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OK, nobody liked the Avenged Sevenfold debut album, and neither did I.  They say this one's pretty good for the fans, though, so I've got big hopes for this.  Finally getting around to these guys, I'm eagerly awaiting the moment I get to turn on City of Evil for the first time, but I don't want to do that until I get a really good idea of how the band evolved within the first three albums.

Like the first album, this starts out with a decent intro which gets up right into the darker vibes the band is going for.  Unholy Confessions felt dull, under-produced and dreary in its tropes.  It pains me that it became a music video.  But I found that Chapter Four was much more packed, keeping a consistent melodic vibe with its overlapping vocals and slight Gothic touch, and even had a lead riff vaguely reminiscent of the energy of my favorite franchise to compare metal songs to: F-Zero.  There's definitely a poppier thing going on here, but that's an improvement from the chaos of the debut album.  This definitely deserved to be the lead single for this album.  Remenissions starts out with the unspoken combo that I call "powercore," a genre I would totally kickstart if I were in a metal band.  Unfortunately, this is where it becomes clear that the band is steering too close to the "similar tempos" trope that many genres fall victim to.  I wasn't expecting the Latin acoustic segment, though.  Weirdly added, but somehow nice.  Desecration Through Reverence shows a bit more focus on mood-building and justifies the existence of the shifting tropes in a single song in the follow-up to their debut.  It feels so much more natural than everything the debut features.

I didn't expect many differences out of Side B, but I was hoping.  Turns out, my hopes were satisfied even for a little while.  As soon as this slower, alternative metalcore album with a deeper emotional vibe ends, the album steers RIGHT INTO POWER METAL like it was nothing.  This side ends with a basic combination of the temp tricks of the last two songs, and I can't really say this decision does anything for the album.  Despite the progressive nature and melodic prowess, it's a filler song.  Radiant Eclipse is slower, more alternative and rooted in traditional metal ballad behavior while maintaining the signature edge.  This six minute track really was a breath of fresh air that, unlike the pop rock track in the debut, Warmness of the Soul, which felt like a relief of fresh air from the crappy metalcore, is a perfectly fitting alternative song that completely continues the darker vibes of the album while building on previously established influences on this album to become its own thing.  Next was I Won't See You Tonight, Pt. 1.  One look at the length and I thought to myself, "What kind of song on a metalcore album like this lasts nine minutes!?"  My first thought was a fairly proggy ballad which probably builds on the gothic elements suggested by the secondary genre tag on this album's RYM page.  It gained a very slight heaviness from its standard ballad energy at the start, but it lasts that way throughout the whole nine minutes, so I only got about two thirds of it right.  It's really just an overlong ballad.

So now that that was over with, right back into the screechy metalcore like it's not a jarring difference.  This is Part 2.  They could've at least built into the conflict rather than making it instantaneous.  And of course, this song goes right into djenty weirdness to add another trope to the mix... although, this is the first song in this overlong album to do so, so I'm not too bothered by the trope.  Ironically, Clairvoyant Disease goes right back into alternative ballad territory, once again creating a jarring effect on the flow.  And finally, there's And All Things will End, which starts off with a riff similar to many Iced Earth songs, vaguely reminiscing thrash and power, but feeling right for the album here.  It's got much of the same drama as well, but the melodies are only decent and it doesn't hold a candle to any Iced Earth classics.

OK, I'm not gonna call this one of my favorite metalcore albums, but I'd say this album made AVS an easy band to LIKE, as opposed to an easy band to LOVE.  Their songs are poppy enough, maybe too poppy for metalcore and never displaying high points of creativity, but they try as much as they can with the genre they chose for themselves at the time and managed to keep things fairly entertaining with some sense of variety and a much better sense of emotion.

I've been putting off these guys for forever and I don't know why.  Maybe it's because I'm not really into alternative metal or related genres like multiple.  Now I've always liked Bat Country ever since I heard it on SSX On Tour for Gamecube, and it was one of many songs I kept on the custom playlist with classics like Stand Up and Shout by Dio, Dynamite by Scorpions and Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden.  There were others, but I quickly associated myself with the song.

I understand that the band is a very flavorful one, and has reinvented themselves multiple times, even after just one or two albums.  As an Arctic Monkeys and Led Zeppelin fan, I have absolutely no problem with this.  In fact, from what I understand, these guys are supposed to have sucked as a metalcore band, so in my curiosity I'll likely get through all of their albums soon.  But despite the fact that I've put them off for far too long (Bilbo Baggins, 2001), the biggest reason I'm checking them out right now is so I can have an opinion on them.  This was likely influenced not only by my recent curiosity pertaining to their other songs and the knowledge of their diverse history, but out of a Reddit conversation involving the qualifications of a metal band on Metallum.  So I'm gonna check them out from the start.

