As someone who got into pretty much every heavy genre of music from Progressive Metal, JFAC's Sun Eater was a pivotal moment in my music journey. And this is a follow-up album but its not in the traditional sense. It doesn't pick up where the last one left off or anything like that, it's a separate story but about similar things if that makes sense. Both are about Drug Use, and about a specific person the Band know. Also, had a similar reaction to you to Grinding Wheels of Ophanim, that drop, and then the realization of the panning drum work. By far my favorite song on the album. The panning in this album is fantastic, there's entire backing vocals, bass work, drum work and guitar leads in different ears in parts of these songs and it really is one of the best produced records I've ever heard. This is my AOTY at this point, loved Charcoal Grace but this tops it for me.

Yay I’m so happy you made this!! One of my favorite bands to ever do the damn thing. 🤘🏻💜

29:40 I'm confused by you calling it metalcore music? I know you said deathcore before too, but none of this is core at all to me. Their EP Doom from the mid 2000s was indeed deathcore, but for several albums they've been prog/tech death, and as you mentioned, lack of breakdowns is a thing here.

Definitely hear the ABR vibes in some parts. I like this but i need multiple listens

12:49 my exact face the first time i heard that riff too. Grinding Wheels of Ophanim is the best song they've ever written

You should definitely check out Fallujah

This isn’t deathcore at all. They transitioned to death metal a while ago