As a huge fan of Short Bus and Title of Record I expected more out of what was hyped up to be Filter's best album. For those of you who have never heard any Filter other than the radio-friendly "Take a Picture," let me explain that their lead man Richard Patrick was at one time a member of Nine Inch Nails, and Filter,s sound is a metal maelstrom that could be describes as the bastard child of NIN and Ministry.

As I mentioned Filter,s first two albums were viceral masterpieces, but with the exception of "Where Do We Go," Amalgamut leaves one longing for the industrial strenth of Filter past. Filter fans may disagree, it's not like this is a bad record, but it pails next to Short Bus and could have benifited from a finer tuning in the studio.