Review
Midway through the record, the title track works as a short, combustible exchange between two vocal modes. Screams and clipped shouts interlock over a pulse that rarely lets up, and synthesizer figures drift in at the edges to open up space around the guitars. Underneath the aggression sits a sour emotional pull, which gives the song its bounce without making it feel hollow. It is the point where the album's concept, a descent through one unsettled mind, becomes audible rather than just lyrical.
The rest of the running order mostly pulls the other way. Clean singing comes forward on "Ivory" and "Lovely," and the two ballads frame the heavier material, so the breakdowns hit harder by contrast. The Carroll-derived framework gives the eleven tracks, roughly forty minutes, a loose logic of descent: an ominous intro, a stretch of hard-driving numbers, then a close that settles down rather than ending on a crushing drop.
Sky van Hoff's production holds metalcore, electronics and industrial textures together without strain, though the band bends its genre more than it redefines it. The real open question is the new lineup, which still sounds like a unit finding its footing. Even so, this is a tighter, more focused follow-up to Hollywood Suicide, and its sharper songwriting makes the case for the band's next move.
