Finally got the album over the weekend. Only gave it a few listens and well... it's not impressive. For one, where the fuck did Nils go? Seems like he's not used as much as last album and he was one of the reasons I had some new enjoyment out of them after what I thought might have buried them (when Jake E left after releasing their worst album, Maximalism).
But really, the issue is the same... as the music is all the same. And sadly, every time they try to create a new melody or something that sounds different, it just doesn't work well.
Boom! may be the cringiest Amaranthe song.
Production is not that great, specifically, the guitar is buried in the mix which is odd.
If you like everything the band has done, you'll probably still like this, but I'd say after a couple listens this is probably just only better than Maximalism and a big drop down from Helix which I really enjoyed (even though it sounds the same, at least the songs were good there). It's not a terrible listen, but it's not a memorable one either.