Whilst the individual musicians seem to be pushing themselves - the vocals in particular are both incredible here - something about it didn't leap out at me like in previous releases. If you're unfamiliar with them, they have a LONG back catalogue of awesomeness
As sonically impressive as it may be, their back catalog always struck me as .... monolithic. Crushingly heavy and intense, but lacking variation. This looks to me like them proving they're more than one-trick ponnies. It sure lacks the homogeneity of earlier works, but what works for Motorhead or AC/DC mainly works because they keep their songs short, TPH1999 doesn't.
I do like my metal intense and sprawling, but going all out from start to end lacks ... well, dynamics, I guess. Nonetheless, their usual in your face style puts a wide grin on my face and a gives nice adrenaline rush. But after a while the songs start to drag.
Edit :
Mammoth Mammoth has more of a punkish vibe to these ears, but that's not that bad. Some no thrills music is a nice change in times where being bloated gets hailed as '
complex'.
Vandroya, well ... it's power metal. Grew tired of of it a long time ago, at least the vocalist sounds a lot like Doro which is a nice change from wailing 'operatic' vocals. Throwing in short neoclassical bits and Dream Theater-like instrumental breaks doesn't change the fact it's quite stereotypical euro-PM, even if they're from Brazil.
Fen is more along my present tastes, haven't heard of them yet. Gotta dig a bit deeper.