Beware!  Do not press the play button until you are sure you're ready.  There's no introduction on this album, no hand-holding, no gradual incline from earth to heaven.  Aenima crushes the two planes together into an intimate and long overdue embrace, and it all begins in the very first percussive pangs of "Stinkfist".  The album's message becomes clearer as the music and lyrics run a vast thematic gauntlet: a desensitized and numb society, the alternately dark and uplifting consequences of our own free will, the fallibility of human relationships, and a divinity that reaches out to us from beyond the immediate world.  The lyrics provide a platform to elucidate the songs' meaning, but the songwriting and instrumentation carry the true life force of the album.  As the disc progresses, several un-songs knit together the various pieces of the album into a formidable whole.