### Alea Jacta: Enter the chaos

#### 28/11/11 || Smalley

The production here kind of reminded me of modern Exodus’s rusty edge, but the growling/clean vocals were generic, their sound doesn’t distinguish itself as something unique, and the songwriting had little urgency or catchiness to it; it’s not enough to just sound heavy, Jacta, you need to also back that up with actually-intense songwriting. I mean, “Lulu” had the best production of any original Metallica album over the past decade (no, I’m not forgetting that it was a collab), but the songwriting still made it one of the most boring albums from a band that USED to do good shit. “Enter…” isn’t nearly as boring as that, but it still isn’t good either.

No thanks.

5,5/10: Do not pass go, do not collect $200.