[Icedmofo]

Just finished listening through the whole album.

As a whole i wish they'd gone with a different producer, it all just sounds really muddy and stapp's vocals are...i don't know...too loud? Too pitch corrected? I can't put my finger on it but it just sounds kind of off.

As far as the songs go, i do like most of them. I have to say that i like the new direction they're heading in as far as how heavy it is.

I'm a little disappointed in a lot of the songs lyrically, they just seem weak compared to even alter bridge, there's just no finesse to it like Stapp used to be able to write, the lyrics don't flow at all, and in some cases it's downright awkward.

I think Full Circle, On My Sleeve, Fear, and Thousand Faces are my favorites so far. In a lot of other cases i really enjoy the song musically but then really can't get into it lyrically, those are the 4 that hooked me from both angles though.

There was a distinct shift in the quality of Stapp's lyrics from weathered to great divide, and that shift is still prevalent in this album.

I know some people harp on AB for the generality of their lyrics, but at least they flow and sound good harmonically, in some cases with stapp it seemed like he tried to cram in way too many words that didn't go together in the first place at the end of phrases and it just sounds awkward. In other cases it sounds like he just wrote something general to get from one part of a song to the other because he couldn't think of what to really write.

It's made more noticeable when you listen to a song like Thousand Faces, which IMO is written extremely well, and then listen to a song like Time which just sounds like a generalized, cluttered mess of lyrics, no matter how good the guitar work is behind it.

God i just reread that and it sounds like i'm bashing this cd, i really don't mean to. I love this band and i do love this album, it's just that the lyrical content really stuck out at me in an annoying way all the way through it the same way as it did on stapp's solo album.

Tremonti is a beast, plain and simple, the man is an endless well of awesome guitar riffs, chord progressions, harmonies, and solo's that just rock my pants off, and goddamn can the man sing.

Phillips is one hell of a drummer. I love listening to the old creed cd's and then through the AB stuff to hear how much he's improved as a drummer, it really is pretty incredible.

In my mind, Brian is responsible for some of the really awesome grooves in this cd. I really think he had a hand in the groove of Full Circle, which is a big departure for the band style wise, but just kicks major ass. It's like a really awesome combo between blues groove and rock kickassness.

I'm curious how this would have sounded with ERock actually on the cd, i really love him as an addition to the band, him and Tremonti really seem to get along and have fun performing together. It's cool because ERock really looked up to Tremonti when he was in Submersed, and now look at where he is.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents, take it for what it's worth.