It's astonishing how much one poorly executed track can affect an entire album. Eight songs into "Xeno," Japanese Metalcore merchants, CROSSFAITH, drop "Tears Fall" into the mix and suddenly the entire record changes. Up until this point, it's utterly flawless; the combination of furiously upbeat Metal and Dance music has been perfectly executed and made it feel like one big party. The crushing title track, the bouncing mosh carnage of "Dystopia" and the huge sing-a-long of "Ghost In The Mirror", have all staked their claim as album highlights, while Benji Webbe of SKINDRED has helped to turn "Wildfire" into a manic over-the-top anthem.

But then "Tears Fall" arrives like the proverbial wasp at the picnic, and suddenly the momentum comes grinding to a halt. This slow paced, mopey ballad has lyrics about holding hands, a guitar solo that could have been lifted from one of those terrible compilation albums that get released each Christmas, and it sucks. It really, really sucks. It feels like it was written by a melodramatic twenty-something who can't get over a girl he dated for two weeks when he was fifteen and is a cringe-inducing four minutes of utter garbage.

This is especially annoying because immediately after, CROSSFAITH get their shit together and the party starts up again with "Paint It Black," another furiously up-tempo barnstormer. From here until the closing moments of "S.O.S", "Xeno" returns to being brilliant. "Madness" and "Vanguard" keep the pit raging, while the instrumental, "Astral Heaven", will entertain anyone that's come over from the Dance scene and wants to try out something different. It's a huge album that has passion etched into every note, while also being accessible enough to turn metalheads into ravers and vice versa.

Whoever decided to put such a terrible song right smack in the middle deserves a pay cut. It's not like CROSSFAITH can't do ballads either, as "Calm The Storm" is a beautiful little slice of sorrow, mixing RUDIMENTAL with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE at their most emotional and it works perfectly. Had they cut "Tears Fall" in the editing room this would be a contender for album of the year, but one misguided attempt at being sympathetic means they've sabotaged what was almost a perfect score.<