No possibly about it. It's light-years ahead of anything I've heard them do.
And no I don't hate it personally, it's called variation. Plus, when the best hard rock bands do mellow songs, they often turn out great. Chloroform Perfume is FATA's best song, Angel's Son is Sevendust's best song (well, second best), Something I Can Never Have is NIN's best song...
I disagree.
Black and ***** were awesome songs!
angels son was good but it sounded like something dave mattewhs band would sing.
I used to like godsmack but it sounds like their becoming alice N chains clones
Godsmack, as someone cleverly pointed out here a while ago, have two songs—Voodoo and non-Voodoo. IMO they're the best example of bands who use the same song structure for every tune. Even bands that are more shitty in other ways like Nickelback and Linkin Park have more variation between songs than Godsmack. A while back I had a Godsmack song stuck in my head, and then I realized that it was at least two different ones. Anyways, my point is, they've always sucked, nothing to do with going soft.
I though ACLOTM was a dreadful album, i took it back the day after i bought it. S.C.I.E.N.C.E. or Make Yourself would be my favourite incubus albums, the songs off those albums are great live.
Its seems since Dirk Lance left, i have disliked there music immensly.