ZapX wrote:This is good to hear as they've kind of taken a nose dive into repetitiveness in the last decade plus. I'll check it out.
Well, it's no Divine Wings, Twilight, or New Mythology, but I'd rate it above Odyssey and Paradise Lost, and most certainly above Iconoclast. I should also warn that's it's still mostly in the shreddy style of Paradise Lost and Iconoclast, and not as progressive and thoughtful as their earlier albums. However I do think it attempts to bring back a touch of that neo-classical style with it, which is a step in the right direction, and Russell Allen gives a more inspired performance, IMO. Still a couple of misses, but the hits are pretty strong.
Zap: if you're looking for some interesting progressive metal that does an excellent job balancing heaviness with all other ends of the spectrum, I highly recommend Devin Townsend's Sky Blue/Dark Matters double album if you haven't heard it already. The former is the perfect blend of heavy progressive rock with electronic and pop tendencies, while the latter is a very off-the-wall concept album, and follow-up to Ziltoid the Omniscient. This is Devin Townsend at his best yet, which says a lot given his body of work, and one that I think any fan of modern progressive metal should listen to, even if they don't care for Devin's other work.
Maybe it's because the individual members came out with a couple records since then, or maybe time goes by fast now a days, I don't know. The new track is nice and fun and short, and I'm happy to see that the new album isn't going to be a double LP since recently I've been preferring songs under five minutes(my attention span isn't what it used to be). I wasn't all that big a fan of their last record, but I've still got pretty high expectations for this one. 
music you've got to check out the new 
I think it might have been a bit too of them trying to blend too many aspects of their sound into one release, coupled with the fact that Merriweather was universally loved from the moment of its release and it was impossible to follow up. I actually just recently accepted the fact that I really don't like Centipede Hz. It was like my entire heart and soul could not and would not accept that AC had come out with something that I really had no desire to listen to for hours on end, partially because AC was a band that I'd fallen in love to, and partially because they had come out with so many good releases, together and individually, in a row; Young Prayer, Sung Tongs, Feels, Strawberry Jam, Water Curses, Merriweather, Fall Be Kind, Person Pitch, Down There, Tomboy. I sorta feel bad for the AC fanboys who browse their forums, they probably still can't come to grips with their true feels for CZ. And, humorously, the two times I saw them live during the Centipede Hz album cycle they didn't play the one song I actually kinda dig, "Applesauce."
