The seventh album from this troupe of Massachusetts alt-metalers relies on a familiar formula, alternating between petulant ballads and noisily crunching cacophony. The constant is Aaron Lewis’s blindly swatting rage at whatever it is that pits the world and its women against him. "Eyes Wide Open" rages against a lover’s unspecified "self-serving plan" atop theatrical guitar shredding, while the power-balladry of "Failing" echoes their 2001 hit "It's Been Awhile" with broad guitar bombast and Lewis's heartily sung heartbreak refrain. Then Lewis raps about tiny dogs and nasty, food-based sexual acts with a cadence that doesn't have the slightest prayer of rhyming ("Wannabe") and the entire thing implodes spectacularly.

Listen to "Failing":

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“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.