By the time a band reaches album number twelve, often there's that sense that there is no real reason for them to go on. You've either said everything that you needed to say when you first started the band, you've become pathetic dinosaur rockers playing to stadiums full of greying middle-aged men, or you've just repackaged the same music in a million different releases and you are The Smiths. Therapy? are no ordinary band in this regard though, because while this is their twelfth album, they still sound as focused and relevant as ever.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that they've come ever so close a number of times to breaking through into the metal mainstream during their career, or perhaps it can be attributed to the fact that Therapy? were always a bit different to their peers, never taking themselves too seriously, but not allowing themselves to become a joke band either. Whatever the reason, "Crooked Timber" is not the sound of a bunch of dinosaurs that should have quit five albums ago - it's the sound of a band that's still in good health and making music that's as good as anything they've ever done.

The songwriting here is pretty tight, with proceedings kept to a modest ten songs, all of which are trimmed of any fat or dull bits. All of the usual things you'd expect from one of this band's records are here in spades as well: heavy riffs, theatrical vocals which concentrate more often than not on themes of insanity and madness, and occasional bursts of melody and accessibility which prevent the music from becoming too dense or sludgy.

Given that this is a twelfth album, and that it borrows so heavily from the band's previous output, there is a question as to whether it's really necessary to buy this album. Certainly, I would not rate it as being an essential release that every metal fan must own, but it's also a solid enough record that I don't think any true metal fan would be disappointed to have it in their collection. A solid release from a band that hopefully has many more good releases yet to come.