So I have mentioned this before, but I thoroughly enjoy hard/heavy music - so Zeppelin, Sabbath, Nazareth, UFO, Iron Maiden, Tool, Metallica, Dio, Scorpions, Priest etc. - as are all in my wheelhouse, but for some reason, speed and thrash metal, have never really appealed to me - and this album was NO different... Once again, we have a band that is trying to play as fast as possible, along with almost NON-EXISTIENT vocals - which did absolutely nothing for me... BTW - just because a drummer has mastered the double bass pedal from a speed perspective, doesn't mean that you should use it ALL the freakin' time... And vocally, there is no melody of any sort, no singing of any kind - just screaming, and the lyrics are just dreadful... I'm beginning to think that my issue with this genre, is that there is absolutely NO room for the music to breathe... Good music is a nice balance between the notes, and the empty spaces - with some arguing that the empty spaces - and the contrast that they create with the actual notes, is what creates musical magic... This band is trying to play as many notes as the possibly can, and trying to play them as fast as they possibly can, that there is absolutely no space for the music to breathe - like AT ALL... Not a decent song on the album in my opinion, and in fact, I was running through what some of the reviewers thought were the best songs on the album a 2nd time through... So I was listening to "Alter Of Sacrifice" and was about 35 seconds into it, when I REALLY began to regret my decision... Fortunately, right about then, a good friend called - which stopped my music app so I could take the call... I answered by saying "...Thank God you called, I really appreciate you saving me..." : ) Would truly give this a "0" (ZERO) if I could, and I think there may have been only 1 other album to date that I thought that about - so 1-star for this dreadful, dismal, awful-excuse-for-an-album...