July 2023 Feature Release - The Revolution Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month's feature release for The Revolution, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)) (my last feature release nomination before my break from submitting feature releases), is the 2010 3rd album by Tennessee-based deathcore band Whitechapel, A New Era of Corruption. Although the kind of deathcore I prefer is when bands perform the genre with progressive (Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris) and symphonic (Lorna Shore, Make Them Suffer) elements, the heavier standard deathcore has spawned a few gems for me such as this masterpiece. If anyone in this site is up for a prime example of heavy deathcore at its best, A New Era of Corruption is that go-to album.

https://metal.academy/releases/6848

I've done my review, here's its summary:

Since their formation, Whitechapel has made some kick-A albums. Their debut The Somatic Defilement kicks off their journey with brutal heaviness. Their sophomore album This is Exile is more diverse and unique than some of the bands they influenced like Impending Doom and Oceano. Further cementing the band's position in the modern metal scene is their perfect 3rd-time charm A New Era of Corruption! The more serious metalheads might hate it, but it's something for me, a Revolution guy, to love. The music in this album and the previous two help make the band stand out. Why? GUITAR SOLOS, Y'ALL!!! People should stop judging a band by their genre. Deathcore isn't always just replacing solos with breakdowns. Just because not every song in the album has solos, doesn't mean there's none. Half the amount of songs have solos to please the heavier listeners. The riffs, rhythms, and occasional groove also stand out in killer chaos. Still there's no escape from the more strict metalheads who hate deathcore, but just ignore them and don't expect anything happy and sunny here. A New Era of Corruption is an epic winner in deathcore. Satisfaction guaranteed for fans of the genre!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "Devolver", "Breeding Violence", "Reprogrammed to Hate", "Unnerving", "Murder Sermon", "Single File to Dehumanization"

For fans of: Impending Doom, Suicide Silence, Chelsea Grin

Here's my review:

2010’s “A New Era Of Corruption” third album from Tennessee six-piece Whitechapel is another one of the slew of deathcore releases I found myself indulging in during a three year period upon returning to metal after a decade-long hiatus in 2009. Despite the weight of opinion residing predominantly in the negative though, I found a fair bit of appeal in the stronger deathcore releases. Sure, the generic breakdowns & over the top vocal performances could become a little grating on occasion but the relentless aggression, professional production & clinical performances all offered plenty of appeal to someone with my musical background. “A New Era Of Corruption” wasn’t one the releases that I placed at the top of the pile but it certainly afforded me a few days of enjoyable body-thrashing so I was keen to see how time has treated it a full twelve years later.

“A New Era Of Corruption” is a very consistent deathcore release to be honest. There’s not a weak song amongst the eleven on offer & I can’t see Whitechapel presenting us with too many in the future either as they seem to be an artist of high quality. The band members all seem to be so in tune with one another which helps to create a pummeling, super-tight sound that’s clearly hellbent on smashing your skull into a concrete wall. Of course, the failings of the deathcore genre are all still evident with the djenty single-note breakdowns sounding very much like you’ve heard them all before but there’s a hell of a lot more to see here if you can accept those for what they are & focus on squashing your up against the inside wall of your skull instead of stroking your elitist chin.

Front man Phil Bozeman has a super-deep death growl delivery & sounds genuinely angry throughout. He’s backed by some higher register supporting growls that aren’t nearly as effective as they sound a little gurgly. I absolutely love the progressive lead guitar work that’s smattered across the tracklisting though. In fact, I find it to be the clear highlight of the record &, when combined with some impressively technical rhythms & riff-structure at times, you can easily see where Whitechapel might be going in the future. It’s kinda strange that you get those simplistic breakdowns between some wonderfully complex & quite melodic progressive work though & I could probably do with the occasional use of bouncy one-two hardcore beats too.

The tracklisting is worth mentioning because, despite not including any failures as such, it could have been programmed a touch better. You see, three of the first four tracks tend to be some of the less impressive inclusions on the album while the B side is much stronger than the A side with wonderful closing track “Single File To Dehumanization” being the clear album highlight & leaving me feeling pretty invigorated afterwards. Perhaps that’s the intention as it certainly encourages me to want to take the whole journey again but I can’t help but feel that Whitechapel might have been better served by bulking out the start of the album a little more. Perhaps it’s just a taste thing as the back end is where you’ll find the stronger influence of the classic death metal sound & some of the classier progressive work.

To date “A New Era Of Corruption” is still the only Whitechapel release I’ve heard but I’m very pleased to be able to say that it’s a very strong one & this revisit has only seen it growing in my esteem with the reward being an additional half-star. In fact, I’d suggest that this is one of the better deathcore releases I’ve encountered over the years & I once again have to ask exactly what it is that some critics have against it as it does exactly what it says on the tin & executes it in a very efficient & professional manner. If you hate deathcore then you’ll no doubt hate this record too but for those of you that don’t mind a bit of Carnifex, Thy Art Is Murder or Job For A Cowboy then you’re in for a minor treat.

