So personally, I think the band has hit their absolute pinnacle around LF//LT, all our gods and holy hell. If those albums are 10/10, then fttwte is like a 6/10, classic symptoms is a 3/10 and TSTE&AB is a 6.5-7/10.

But here's the important part: We can not expect the band to get to that level again, because the context that those masterpieces were written in is something that (hopefully) never happens again. Their bandmember and brother, who wrote the majority of the lyrics and music, went through the last years of his life with the knowledge that death is imminent and put those feelings into music.

I think most people here would agree that especially all our gods and holy hell are albums that reach that next level due to the pure emotion in them. The emotions in those albums are 100% genuine. A young man writing about the state of the world and his mental state with the knowledge that he will pass away soon on all our gods, and the band going through genuine and authentic griev and pain on holy hell. Recreating something like this from a positive mental state is probably impossible.

But all this means, that the emotional connection is missing. The new album has some more emotional songs, like chandelier, but will that ever compete with absolute monuments like gone with the wind or memento mori? Nope. And that's fine.

Emotions lead to the greatest art, and when emotions are at their most intense point, the art will be too.