The Chicago quartet's new album steamrolls the senses with brash polyrhythmic riffs, vitriolic punk attitude and destructive seasick rhythms. "Sickening Rebellion" rolls with a calculated hardcore intensity, while "WWDHD" mounts from chugging ominous distortion into an epic metallic explosion. American Heritage preserve the abrasive amalgam of technicality and brutality they're known for, while refining it. You'll feel the sonic gut punch of songs like "City of God" and "Sickening Rebellion," which bruise, batter and bludgeon brilliantly. Without a full-time bass player during recording (Bocek joined the band post-recording), the band collaborated with a different musician for each song's bass track. On the incendiary and invasive "Fetal Attraction," Mastodon's Bill Kelliher provides bass, a guitar solo and a little personal flare. Shellhamer laughs, "He does that 'Eat my fuck' thing at the end of the song. He went way overboard with the bass and guitar solo, and it was ripping." Other explosive playing comes from Black Cobra's Rafa Martinez on "Morbid Angle" and Sanford Parker [Buried at Sea, Minsk] on "Vessels/Vassals". The entire collection has become even more dynamically heavy as a result.