Good album. But my least favorite that James sings on. I know they like writing long songs, but the problem with an album like this is, if you aren't in the mood for 2-3 songs, it's such a huge portion of the overall album that it drags down the entire listening experience. I kind of feel like their general songwriting template took over for a bit too much of this album. Still, pretty enjoyable overall. And I think it's telling that on the last 5 album tours, they managed to work 3 of the longest songs into their sets. They clearly stand by the material, and that's cool. As for the songs themselves, Nightmare is great. I feel like the last minute or so of the instrumental section overstays its welcome, and the "roar" at the end of the harsh vocal section doesn't seem to fit. But otherwise, I love this song. It is a highlight of the album. AROP isn't bad, but never something I seek out. Wither isn't very exciting to me. I mostly really like The Shattered Fortress. And I see what they were going for and get why they did everything they did in the song. But at the end of the day, parts of it just seem a bit too stitched together. This is one of the few instances where I feel like letting the song sit longer and maybe getting some outside feedback could have produced something better. TBOT has some really cool parts, but just doesn't work for me overall. And the lyrics are SO specifically personal that, while I get it and can understand how it impacts Mike, it's hard for me to relate to as an outsider to that relationship. TCOT is pretty good. I think it could have benefitted from some editing to make the middle section feel like it fits more instead of being such a momentum killer. But really good song overall.
I think it's telling that the overall theme that keeps coming up for me throughout this entire album is along the lines of, "I mostly really like this song. But..." Unlike their other albums, there isn't a single song that I like, without exception, from start to finish. No other DT album does that. That's why it finishes near the bottom for me. I still enjoy it. But there are a few things here and there that hold it back.
Although I don't listen to the bonus material much, it's cool that they gave us the instrumental disk and the covers disk as well. I love the extra content when I do listen to it.