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PULL ME UNDER is another cool song: beginning with a synthetic electronics and sharp drums, is developping a melody that is catchy and well modulated without being too poppy or too disco-like, sounding somehow metal, only slightly industrial, though guitars are not precisely the leading characters. 

I find EXPELLED hypnotic, with a catchy melody, but maybe too "commercial", somehow, how to say, too "easy", though "miserable" enough and in this way suitable for the dark souls, who obviously, sometimes need "their" "light" music and more or less one could say for SHUT YOUR MOUTH, where the proceeding is somehow heavier anyway (UFO video apart!).

For me, IT'S ONLY THEM is one of the most metallic tracks, another cool one, obsessive, repetitive, speed enough that shows also angry guitars in the right moment: here the Paradise Lost influences meet the newest metallic directions taking the direction of the up tempo tendency, though tempo changings are present.

On the contrary, methinks that "INJECTED PARADISE", another of the most valuable songs of this album, is that one when the Paradise Lost influences à la Host and Believe in Nothing are more evident. Cool melody and decadent lyrics that will send into raptures all PL fans (me included hehehehehe), though i personally think  that  some good pushing guitars are totally missed. But this is my personal question: what is doing Peter Tägtgren with PL chords, proposing something that , with all due respect, PL have done better and however much long before? Ahh, sorry, i was forgetting, he is not only a Death Metal producer...

Very atmospheric and decadent is JUST HATE ME, that has at my opinion more or less the same problem of Expelled. It sounds somehow too easy and poppy, it could also be very different, with some effort more. But on the contrary its commercial taste has even been stressed by the fact that, "totally by chance" is the song which has been also proposed as single. Pure coincidence!

THE GAME is presenting  hard  heavy metallic guitars and an intense rhythm, pity that all this is applied to the wrong song, cause "The Game" seems somehow to find not a good balance between heavy metal and good melody, without mentioning that the speed refrain has many notes that  remind me of the mytical Rolling Stones "Paint It Black". If you listen with attention to the subterranean melody of the refrain, you too will surely recognize that many notes are too similar to the the ones of Stones' song. I don't like it.

Much more better and interesting "CLOSE MY EYES", with futuristic impending keyboard sounds and hard guitars , hovering between NIN and some experimentations and loops which can remind to American bands. Guitars are hard enough.

SAVE ME is, after all, agreable in the measure in which it is able to create an atmosphere remaining  classical danceable and listenable for everybody with the right speed in order to have a nice rhytmic  almost disco-like moment, with some good stressed guitars.

In the end of story, i can say that this album is not 100% metal oriented accordingly to the more classical definition of it, but nevertheless gives us good valuable moments which dark souls will anyway appreciate and that can be heard also by those persons who don't get used to hard sounds. The fact that the author is Peter Tägtgren, "god " of Hypocrisy, could be understood like  a) a disappointment in the opinion of  some people, b) a freedom of creativity in the opinion of some others , c) a commercial compromise, d) something else, hehehehe. 

dalia di giacomo