There’s a more mature sense of violent abandon here than we’ve heard before, and calculated, as if each swipe of the band’s musical blade is carefully measured before it sinks into flesh. Tracks like “Sarcastrophe,” “Nomadic,” and “The Negative One” tread familiar terrain, but with fresh vigor. Each will no doubt go over like a storm in a live atmosphere.

And, quite simply, this album just sounds scary…in the best way possible. “Custer,” “The One That Kills The Least,” and interlude “Be Prepared For Hell” play like excerpts of a horror movie that exists only in the band’s mind—or the listener’s. Even the members’ new masks seem to reflect this, Corey’s and Clown’s in particular; the former conjures imagery of serial killer Ed Gein, who danced under the moonlight wearing the skin of his victims, and the latter is most certainly not something you’d want to see peering down at you when you wake in the middle of the night.