I was going to buy the album, today, when I saw it in the book store on campus. I didn't know which version it was, though, or whether it was even a "version" or not.
I've listened to the album numerous times over the past three days and it's starting to grow on me. At first it felt like something was missing. But after listening to it all the way through a half dozen times, I've started to really like it. The highlight of this album is the lyrics. They're amazing. I can only imagine how incredible this album would be if they still had Terry in the band for instrumentation. He probably would've contributed a few acoustic songs to the album, which is the thing I feel the album is missing the most. I've grown accustomed to songs like "Wasted Years", "Black Sunday", "Bleed", "Gone Away", and "Check Please". I believe acoustic songs bring the best out in Scooter in terms of his vocals. Nonetheless, the lyrics really pick up the slack. It's too bad they didn't include them in the booklet. At least they're up on the official site. Scooter really lays it all out on the line when it comes to storytelling. Vocally, I don't think he's improved or gotten worse. He's still a great vocalist. I do find the ending vocals in "Happens All The Time" and "The Calm That Killed The Storm" very very similar, though. I noticed that the first time I heard the song. Does it really take away from the songs themselves? No. It just lends a small bit of repetitivity. I don't mind it though. 'A Different Kind of Pain' is a great album. I think Raj (Joe) explained it best when he said there are some songs on 'Year of the Spider' that are better in comparison to some songs on 'ADKOP', but as a whole, 'ADKOP' is the better album. There aren't any bad songs. there's nothing you'd like to skip over. On 'YOTS', I found myself skipping over "Stupid Girl" and "Kill the Music Industry". It was just incredible songs like "Wasted Years", "Sad Happy", and "Black Sunday" that really made the album one of the best I'd heard. 'ADKOP' doesn't have any songs that are as epic as the aforementioned three songs from 'YOTS', but in terms of an album having a steady flow of great songs, 'ADKOP' is certainly one of the best of 2005. This is an album that will help alot of people when they're down, I can guarantee that.