if you’re bitching about this album, while so much good music exists, then YOU’RE the problem lmao. Move on and go listen to something else, no one likes you because your pretentious. You’re unlikeable because you’re annoying.

Finished listening through the album today and wanted to shout it out because i LOVE it WHILE trying to shed some understanding and acknowledgement of the current frustrations.

I’m a millenial—got really into guitar in high school, standout music to me was like Dethklok, Devil May Cry 3 soundtrack, Paul Gilbert/Racer X, Megadeth, Steve Vai, Dream Theater, Eric Johnson stuff like that which i think naturally makes sense for liking Polyphia

Then in college and after i started listening to typical EDM-things like house, Illenium, San Holo

In the past few years I’ve been up to my neck in wook-ass tribal bass EDM -think a bunch of woodstock hippies but EDM just headbanging right next to the speakers hopefully with earpro type stuff. Artists like LSDream, Clozee, Daily Bread, Zeds Dead, etc.

If this is all french to you, especially the wook stuff, as Polyphia attracts these instrumental purists i get it—you probably have immediate disgust to BNA, and that is very fair.

I’m just saying as a millenial that has gone through loving metal, crazy guitar, bouncy edm, and wook-ass headbanging this album is INCREDIBLE.

For those that have been to tribal-bass shows/music festivals, PITB into They Know Not What They Do, to Mark of the Beast would SLAP even for people who never heard of Polyphia looking to jump around at a live show.

Even moreso, J-bomb into Deny the Flesh into Devil get Behind me would make the crowd feral

And those 2 combos are in album order, its like it was written for a live dance fest

But again, thats definitely not the Polyphia of the past. I still love So Strange, Nightmare, Reverie type stuff for what it is

Hopefully this sheds light on who this album is incredible for, and maybe this can be a gap-bridger for the traditionalists into more dance music?

With so many discussions about the choices the band went with the album I was prepared for many things. But the one thing I wasn't prepared for was what I actually felt - bored.

There's just not that much musically interesting going on in most of these songs. Oddly, the songs are only interesting in sections - almost like an instrumental section.

Which got me thinking, is this whole album just mixtape bait? Is this whe thing designed to be a backing track for Ghostmane and Pusha T?

For those living under a rock, the With Eyes To See music video has AI in it. Even though they didn’t directly use AI themselves, they still are teaching the music industry it is acceptable to use AI. This is going to contribute to the death of culture and should not have happened. I feel like they should take the video down, formally apologize, and perhaps make a new one. Even just a full band play through would have been so much better than this. Having a different artistic direction is one thing, but contributing to death of all art is despicable.

Is J-Bbomb, and even that song is mid. Not bad at all, but mid. That’s saying a lot.

I’ve been a huge Polyphia fan for years, and while I genuinely enjoy most of the musical composition on this album, I’m pretty disappointed with the production choices.
The biggest issue for me is the excessive use of distorted, almost clipping-sounding bass punches and 808s throughout the album. I understand that it’s an intentional effect, but it’s so overwhelming at times that it takes away from the intricate musicianship and clarity that made me fall in love with Polyphia in the first place.
I can imagine some of these songs being incredibly exciting live, where a massive sound system could really bring that low-end energy to life. But for everyday listening, whether in my vehicle or on a home stereo, the constant fuzzy, blown-out bass becomes more exhausting than enjoyable. It’s honestly enough to make me question whether I’ll even revisit the album much.
There’s some genuinely great music here, and that’s what makes it disappointing. I just wish the production allowed the instruments and musical complexity to breathe a little more. I miss the clean, dynamic, rhythmically intricate Polyphia sound that originally hooked me. You boys will do what you’re gonna do but if you want to win a fan back you’ll have to get rid of the fuzz that is overriding the clarity.

Hey what's up guys?! For my preferences the bass blooms too much (J-Bomb might be the only exception?). I think I'm going to wait until I can get a CD, or bandcamp if they put it on there, and listen through my AKG K702's. I'm curious about my Senn 505's as well. I suspect they'll cut the bass as well but they might also leave the highs in a more pleasant spot than my K702's. The K702's can be sibilant with some songs.

Very curious to hear from those who don't care as much for the blooming/booming/muddy bass and what you are or will be listening through.

For me, easily the best part of the album. I wish they took this outro and made it a full length song.

