A huge step back from their sound from the First 2 albums
351734
I really liked both of Needtobreathes first 2 releases. This being the third "The Outsiders" just not the same sound especially from the first album "Daylight", which is their best release so far. They went a little more folk sounding all the way through on this album. Me not being a huge folk/rock fan, this release is a big disappointment to me. Don't get me wrong good lyrics but just not the same Needtobreathe on this release that I became a fan of after their debut album "Daylight". The only songs I care anything about at all on this cd are "These Hard Times" which is by far the best track on it, "Something Beautiful", & "Through Smoke" is alright. I hope their next album is closer to their debut sound.
777680
Perhaps their worst album yet. Someone needs to tell these guys to lose this rock opera and concept album idea. This is the same band that created the masterpieces Images and Words, and Awake, some of my favorite albums of all time. I understand their glory days are far behind them but they've since gone on to write some of the most soulless prog rock and metal out there. Where has the good quality songwriting gone? What's with the bad production on this album? These guys are acting more like prog amateurs instead of the veterans that they are. They either  need to lose this homage/tribute rock opera junk and get back to writing original quality albums, or hang it up. They're borrowing so much from bands like Rush, Pink Floyd, Queen, and they're not even doing it that well. Where's the heart and soul on this thing? I can't even bring myself to finish this. DT have gotten much much worse since Octavarium and I'm sorry to have to say so because I really don't like to see this. Their last 4 albums or so are just mediocre and forgettable. The Astonishing has a lot of the same problems of those past albums, but on top of that, it over stays it's welcome.
1416903
I liked muse a lot better when they took themselves seriously and were trying to conquer the world one great record after another....
That Muse, unfortunately, died after they didn't reach the success they expected with Absolution.
The guys stoped taking things (and themselves) so seriously. They lost the fear of being ridiculed, and they produced one damn good record in the process (black holes). They pushed things even further with the next two records. While one cannot accuse them of becoming radio friendly, they did produce some radio friendly tracks, but it seemed like they were mainly doing whatever they damn well wanted to, and i can only respect them for that, even if the records they produced were way below par.
This album, drones, marks a return to the sounds old fans like me fell in love with at the start of the millenium. The songs, though, maintain some of the poppy character of most recent records. Dead inside sounds like an outake of Second Law. Then everything changes with psycho, which has the most awfully stupid chorus of all time, but the riff just rocks. Mercy follows, a ripoff of another, much better, muse song (starlight). The all hell breaks loose with Reaper, which reminds me a bit of TSP from Absolution. I really dig the chorus of this song, but the guitar solo is absurd.
The handler is one of the weakest songs in the album for me. Cool riff watered down by a tired verse and almost inexistent chorus.
Defector is the queen tribute (together with reaper) in this album. They have been producing queen tributes since black holes, so why not.
Revolt i actually like, even though the chorus reminds me a lot of the Killers. Don't know why.
Aftermath is actually good, with a slow build up climaxing in a sort of singalong with piano that aims to be romantic/epic and almost succeeds. At least it fares better than the Globalist, a dumb mix of Ennio Morricone, muse, queen, and who knows what else. I hate it that they are not ashamed to so blatanlty rip off U2 (Madness), Queen (every other song), themselves (Mercy) or Ennio Morricone. It's like they have become a cover band, with the years...

The last song has some baroque-like harmonies... it seems it is indeed a version of a renacentist sacred music piece (edit: indeed, by Palestrina). It is bordering the unlistenable, sadly, with dozens of matthews singing in polyphony.

So, while i like the tone of the album much better than the second law, i think there's not enough great songs here to warrant it a 4 or 5 star review. Furthermore, there may not even be a single all time great Muse song in this album (second law at least had Madness), so just 3 stars for an okeyish album that might have been great if it contained a couple more great songs.
1038544
As a loyal fan of Type O going back to Bloody Kisses, it pains me to say that in my opinion the band has lost their way with Dead Again. It feels derivative, lazy and uninteresting. I gave it three listens, trying to find something in it appealing, and aside from September Sun, came up short.

