The Buffalo, New York-based hardcore unit's eighth studio long-player and much anticipated follow-up to 2014's acclaimed , is another pugilistic blast of no-frills might that should please longtime fans and newcomers alike. Forged during a particularly brutish winter, thus the name, the 13-track set draws some of its emotional punch from the birth of frontman 's daughter, who came into the world via a succession of life-threatening complications. Thankfully, both mother and daughter prevailed, but those gut-punching moments of anxiety loom large, tempering 's signature droll witticisms with a more inward temperament, resulting in the band's most contemplative, though no less volatile, set of material to date. Lead single "Coin Has a Say" serves up the most crystallized distillation of this new disposition, with parsing through his self-destructive tendencies only to find that "a new goddess emerged from the mist and took the blade from my wrist." Fatherhood, among other life-changing moments, brings its own potential terrors, but the risks/rewards can be exhilarating, and while much of deals with uncertainty, there's more hope than despair bubbling up beneath all of the capriciousness. Sonically, remain a force of nature, and with the aid of some incisive production work from ( ), as well as some creative left turns, they've delivered another solid, blast furnace-forged collection of working-class punk-metal that's as introspective as it is physical. ~ James Christopher Monger