"Black Flag" is a perfectly good example of why record companies should not pick the single off of the album. Because of their work you may not yet have heard the hook scientist Dr. Ty Tabor at work on "Lost In Germany". This excellent album is an important transitional step for anyone who was completely shocked by Dogman (as I was) after the hippy-trippy "Faith Hope Love" - you'll quickly understand once you're beaten down by the heavy opener "The World Around Me". Songs like "Chariot Song" and the slow, grinding, mega-heavy "Ooh Song" show exactly where the X was going to land, although maybe with a little more deference to their past. "Not Just For The Dead" and "The World Around Me" also show the not-so-subtle Christian leanings in their early lyrics. (The former is also the final appearance as of yet of the sitar on a KX album). But just in case those songs might scare you off a little take a listen to "The Big Picture". That song just makes my eyes watery thinking about listening to it - its the ultimate catharsis, its like being in the center of a hundred black baptist choirs, led by a wildly screaming Doug Pinnick, utterly sublimated by the sheer force and power of its emanating aura of goodness - and lord help me Ty's solo on this song is freakin' otherworldly. The second half of the disc has "Dream In My Life", a pretty ballad which has another mega-dose of Ty at the end, overdubbing something like 12 guitars playing at once. Otherwise "Silent Wind" and "Black Flag" bring down the quality a bit - just a bit. (4-1/2 stars)