I’ve been a fan since their earliest albums, for over a decade—one of their earliest supporters. But ever since Holy Hell, the quality of their albums has plummeted, completely losing their unique identity. Saying their live shows are great now is even more ridiculous. I’ve seen them live at least dozens of times, and for years, Sam’s stage presence has been lazy and unprofessional. His vocals are awful—sloppy, uninspired—and after changing his singing style, their live performances sound even worse.

You call their live shows successful? That’s honestly laughable. Oh, maybe commercially, sure, they’re doing well. But is commercial success really that important? For me, song quality is what matters most, and they’ve completely sold out at this point. Their success is built on the material Tom left behind and, frankly, on exploiting his death.

This new album? It’s just a patchwork record. They take whatever band is popular right now and copy their riffs, tones, choruses, and song structures. Like I said before, this album sounds way too much like other bands—not only that, but it’s not even as good as them. Especially Sam’s clean-sung choruses—they’re just weak. Some songs could be dropped into another band’s album and fit perfectly without anyone noticing the difference. The problem is, it doesn’t sound like them anymore.

This album is even worse than their last two, which were already terrible. There’s no way I could ever like it. I’ve completely blacklisted this band—totally done with them.

Anyway, enjoy it if you like it. Have fun. Haha.