The sound mix is a combo of hardrock conventions and filmic intellectual progressive space rock punk.

The recording and mix by Joe Baressi (no doubt having met the band through their mutual Melvins connections) is exquisite.he really comes into his own a perfect mix of high resolution and midlevel graininess with at times obscurely treated vocals that are subjective responses to what is being sung about at the time. There is perhaps only one track in this that i consider filler. The lyrics, which I never delve into, seem to be of a self conscious sociological warning of things, and of course are somewhat about self awareness expansion. It's a little more earthy and scientific and not so much psychedelic like Lateralus. The new tracks, all around 10 minutes+ in length, are consistent yet ually grounded by low level off tempo dirge progressive rhythms that stretch out far and wide. 80 something minutes of music that seems to pick up where 2001's ultra psychedelic prog masterpiece Lateralus left off.