Alright, my thoughts after a few thorough listens.
Very solid album, a lot more polished then their previous stuff though and I do kind of feel like that takes a little away from their overall sound. I'm sure the cleaner sound will grow on me more as time goes on.
I still think that Cut Down the Tall Trees... is a pretty bad song and prob. the first TFOT song I automatically skip.
The Dark Trail is badass, no other way to describe it. At first I didn't care for Thom's high shriek at points in the song but after a few listens I think it fits in well. A real no holds barred type of song.
Quarter Past is really fucking good, the guitar at the start is very catchy and Thom's singing voice has improved ten fold. Kind of has a blues meets Mars Volta feel to it.
Problem!? is decent, kind of has a 80's metal feel to it at points. Not bad but nothing great. Wouldn't skip it when it comes on but won't be skipping songs to get to it either.
Semi-Fiction is a really fucking good song. From the lyrics, to how they are sang/screamed. The music is awesome, I love the rythme in it. It sounds like a "grown up" version of a song that could have been on Doppelganger if that makes any sense lol.
Oh, the Casino!, at first I didn't care for it at all. I let it soak and I started to like it more and more. I acutally think it would have been better if they would have kept it as kind of a slower song then having the fast parts kick in. Another song that I noticed Thom's singing voice had greatly improved in.
Sledgehammer the title track. Well it seems title tracks are usually either really bad or really good. No real inbetween ground most times. Well this happens to fall into the latter of the two. I love the fast part with the screaming, reminds me of some good old 80's hardcore. Then when it kind of draws out into a different sounding song, badass.
Seattlantis, I have been listening to the live version so long, nice to hear it in it's "true" form. I like it a lot, not to excited though because I have more or less heard it so much lol. Great song though.
Ex-Creations -- I don't even really know what to say. Best TFOT song yet? Quite possiably. From the first time I listened to it I thought it kicked ass and it got better with each listen. The guitar work on the song is so good, plus the screams sound really proper, not over or under done.
Shhh!!! If You're Quiet I'll Show You a Dinosaur was prob. my most anticipated song off the album just because of the name alone, I mean, what the fuck? lol. Really good song, starts out quite then just goes berzerk. Has some really dope semi-grind sounding parts that fit really nice. Didn't let me down abit in hoping that a song with a name like that was going to rock.
Caught Up is cool for what it is. With that being said I don't think I would run out to buy an acoustic album by Thom if he put one out lol. Out of the ord for TFOT (or Thom, whatever) not bad though.
A Man. A Plan. A Canal. Panama. is the perfect way to end a album. It's like a clusterfuck of all the sounds you heard on the album. I really liked the kind of sparse and spaced out vocals and screams. It fit the song rather nicely.
Great fucking album. 8.5/10 overall and I could see it getting higher as time goes on. Some things could have been a little better of course but hey no band is perfect and all the members of this band are still really young. Makes me anticipate Phantom on the Horizon even more now if that is humanly possiable. But for now I'm more then content with this album to play out for the next year or so.
