Hangnail

@nightriff: In terms of the actual material it's still up to debate (though personally I think it outdoes anything in 'Black Gives Way to Blue') but in terms of production and overall sound it's tenfold better.

@csl316: I burned through 'Hollow' for a month straight when it leaked, can't stop re-listening to 'Scalpel' and 'Pretty Done' now! 'Pretty Done' reminds me so much of 'God Am'.

@oraknabo said:

@hangnail: Another possible theory is that they're big fans of Jack Kirby's DEVIL DINOSAUR:

WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD OF THIS BEFORE?!

@oraknabo: You may not be completely off-the-mark with that claim, Jerry is known for his scathing views on religion and his rather atheist songwriting.

@corwag: Must...repress...intensifying...jealousy...AARRGGHH!!!

@seancoughing: Right on! I'm sure he's gonna dig this and then some!

I have absolutely no idea of what it's referring to, but I can't say that I disagree.

Nick's a great producer, I've yet to listen to Deftones' last record but I hear he really worked some wonders with that.

...and I'll be damned if this isn't the Alice record I've been waiting for since their self-titled album; seriously, this just smokes 'Black Gives Way to Blue' out of the water in terms of nearly everything! The production more closely resembles their sound (and that of Cantrell's scant solo offerings) from the 90s and William sounds like he's actively contributing something this time around. All in all, great record!

@thesoutherndandy: Fuck! I'd download the leak but I just got Alice in Chains new album and need to digest it a bit better before I dig my claws into anything else. Just when you think there's a drought of good rock records...

The band's going for very coherent sense of imagery with this album, something that was only glimpsed at with 'Songs for the Deaf'. I've listened to 'My God is the Sun' and 'I Appear Missing' close to a hundred times now, I expect nothing less than my mind being blown with the whole album!

@oti_xero: Excellently put. It's not that different from hype really, well except the fact that popular opinion is almost exclusively in the negative zone.