Slant magazine has given Sol Invictus the most damning review we’ve read so far, awarding a Metacritic-average shattering 2.5/5. They reserve special opprobrium for Mike Patton:

“On Sol Invictus, though, Patton doesn’t seem to trust his voice as much as he once did. With the exception of the tortured ballad “Matador” and the militaristic “Motherfucker,” he sticks primarily to his middle range and falls back too often on studio wizardry and a gruff affectation to cover his vocal limitations. Patton could still sing circles around pretty much any rock vocalist, but compared to his genre-mashing work as the Frank Zappa of the post-grunge age, leading the cheerfully experimental supergroups Lovage, Tomahawk, and Fantômas, his work here is oddly tepid.”