Initial thoughts on Crystal Castles - (III)

So in the last week or so Crystal Castles have released their third album, called (III). Despite the album gaining some very positive reviews I have to say that I've been left rather disappointed with the new album though. As much as I do like Crystal Castles I guess I would be lying if I said they were one of my favourite groups. Although I do really like their first and second albums their low-points for me are so low that it makes me dock them a few places if I were to do a list of my favourite artists. With (III) though I just can't get into it at all. Very few of the songs are standing out to me at the moment I'm afraid. Many of the songs are laden with chimp-punk sounding vocals which I find really annoying and many of the songs have a very glitchy feel. Crystal Castles have always had a very chaotic 8bit sound but at least on the previous two albums melody was still prevalent. Here though for me there seems to be a distinct lack of any real melody on many of the tracks Some of the songs I feel have the potential to be enjoyable to listen to - like Plague or Telepath - but the various effects that are present in many of them just kill my enjoyment stone dead. For me, the only three tracks that I can say I really enjoy at present are Wrath of God, Sad Eyes and Child I Will Hurt You. I'm sorry to say that the rest of the tracks though either leave me with no emotion whatsoever or reaching for the skip button. The album does have a focused sound, I can't fault it for that, but really a lot of it just sounds very samey to me. Maybe Crystal Castles will be one of those groups that I will always have a kind of love/hate relationship with. I fully understand the album is meant to have a vast and bleak sort of atmosphere but for me it feels like a lot of the screamy chipmunk voices were employed to cover the fact that under the surface the album really isn't anything to write home about. I had enjoyed the lead single of the album so much and I thought that it was going to be brilliant, but sadly so far I've been left bitterly disappointed with their third offering. I guess if your into more harsher/darker electronic music you may love it, but as this listener isn't its left me with no choice to say that its one of the most disappointing albums I've heard in recent memory. If my opinions change I will of course post an update, but for the moment I can't see me enjoying this album anymore. Sorry!