I think you should

For Shadow. Those are Shadow categories lol

What also caught my ear was how well-produced it sounds. Kind of reminds me of Ghost's early albums in a good way. The guitars and drums sound quite polished. It surprised me.

The vocals being farther back in the overall mix was a bit bizarre. I'm used to bands like this having clearer vocals.

Pierce The Veil: A Flair For The Dramatic

Never really listened to this band outside of a few songs, but I felt like listening to their full albums.

It's a good emo/post-hardcore record. I like the odd transitions to different sounds on some songs. A great first impression of this band as a whole.

Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited

Just beat a 100% Tails run of this game. Might 100% the other characters at some point. Idk

A bit too long to beat in one sitting casually (Took me a few nights) but it's fun. 2D Sonic is fun, that's all I can say.

I still haven't kept up since the school arc started airing in Japan. I'm still interested, but I stopped consistently watching around the early 50's in episode count. I hear good things about the subsequent arcs though. Maybe that'll get me to binge the 40-something episodes that have aired since.

When I think about listening to this band's newer stuff, I always go back and listen to this record and Sound of Madness. I guess those albums are musical comfort food to me lol

I think hard rock and heavy metal can work in a pop context. For example, I like bands like Amaranthe and Electric Callboy. I also unironically enjoy Babymetal's first 2 albums.

It's when bands pull a 30 Seconds to Mars and don't mix the genres that rubs me the wrong way.

I've thought about listening to their newer records, but even live their stuff from 2022 onward isn't really my thing.

At least Shinedown is a mainstream rock band that hasn't gone trend-chasing recently, at least musically.