This seminal American metal band, still led by founder and guitarist Mark Shelton, offers their sixteenth (depending on your count) album Playground of the Damned. Of course, and typical of Shelton, the album offers listeners a mild conundrum by blend familiarity with some novelty. The heaviness, sometimes near doom quality, with the epic metal feel remains here. But Manilla Road offers shorter songs with more melody and hooks as on Into the Maelstrom and, oddly enough, on the horror-titled Playground of the Damned. Shelton offers fret fireworks, yet turns more to melody and variance than simple shredding as on Grindhouse, Abattoir De La Mort, and Art of War. Also, there's more singing, in deference to melody I suspect, and less growling or screaming as on the previous Voyager.