I'm not a fan of industrial so this album has at least one strike against it from the get go. I AM a fan of Steve Albini and his production work so that's a positive which allows me to go intuit with a more open mind than I might have. The opening 2 songs are noisy and uncompromising but not as challenging as I might have expected. And things get better..melodies start to present themselves through the noise and sludge in a manner that pleases but does not cancel out the uncompromising nature of the album in general. I was able to listen 2 full times and a third is not out of the question. 3 stars