A lot has happened for Of Mice & Men since they released The Flood in 2011, and from Restoring Force’s opening screams of ‘You all have something to say’ in ‘Public Service Announcement’, it is clear this is a band with bones to pick and a new direction to match.

Restoring Force is not a complete departure from the Of Mice & Men of three years ago, their sound still relying on some of the textbook metalcore elements they have become so comfortable with. Instead, the band finds itself in a state of transition, still holding on to pieces of that signature sound while fighting to cement itself in the nu-metal surrounds heard on this album.

Restoring Force covers the full spectrum that is the new and improved Of Mice & Men, beginning with a guttural roar and ending with the softly tender ‘Space Enough To Grow’, and flowing between a variety of sounds along the way.

While the final track might seem an anticlimax, what it really shows is the span of this new sound and the potential it holds once Of Mice & Men really lock onto it.

Restoring Force is out now on Rise/Warner.

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