As mentioned earlier, there are very few truly unmemorable missteps on Anthems. One of them is "I Keep Flowers Around," which starts out with a promising bass groove but has Patrick singing — more like yelling — over a refrain that just doesn't go anywhere, and ends unpleasantly with Patrick yelling "You lie/To me" to himself.

Speaking of "lies," there appears to be a running theme on the record of pointing out how someone "lie[d]," "lied" to him or to the country. The problem is that other than calling out President Bush ("What's Next") for lying us into the current Iraq war, Patrick never really delves into specific instances of who lied and what they lied about, and therefore the use of that word becomes generic after several uses.

But I digress, because the vocal performances on this album are strong and overcome such lyrical deficiencies. And Richard Patrick's singing is terribly underrated — the man can sing his butt off.

In all, Anthems For The Damned has given Filter new life. Richard Patrick has shown he can still channel his anger and frustrations with the world in a tuneful way fifteen years into his post-NIN career. He and his new band have given Filter fans young and old twelve new tracks to rock out to or relax and enjoy. They are a mix of heavy (sometimes industrial) hard rock/metal and radio-friendly rock, with the balance of material being of the just plain heavy kind.

More importantly, about two-thirds of the record is definitely worth listening to again and again, while the rest isn't bad, just so-so. Therefore, Anthems as a whole is one of Filter's best and highly recommended.

Key tracks to crank up: "The Take," "In Dreams," "Soldiers of Misfortune," "Kill The Day"

For more information on the band and its current tour, visit http://www.officialfilter.com