Perfect Picture of Wisdom and Boldness

I really wanted to give The Mass credit for improving on their first album by mostly dumping that agonizingly trite saxophone that popped up over and over again like a herpes outbreak, they screwed the pooch by making the follow-up nearly an hour long. Considering that I can't stomach a single song by The Mass, this isn't to their advantage.

There's not a real significant difference musically between this album and the previous one, other than that the jettisoning of the saxophone really does out the band as just an overblown indie/prog rock collective. Yes, the vocals are a little bit harsh, but the biggest influences here seem to be stuff like Sonic Youth more than anything really in the metal field. Even the sporadic metal riffs and blasts that infrequently dotted 'City Of Dis' are basically gone, leaving the sophomore release just a pretty boring, overlong prog rock album that just as many beardos will listen to.

To the band's credit, there does seem to be more ambition as far as songwriting goes. The tracks are less random arrangements of meaningless passages and are more firmly based on a certain arc and development; aurally squint and you can hear the traces of Jethro Tull and Yes all over 'Corpsewielder', and I won't fault the band for actually trying to do music that does more than just jack itself off all the time. That being said, it's still excruciatingly boring stuff for the most part. While it's technically accomplished and the songwriting has improved, it still doesn't really connect with the listener or create any sense of emotional tension. It's a technical exercise with nothing behind it.

Granted, a technical exercise with nothing behind it is a massive step-up from the legitimately headache-inducing 'City Of Dis', but it's still pretty crappy and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone I like.