Took it out of the changer, put in their previous work, and I was much happier.
334655
I love Within Temptation and have greatly enjoyed every album until this one.  My main complaint is that it's just sonically boring compared to past offerings.  Maybe they got too caught up in trying to tell the story and attention to the musical composition got shorted. In the past, there has always been a lot of interesting stuff going on dynamically.  But to me, most of the songs on The Unforgiving sound too generic and similar with nothing very unique or surprising in the compositions.  I have tickets to go see them in September and I'm really hoping that they are not planning to play the whole album at the show.  I miss the adventurous twists, turns, cliffs, and valleys of songs like, Mother Earth, Angels, and much of their previous work.  Other folks may like this album. I hope they do. But for me it is a 2 star disappointment.
974593
not as good as previous albums, doesn't even sound like them at times, sounds like a knockoff badn trying to imitate them
4055230
I'm afraid that i have to agree with the Metalhammer review on this . Same thing . I've been a fan since the first album and growing up in the UK in the '80's. So it makes me sad to not giving a rave about this , the first "new" album for what must be 5 years ? The whole thing is just leaden and plodding . Way to much acoustic and "soft" . Nothing here is even close to the brilliance of their first 4 albums and doesn't even match the "lesser" albums such as "Into the Now" and "Forever " . If you are a die hard fan you may be able to milk something out of this but after repeat , repeat and repeat playings today i'm afraid this will just get put on the shelf and forgotten . Sorry guys , catch you on the flip side .
3754022
Although their beats are still hard their lyrics have degraded considerably. I think at this point they're putting out new music for the hell of it. The passion seems to be gone and the lyrics seem redundant.
1440876
I love this band. I have been a fan since the beginning of their amazing run. I am not in love with this release. I would definitely rank it as one of their worst in the modern era. The title song Test For Echo is very very good. Unfortunately it goes downhill from there. Not to mention the sound quality of this cd is not as good as weve come to expect from this exceptional band. Someone starting to listen to Rush, i would recommend getting Grace Under Pressure, Counterparts and Snakes and Arrows for "modern" Rush and of course Hemispheres,2112 and Farewell to Kings for older Rush for a good mix. Again, TFE is not one of their best.
3101345
Well the album is just OK i was expecting alot more but I guess they do not sound the same since the band got new drum player, and I wonder what is going on to giovanni's voice because in this cd it sucks. I guess I will stick to their second album (mil palabras con sus dientes) as the best they ever made.  This new album lacks of the bohemia that used to be now is like a new garage-band who doestn know what the hell they are doing but well buy the album just for your collection and don't expect the old bohemia because that is GONE "a long long time ago" and now you are "face to face with" a new band that sucks.
749677
Their two previous 5 track releases have a couple things that make it stand out that this album completely lacks.

The first thing is lead ins.  Of their 10 previously released songs, most of them have instrumental lead ins that last an average of 55 seconds.

The second thing is break downs.  In their first 2 EPs there are plenty of "breaks" mid song, where they highlight, emphasize and exagerate the best parts of the tune.

The lead ins and break downs I just mentioned offer huge variety in every song, making it very easy to listen to over and over again.

Lightworker is missing both.  Too many of these songs are redundant.  They do sound good, but it's like listening to a 15 second clip looped over.  It becomes a stale listen, fast.

Make sure you own their first two five track releases.  If they're touring near you, go to a show (wear ear plugs).  Treasure what they've got out that you like, and hope for another album.
920190
I've been a die-hard fan of theirs since the early days, and this EP is a bit of a letdown for me.  I thought 'If Now Now, When?' was a big step back for them, but when the two singles were released I had a little hope of returning to their previous styles.  However, the two other tracks, "Make Out Party" and "Dance Like You're Dumb" just don't work for me.  Maybe if they were releasing a full album instead of an EP I'd feel differently, but when only half the songs are worth a listen, it's a disappointment.  From S.C.I.E.N.C.E. through Light Grenades their albums were solid from start to finish.  Now they've released one album and an EP since 2006, both were just average.  Shame.
2383067
I didn't think they could do it, but they finally released a clunker --  New Adventures in Hi-Fi is not only their worst album;  It's their most  disappointing.  It was supposed to be their spontaneous, easy-to make  record, the one they wanted to make, instead of being constantly forced to  change their sound.  Unfortunately, all they could come up with is a lame  hybrid of "Automatic" and "Monster."  I still think  "Monster" is underrated, but it's pretty much accepted that  "Automatic" was the band's best post-IRS record.  New R.E.M. that  still kicked.  With "Monster" they changed sounds, added some  wit.  With "New Adventures"...they sound Tired, uninteresting.  It really is their Chicago XXVI, their Adult Contemporary album.  The band,  when Berry packed his bags to farm, should have broken up instead of  sissolving into a rock act.  Well, we still have Reckoning.
4156377
As someone who's become more and more disappointed with each subsequent The Mars Volta release, perhaps I should stop buying and, at the very least, reviewing their new albums. I'm afraid to say that, after becoming acquainted with the band several years ago upon hearing their EP, Octahedron is the last straw in a long series of disappointments that started with Francis the Mute but didn't fully realize until the last moments of Amputecture faded out. It's time for me to move on.

