Late thoughts after first listen: this album is good. Not great, but good. The music is phenomenal (some of the best they've written), and how it transitions from the Arabic strings to metal in a lot of songs is really cool. The arrangement's also gotten more complex and interesting, which is also a plus. The rhythm guitar work in particular was a highlight for me. But the album's not without its flaws, and three things that really stood out as really glaring were the censored swears (which were a little distracting, but I guess it fits into the whole anti-totalitarianism/censorship thing they had going), the harsh vocals (didn't care for those, but I could tolerate them at times), and some of the lyrics. Like, I get the message of the album and I like and agree with it as a whole, but there are some lyric choices that make me cringe so hard. It's not so much that there are unfortunate implications in the lyrics or it missed the mark with the message, but there's certain technical things that just irk me.
Side note: that guillotine/execution ending is literally one of the most brutal things I've heard. That really caught me off guard. One of the highlights of the album for me.