I think it has aged well for me. But unlike most of their albums, my opinions on the individual songs really hasn't changed much. I think this album has more of a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" feel in that there isn't a whole lot that clicked at some point down the road. It all either clicked or didn't fairly quickly and has stayed that way. That's a bit different for DT, but that's fine. Song by song:
-A Nightmare To Remember: About as flawless as it gets. Really, really good song on every level. Great structure. Great instrumentation. Great singing. Great lyrics. The experiment of Mike singing a whole verse in a gruff but now growly way absolutely works. The eery Beautiful Agony section is a perfect counterpoint to the heaviness of the rest of the song and is both soothing and unsettling at the same time. Overall, just a terrific song. Love it.
-A Right Of Passage: A fun, interesting song. Not overly complex, but it's a fun listen. Structurally and in terms of feel, it reminds me a lot of Constant Motion, but doesn't feel quite as strong. Still a good song.
-Wither: Great choice for a single. I doubt I would often specifically want to listen to the album for this song, but I'm glad they did it.
-The Shattered Fortress: I really love it most of the way through up until the big Repentence reprise through the "take all of me" reprise, which don't work for me, but then I live it again after that. Part of me wishes there was more original material. Part of me loves the originality of them taking so many bits of the earlier songs, standing them on their ear, and making them even better in very unexpected ways. So, overall, there are some parts of the song that don't work for me, but overall, I like it a lot.
-The Best Of Times: Some of DT's more emotional, very personal songs really hit me (such as A Change Of Seasons, Take Away My Pain, Disappear, and Vacant). But for some reason, even though I feel what Mike is saying when I really focus on the words, this song just doesn't really connect with me. Definitely my least favorite on the album. Not that it's bad, but again, I just don't connect with it for some reason.
-The Count Of Tuscany: Overall, I really like it. But although I know I'm in the minority on this one, the volume swell instrumental section really drags for me, and I wish it either wasn't there or was a lot shorter. To me, it doesn't add to the song at all, and is so long that instead of feeling like a nice interlude, it kills the momentum of the song for me. But otherwise, this is a terrific song. This and ANTR are perhaps the two best examples of JP's more narrative lyrical style really working. The verses really remind me of Lucretia, and while that isn't a bad thing by any stretch, it's a bit distracting when I start hearing Dave Mustaine in my mind instead of James.
I know a lot of peple commented when this first came out that it was such a "return to form" that people were ranking it in their top 3 DT albums, and so on. As much as I like it, I wouldn't go that far. But it is still a great album, and it doesn't need to be a "return to form" to be great. A year after it's release, I realy enjoy it and still think it is a very solid offering.