4/5

My history with Whitechapel amounts to little more than a couple of dalliances with tracks on cover discs from metal mags like Terrorizer and Zero Tolerance a decade or more ago now and I can't say I had much time for them. Well, I guess my tastes must have broadened since those days because I actually quite enjoyed this album, even though it is likely that tracks from it were the very self-same tracks that adorned the covers of those mags all those years ago. Now, it is unlikely that Whitechapel will ever sit near the summit of my personal metal hierarchy, but I am genuinely surprised that I got so much out of this because, frankly, I wasn't looking forward to it at all.

The biggest drawback of metalcore for me is the vocals. Their "shouty" nature and general abrasiveness is something I struggle with to be honest. Whitechapel singer, Phil Bozeman, by utilising a lower register, death metal gurgle has provided a singing style that I find much more palatable than that employed by your average metalcore vocalist and which makes me much more amenable to everything else going on during A New Era of Corruption's forty minutes. I know little to nothing about deathcore, but I like how Whitechapel take a basic death metal sound and increase the intensity by utilising a metalcore approach. Technically this sounds very competent with a tight rhythm section and brutally effective riffs that have condensed their sound into a white-hot, focussed blast that hits like opening a furnace door and is liable to singe your eyebrows off! There is some decent lead work that isn't at all showy, but is effective nevertheless, but I get the feeling that that isn't what this is all about really.

I've given this several runthroughs now and I really have found it a great listen, but no one track particularly stands out and my impressions are more of the album as a whole than individual tracks grabbing my attention. That may well be due to my lack of familiarity with deathcore - I checked my ratings on RYM and this appears to be the first deathcore album I have ever listened to, so it's all kind of new to me. That said, if there are more albums like this then it won't be the last. If I really had to pick a favourite then it would have to be Unnerving, the keyboards initially make it stand out before the swirling riffing grabs hold in an almost vertiginous maelstrom of sonic violence. The brutal intensity is the one thing above all other I will take away from A New Era of Corruption and it's determination to give the listener a metaphorical kicking is perfectly realised. I would imagine that the pit at a Whitechapel show may not be the safest place in the world!

So, another Revolution feature gets a thumbs-up from me and this is getting worrying - I must be getting far too tolerant as I get older!!

4/5

I checked my ratings on RYM and this appears to be the first deathcore album I have ever listened to

I would have thought it would have been the Suicide Silence feature release from last month then Sonny.

Yes, actually you're right, but deathcore still isn't showing as a genre I have rated even though I now have two. 

When I think back on my brief time with deathcore during the late 2000s/early 2010s and the parade of endless, disposable acts that arrived during the Warped Tour era, Whitechapel were the only band that I actually appreciated and still occasionally enjoy to this day. This is inevitably, the bands use of breakdowns and having them be an integral part of the piece instead of as an isolated fragment (usually).

And so we have this months feature release, A New Era of Corruption, a slept on album by the band; sandwiched in between two of the bands better and more popular records, This is Exile and the self-titled record from 2012. And while the record does not really live up to the same highs as those other records do, I cannot deny that A New Era of Corruption is still a decent piece of formulative deathcore. It also happens to feature one of my personal favourite Whitechapel songs with "Breeding Violence" so that helps it right out of the gate. Tunes are kept together with a decent flow and everything sounds like it belongs together. So many groups think that breakdowns are more impactful the slower and more downtuned they get, but Whitechapel's approach is to take the original idea and permutate it into something that does not require blast beats. And many of the breakdowns still incorporate Phil Bozeman's vocals, giving them even more unity. 

It isn't all perfect though; some tracks still rely on sudden tempo/style changes for their breakdowns and they feel disjointed. And just like when the album came out in 2010, I've never really liked the timbre of the guitars on this record. They sound very muddy, which does not flow well with almost black metal textures that sometimes appear like on "Unnerving". And speaking of which, the synths/strings on that track sound horrendous.

I don't mind this album, but it certainly sounds like a throwaway album upon further listens and the benefit of hindsight.

3/5

Following my enjoyment of the Suicide Silence feature release last month I was intrigued to see if I was about to go on a deathcore streak with the arrival of Whitechapel in The Revolution hot seat this month. After 3 or 4 listens I remain distinctly underwhelmed in comparison to the more immediate entertainment I found with The Black Crown. First off the bat though, it is important to say I do not hate A New Era of Corruption. It lacks any real depth or grit overall for me though. Despite some interesting breakdowns that allow for the vocals to play just a big a part as the guitars I find them still to be nothing more than a welcome distraction to what I deem to be otherwise quite a monotonous record.

There is an almost mechanical (sadly lacking the "necro" aspect promised by the penultimate track) undertone to this album for me, a real sense of going through the motions. Punctuated only by the all too brief moments of true death metal guttural gurns and the hint of groove to a riff every now and again, this machine-like edge to proceedings soon becomes all I am focusing on. Album closer Single File to Dehumanization is the least enjoyable of all the eleven tracks on offer here and is perhaps the best example of the challenges I have with this record. The added frustration is that it sounds like these guys are better than this record actually shows them to be and that they somehow along the way lost any sense of soul or even fun in what they were doing and fired out a technically proficient yet ultimately boring album.

2.5/5