While this album, dubbed rather inaccurately as the "acoustic" album by some fans, is definitely on par with Bedlam and better than Amputecture, it's decidedly average. My favorite thing about disc is that it has done away with the minutes and minutes of "noise" and "sounds" that seem to infect most The Mars Volta albums (Bedlam, of course, being the biggest offender). However, despite those changes being for the better, the highs of the previous album aren't here, albeit the same lows aren't either.

The first three tracks are undeniably good. Since We've Been Gone, Teflon, and Halo are catchy and a nice change of pace from what's been the TMV norm, lately. However, the album takes a nose dive at track four and, unfortunately, never really recovers. The last half of the disc is spent dragging, with sparse moments of intensity that pull everything up a little bit but can't help but seem kind of irrelevant when compared to what's waiting in the rest of the discography.

I give this album a 2 out of 5 stars; not because it's bad compared to what else is out there (it's average), but because it's bad compared to what we all know The Mars Volta are capable of. The Mars Volta have lost a tiny bit of the punk-fueled prog intensity they started out with on each album, and on "Octahedron" what little remained seems all but dried up. The Mars Volta, unfortunately, have become lukewarm; and that is something I'm not sure they'll ever recover from.
2896212
I love previous Amberlin albums an in fact I have them in my iPod and listen to them frequently.
I have to say that I was excited with this release because I think Amberlin is one solid band and the are very talented and make me listen to their works from start to finish.
But this album truly dissapointed me. I have to skip totally dispensable songs like Type Three, Innocent, God Drygs & Sex. It didn't happen to me before with their albums which I didn't need to listen 20 times to start growing in me. This is not a winner.
It's the personal opinion from a guy who loves music and melodic alternative tunes and objectively I say this album is one or two levels under their previous releases. I believe all the 5 star reviews here come from loyal Anberlin fans who will love anything they do.
2716746
I've been a fan of these guys since the 80s, they have been my top favorite band for the past 30 years. After listening, well, actually skipping through, this entire album I had to switch over to Hunting High and Low and Stay on These Roads to wash the sound out of my head. The guys seem to have lost their creative identity and whatever else made them so unique back in the 80s, 90s and even 2000s... The entire album sounds like a very long and very "boring" song, with quite a bit of string instruments in the background. I caught myself thinking that had it been a different band I would be skipping through the album much faster. I guess I was expecting a comeback they had with Minor Earth Major Sky back in 2000, which completely blew me away back then. It's a bit sad watching your favorite band disintegrate to making numerous greatest hits albums, "last tours", as well as remastering, "deluxing" and then re-"deluxing" their past creations. I hope they still have it in them to make a good record before they hang their hats for good, as I sure hope this is not how they wrap things up.
1934783
It just isn't that great.  They got rid of the banjo and folk/bluegrass sound and went with generic indie rock.  Sounds more like a bad Coldplay cover band than Mumford and Sons now.  I fell in love with this band for their original style and I understand that bands change over time, but this isn't an evolution of their original sound as it is a total change.  The lead singer is still very good, but all the heart and soul (and banjos) of the first two albums is missing.  If you liked their original sound and the kinda folk/bluegrass sound, then skip this and go listen to Trampled by Turtles.  They know how to evolve their sound without changing entirely and losing their original fan-base.  Plus, they are just really good.