It is not often that I find myself saying that this sounds like nothing else, but I am lost for comparisons when it comes to this record. I have listened to it again and again and again just to try and get my head around how different it sounds to anything else masquerading within the metal world.

Muse making a Mastodon album is the nearest I’ve got and even that ludicrous notion undersells the utter individuality of this record. It’s big and epic but it steadfastly refuses to go down that syrupy singalong route. Instead, it pilfers from all over the shop building up a distinctive-sounding patchwork of infinite reference points. 

It is just astonishingly accomplished but also marvelously Metta. The band is highly aware of just how all over the shop it is and they happily lean into that chaos. Polished and accessible it still manages to be challenging and utterly bewildering. Certainly, the most single-minded metal album I have heard in utter years