Around the four minute mark this started sounding as I initially thought it would. :D
Love the whole mix though, both the slower and the more ferocious, and the 'aw yeah' samples in the first track - aw yeah! This was great all the way though.
As for the pauses, I don't mind them personally. Seems like common album practice to transition with silence when tracks don't naturally flow together, and for the most part tracks here actually do transition without, or with very short and sensible breaks, it's only notably silent towards the end IMO.
Nice work y'all!
-cd-