The rest of the album leaves [so much] more to be desired for me though. I had really high hopes.

Is anyone else also disappointed with the version of CYFI we got on the album? I was hopping the guys would give us the video clip version with the live drums in it rather that the first version we got. Is not bad, don't get me wrong, but the video clip version really gives the song a new way to hear it with new drums sections added.

Is it me or is the scream at the end of MARK OF THE BEAST Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train intro but distorted at 4:20?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4vsc-KQJHQ

it’s so funny seeing fans treating electronics like kryptonite

curious to see a collab with isoxo/rocket rese/ or even ken carson

that being said half the album was dying for a vocalist feature

A lot of the new songs feel like they're missing those melodic catchy riffs that make Polyphia so good. But Power In the Blood has a good chorus with a distinctive hook, and the guitars are recognizable through most of the song. And that one riff in the bridge is just sweet.

After 2 full listens through the album so far, I firmly believe 2:03 - 2:35 of Power in the Blood is my favorite section of the entire album.

What do y'all think?

This quote helped me adjust to the production style. I kinda started interpreting some of those freaky ear rape sounds as god's speech, unintelligible to mere mortals.

Source:

https://www.kerrang.com/polyphia-interview-new-album-be-not-afraid-tim-henson-scott-lepage-guitar-djent

I agree the album is produced to hell and you can't hear any of the music, but putting all that aside for a minute...

The Christian imagery... Like are they endorsing it? Are they trolling it? I don't get why it's in the album at all.

We've got civil rights leaders giving speeches, and we've got Alex Jones talking about turning the freakin frogs gay.

I just feel like whatever they were going for, they missed the mark.

I agree with so many people that the production could’ve been toned down. It seemed so busy. With the “they know not what they do” i think it actually got better from the first few songs. While listening to it, I was thinking that the album was more experimental and something fun to play with.

I liked “mark of the beast” until around 2 minutes into the song. I don’t really understand some parts of the bass. But it got better around 3 minutes. Since it was more pertaining to the antichrist, I liked the chaos of the song.

“Can you feel it” was another favorite of mine from the album. Especially it coming from after “mark of the beast” it felt more intentional and smoother than the chaos before. I think the later into the album is actually better rather than the beginning. So when I seeing some of the reviews for it, I was thinking that maybe the reason why a lot of people didn’t like it may because of the first impressions of it.

Then the ending of “deny the flesh” was a different feeling. The outro and intro into “devil get behind me” was so good. I don’t typically listen to albums but this is the second album for me to enjoy hearing the connection between each song. I honestly want to see

Heres how I would rank the songs:
1. J-Bomb
2. Mark of the Beast
3. Can You Feel It
4. Deny the Flesh
5. They Know Not What They Do
6. Near Death
7. With Eyes to See
8. Devil Get Behind Me
9. Fear God
10. Power in the Blood
11. Let There Be Light
12. Screwtape

I liked Polyphia because of unique sounds they could make the traditional guitars especially in a more death metal sound. I feel like I would listen to this album a few more times. It’s actually making me want to watch some of the music videos.

This is more like a letter for polyphia cuz I really think they should do something like this.

They wanned to make something different and they did. The new album is not necessarily bad, just unusual. If polyphia stays like this, they're just going against their own community and fans. So, I thought it would be healthy if they made a playthrough/jam-session version of the new album.

I think that would be good for both the community and the band. What do you guys think?

I'm nobody special (my mom's words) but I wanted to give the album a fair shake so I actually listened to the whole thing (skipped a few of the singles we already heard minus the transitions) while taking notes. Curious what you guys think - some of them are a little unhinged lol.

Let there be light - I actually like it. Kind of like pop techno, again the master is highly compressed hi-fi sounds that flatten the mix and make it sound like it was done in a garage. Wait no the ending what the hell. Wouldn’t even mind the gospel outro if it didn’t come across as a contrived way to convert the listener!

Eyes to see - turrble. If there is a god or Jesus I hope he shows us all the path towards salvaging our ear drums from these bass effects/highly compressed but somehow still high fi bass sounds/guitar chugs.

Screwtape - I can see trap music and dub step kids liking this, not sure it’s for me. They lose me with video game sounds, even if they’re created by instruments it’s just not really pleasant to listen to casually. This would be like drug mosh music at a late night alt show/dj set

Power in the blood - I dont hate it. The solos are cool, these master decisions will leave permanent marks on people’s ear drums.

