screamer, but I like what his vocals bring to the band. I've only listened to this all the way through twice now, but I really like it.
If he was scaled back even like 25 percent with parts and was a little bit quieter in the mix, I think that would make a big difference.
On first listen I didn’t really care for this much but it was better than the singles had me expecting, gonna give it a few more. TJs vocals are a massive downside.
Maybe I was in a bad mood yesterday but I’ve come around on this a bit actually. The last 3 songs in particular are crazy good. No coincidence that 2 of those are heavily Cody’s. The guitar breakdown on Venture reminds me so much of the ending on Colour Revolts “naked and red”. Pretty epic stuff.
I’m liking this more than I expected to. If the whole album was just Broadway and Maybe I’d be fine with it- those songs are great. Biggest let down for me at first are lyrics, which have always been major highlight of ACB for me.
gonna try running through their discography starting at HoHW (semi lo-fi, raw indie sound), into this (similar sound mixing in some harsher vocals and higher production), wrapping back around to SILYAYD (fully embracing the aggression “hinted” at on here), and finishing with Come, Now Sleep (because not ending a discography run with Timothy is just a poor choice, and I’d currently say it’s their most mature record, imo).
Love this now. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think “Hollowed Out” might be my favorite song on here. It’s the most classic ACB track IMO. It’s gonna be so fun listening to their discography on a loop now.
I've been listening to this non-stop over the weekend and I love it. It took a few listens for it to fully click but now I can't stop listening. Broadway and Maybe are sticking out as early favorites but I'm expecting that to change as I dig deeper. It really is a great mix of all their albums/sounds. Bright White Light sounds like it could have been right off of CNS, the second half of the song reminds me of This Is It, This Is It. It took a few listens til I noticed the end of Die Contrary faded out with Jesus Paid it All. Really cool ending that reminded me of Julien Baker's Go Home.
Man, I love that. That hymn is really special to me so that just further elevated a song I already love.
Liked that better than I thought I would have. Lyrics are spotty from what I could make out, but the weirdness of the whole thing is trumping that for me.
Die Contrary is the best song they’ve written since SILYAYD for me. I know this take is a minority one.