The new alien ant farm albums are far from the mantra they want to be. These veterans of the early 2000s alternative metal scene are out here putting in work, and I can respect that. However, this album feels a bit lost in its overall presentation. A good chunk of the songs suffer from either being a bland generic rock song like on “No. 1” or a disjointed mess of ideas like on “Mantras.”. The songs feel incomplete or half baked, and so they don’t feel properly fleshed out. Like some of the songs, like “the wrong things," it feels like a lot of the song feels empty and hollow. This is the first full album I’ve listened to from them, so im not sure if they were trying to switch things up, but it feels like poor execution here. However, a few songs have a bit of more creative flair that sound good with how the riffs feel vibrant and his vocals have a good range on these songs. The song “Prosperous Futures" has a cool, dark feel to it that really works well with his large vocal range. The bass sounds good but has some funky parts that feel odd. The drumming, for the most part, feels really safe, so it can feel quite bland at times. Die-hard fans might enjoy this album, but for a casual fan, you might want to stick to their bigger hits than this one.
RATING: 6/10
NOTABLE TRACKS:
Last dAntz
So Cold
Prosperous Futures