After another few listens, the situation is getting worse for me...
I like (but not love) the first four tracks, but I find TT, ATM and the title track totally boring.
In particular:
- TT sounds "confused" to me, for most of the chorus and pre-chorus I cannot connect the harmony to the melody, it's just all messed-up for me, and the solo is just not a good solo played over a not so good riff
- ATM has just nothing inside that I find interesting, the main riff is just the usual JP's riff played on the 8th string, making it just more muffled..
- AVFTTOTW is not an epic, is just a long song filled with useless stuff...and I cannot find a single brilliant idea in the whole 20 minutes..e.g. the initial riff is just a boring chugga-chugging over a weird tempo (12/12 + 11/12)
Overall I agree with the other forum members who think that JP is the weak link here: the solos are 10+in terms of technique, but 5-- in terms of emotions and creativity, and the background work is even annoying at times (the rentless low-string riffing below the verses...)
The disc will rank very low in my list, very close to the bottom...but I am already looking forward to the next album!