I used to like this band. Got introduced to them with 'Draconian Times', then enjoyed the two albums that followed that '1 second' then 'host' even though they were more electonical. The next album was awful though, can't remember the name but it had Bee's on the cover - I kind of forgot about them after that. Was did other's think of that 'Bee' album?
Oh yeah, Believe in Nothing is largely agreed to be the worst PL album, even among the band members themselves. Greg said it doesn't really exist for him, because the making of the record was so heavily compromised. However, he thought World Pretending could've been a great song with better production, and Aaron even named it one of
his top 10 PL songs (while giving an honorable mention to Gone, which is a B-side from the same sessions). Also, when Host and BIN were finally added on Spotify, PL put together
a playlist with the band's favorite tracks from those two albums alongside songs they were influenced by back then.
I have to admit I only like a handful of songs on BIN and could do without the rest - the first two songs are great, the aforementioned World Pretending and Illumination are alright, and Look at Me Now is a pretty solid tune with the exception of the anticlimactic chorus. It's not even the lack of metal that bothers me, because Host is my second favorite PL album behind Draconian Times - it's just that the songwriting is so uninspired. As for the cover art, Nick said they were pretty confused and indifferent at the time due to the prescription pills they were taking.
Anyway, since then they've brought the heaviness back and cut back the electronics album by album, culminating in The Plague Within, which reintroduced Nick's death growl. I have to admit I'm a little concerned about the upcoming album's direction, because I'm not a big fan of sludgy stuff. To me the first great PL album is Icon, which was already growl-free, so I prefer their more melodic output, and at a few points on Plague Nick's growling felt like a bit of a cop-out when melodic singing would've been more fitting. I'll still give Medusa a chance though, hoping that it's not just death/doom.