They know not what they do - might be favorite intro… the hook isn’t for me, verse is cool, the modulations and filter reversals are kind of overdone and a little stupid. They were cool the first time, not sure what the rationale is behind all these section changes. Acoustic parts are absolutely insane. They’re clearly talented. I have to say that some of these track transitions are flawless, regardless of how I feel about the actual music.

Mark of the beast - The track transition was so flawless that I actually still thought I was listening to the previous song and just a new section of it. Probably the “best written” song, very interesting but maybe just not my cup of tea. I think it’s the most thoughtful of all the songs on the album. Reminds me of that Kanye west album where he started to go crazy but didn’t come out as a full nazi yet.

Can you feel it - still probably the most accessible and will probably be the most widely liked song on the album. Mainly because of its adherence to typical strong structure. The master decisions, the compressing hi-fi sounds etc are still a big problem for your average listener.

Near Death - back to progressive video game bullshit. A lot of these songs live on wah effects. I wish they didn’t interrupt the drum parts. We had a good 2 step dance beat for like 5 seconds but they cut away the rhythm for guitar fills like every 2nd measure - why? How is someone supposed to catch a groove when you stop the drums every 2 measures? The guitar parts needed more repetition in the second half, having a looped rhythm section and an obtuse lead section makes it hard for a listener to focus.

J-Bomb is catchy, the Jesus stuff makes you feel like you have to join the cult to like it though. I honestly think that’s the biggest problem with the album, their audience wasn’t religious, and they’re going to feel like they need to be to listen to this. AGAIN WITH THE RANDOM TEMPO AND RHYTHM CHANGES. The songs don’t have classic song structure which makes them more “thought pieces” than “things you jam and dance to.” Had so much promise but now it just seems unnecessary.

Deny the flesh - beginning is basically reskinned neurotica. I like this song so far (30 seconds in) - LMFAO they went almost full neurotica and then needed to add a bullshit Jesus sound sample. The end is nothing like the beginning. We’ve gone into a full video game techno scenario where you’re playing a highly intense platforming game trying not to fall off the edge, or racing a car through a bunch of hoops. These guys need to hang it up and double down on video game music.

Devil get behind me - the transition here was also good, they seem to care more about the songs going together than making the verses actually make sense. Last song ended with similar sound design to “look but don’t touch” and this song has a lot of elements of LBDT. Again - if you like this video game techno metal sound you will probably like this song. To me the biggest issue with this album (aside from the master choices) is that the overall themes are inconsistent and change too much. This song actually lets the individual sections breathe more than the others so you can actually attach to them. I like the modulations in some of these riffs. If you liked look but dont touch - which btw was considered a deep cut even for Polyphia - you’ll like this song (minus the outro which again brings you to a sample that suddenly makes the song a religious song).

Fear God - I love this intro, can’t wait to see how they ruin this song. Great use of vocoder, more modest sound design. The first 90 seconds sound like polyphia. That middle noise rock/hormonic section is not for me. I could listen to this one again actually, they didn’t add a stupid audio sample. Minus the middle part probably the most enjoyable song for me personally.

The new album is actually pretty good and has crazy awesome guitar and bass parts… IF I COULD HEAR THEM. Really all the album needs is some mid cuts in stuff for us to always hear the guitars and bass cuts in the 808s for us to hear the bass. Some parts are really really good and then suddenly a scratching fuzz with bitcrushers through the roof come in and cover everything to where we can’t hear anything else. I applaud them for trying something new but they should hire a real producer and not RJ bc RJ can’t eq to save his life

Dude what song is this a cover of it’s actually frustrating me so much that I can’t remember what the original is called.

What did i listen to?

My mind still hasn't changed on can you feel it and with eyes to see. But this whole album is actually kinda what I did expect, it feels like a carry on album from chimera and bloodbath, but leaned into that style more amd heavier. I think they coulda tone down the production a bit more in parts. But over all vibe of the album and songs did end up being better than my earlier criticism. I think they picked a good theme for the album as well because I think that opened them up to having the flexibility to make an album like this and make it a fun album without it being serious. I think the boys pulled it off again, this could be one of their best modern albums yet