Personally, I should have known better than to expect two decent albums from a band releasing a 2-disc set less than 6 months apart. Everything that was refreshing and surprising about “Mesmerize” seems to be distinctly lacking in follow-up “Hypnotize”.

More annoying then, that the band played the whole affair out in the press – leading us to believe that “Mesmerize” is in fact a “hint” at the more unexpected changes in it’s follow-up – when in reality “Mesmerize” embraces many more new ideas while “Hypnotize” is a drastically paint-by numbers, play-it-safe affair - not covering any new ground that hasn’t already been covered by SOAD a million times before. This album definitely sits closest to the lacklustre off-cuts of “Steal this Album”, and the “we play songs fast and aren’t we crazy and bonkers” rhetoric is quite frankly stretching it to breaking point. If you’ve already made your mind up that you hate SOAD, I think this album will only go towards cementing that particular notion.

I’ve never had too much of a problem with SOAD’s “kooky” vocalisations – but some of this album really grates - bringing on the urge to hunt them down and smash their faces to a pulp - preferably with the nearest heavy object, or possibly a small un-suspecting woodland creature. Somebody also needs to tell Daron Malakian to stop singing, especially on the droning, tuneless dirge that is “Dreaming”.

There are at least a few highlights amongst the sea of regular within “Hypnotize”. The main attraction definitely being the title track – perhaps one of the best pieces of song-writing to date from SOAD – with it’s sweeping chorus and slower pace, it just oozes class compared to the rest of the album. There’s also the rather hyperactive opener “Attack”, and at least enough originality to raise an eyebrow in songs “Stealing Society”, “Kill Rock & Roll” and “Tentative”.

Sadly, the rest of it ranges from generic SOAD to just plain bad (special grammar award goes to the chorus of “Lonely Day” – “This is the most loneliest day of my life” - according to Daron) - not to mention songs telling us about “banana, banana, banana, banana, terracotta, terracotta pie”. Yes, quite.

While you can’t accuse the album of being totally dire, it seems distinctly obvious to me that it didn’t really need to be released. It offers nothing new from the band, is contrived and ultimately lazy. They could’ve quite easily added the song “Hypnotize” to “Mesmerize” earlier this year - and saved us all the bother of wasting money on another CD.

Standout Tracks:  Hypnotize, Stealing Society, Attack.