The somewhat symphonic and cinematic intro is nice, but as soon as these guys dig right into the metalcore, they lose all sense of atmospheric building, and stem into a random and yet surprisingly predictable and tropy metalcore band.  I really did NOT like "Turn the Other Way."  Its lack of organization was so amateurish that it might as well have stemmed from a poorly-recorded black metal pre-debut album garage demo.  There are only slight improvements over the next two songs, with a welcome edition of the Bad Religion-style melodic skate sound making its way into a little bit of The Art of Subconscious Illusion with the unpredictability feeling a little more organized, almost like a metalcore variant of NoMeansNo, not that they hold a candle to NoMeansNo, who are probably the greatest hardcore band on Earth.  It even gets pretty creepy near the end, which I have to appreciate for a band who just named themselves Avenged Sevenfold at the time.  But immediately after, the album gets samey, and the tropes just take turns with no direction other than to display the popular tropes, which means the real reason the last track worked was simply because it was a better variant of an otherwise chaotic mess all restricting itself into one genre.

It gets to the point where the piano rock song Warmness of the Soul is a breath of fresh air as opposed to a sore thumb situation because its simple and catchy sound is like a pillow in comparison to the tiring metalcore tropes.  And the album practically stays that way until we get their attempt at a Stairway to Heaven of their own with it going into softer melodic territory before going back into edgy metalcore tropes.  This means that the album only proves that Avenged Sevenfold had not grapsed creativity yet and tried to take an easy way into metal fame.  Obviously, it didn't work out yet.

I really wanted to enjoy the newest album from Eidola, since it has a lot of the new metalcore trends that I typically enjoy: great beauty/beast vocal dichotomy, production that does not sound like a brick, progressive focus on the instrumentals, and breakdowns that are anything other than fruitless.

It's too bad that Eviscerate suffers in much the same way as all previous Eidola albums. While the album starts off very solid and executes all of these elements mention previously very well, Eidola run out of steam around "Fistful of Hornets" and start making some very safe, unoriginal metalcore. I feel like I was supposed to be impressed by "Golgotha Compendium: Fifth Temple" with it's extended runtime and dynamic usage, but they forgot to include the ear infecting hook to push it over the edge into a progressive metalcore masterpiece.

That said, I do not think this records back half is bad from a structure standpoint. I think the mixing is great and highlights all of the important elements that make the first half as good as it was. I would imagine those looking for a more straightforward or transition point into the world of progressive metalcore would not mind this drop off in quality as much. But for me, Eviscerate kind of transforms into a big letdown.

I stumbled over the debut album from Texas' Embodyment around 15 years ago while desperately trying to catch up on all of the great death metal releases I'd missed out on during my self-imposed, decade-long hiatus from the metal scene. "Embrace The Eternal" was reasonably well thought of in death metal circles at the time but Embodyment's remaining back catalogue seemed to be frowned upon for reasons I was unaware of so I went into the album with an open mind. I was also unaware of the links with Christianity & the early deathcore scene that now permeate the release & I honestly don't recall thinking I'd discovered the building blocks of a new genre with that experience either so this month's feature release nomination represents a good chance to reassess that position, particularly given the strong statements from our resident The Revolution devotee Andi.

"Embrace The Eternal" is a well-produced & executed record from a band that were already well in control of their chosen instruments. In fact, they can occasionally be guilty of being a little TOO precise to be honest as the weaker moments on the album do tend to sound like they're in autopilot & lacking a bit of electricity. The clinical production is led by a particularly clicky kick-drum so if that element is something you usually struggle with then I'd perhaps give this release a wide birth. In saying that though, current Living Sacrifice drummer Mark Garza is arguably the highlight of the record with his super-precise performance giving Embodyment a particularly solid platform to work off. I mean, clicky kick drums can be very unforgiving at times but here we see Garza pulling everything off effortlessly. Front man Kris McCaddon's contribution isn't your average deep death metal or deathcore growl though. Instead, we see him sporting a screamier approach that sits right at the mid-point between Carcass' Jeff Walker & the classic metalcore delivery. He tends to be a bit of a one-trick pony on the evidence here too as he really does stick to the one thing the whole way through the album's duration.

Now for the elephant in the room... Despite "Embrace The Eternal" being claimed as one of the founding releases for the deathcore genre, I have to question that consensus. You see, there is nothing terribly unusual or original here from an instrumental point of view. This is purely a death metal record from that perspective with Suffocation being the primary source of inspiration. As someone that absolutely worshipped (& at times sought to emulate) that wonderful band, it's really obvious that Embodyment were also bowing down at the altar of "Effigy of the Forgotten", even if they do tend to shy away from Suffocation's more technical side & aren't nearly as brutal. The regular use of breakdowns is certainly worth mentioning but they don't seem to be drawn from the hardcore scene as far as I can tell, instead being borrowed from the early slam death metal one. Unlike Suffocation though, Embodyment's death metal sound has as much to do with your classic old-school death metal model as it does with the brutal death metal one & you should be able to pick up the influence of bands like Morbid Angel at times too. Then during the second half of the album we start to see some more diverse influences seeping in with the odd Fear Factory groove or jumpy Korn-style nu metal section appearing. While that idea might not sound all that appealing on paper, Embodyment seem to have the class to pull it off nonetheless. It's really just the vocals that draw upon hardcore for inspiration though as the instrumentation can basically be summarized under the death metal banner &, even then, McCaddon's tone isn't even close to the super-gutteral, ultra-deep death growl employed by most deathcore front men these days. Therefore, I struggle to see how "Embrace The Eternal" is a seminal deathcore release to be honest. If it's just the vocals that draw it into that space then Carcass' "Heartwork" would surely suffer the same fate & that idea certainly isn't on the table.

With that said, "Embrace The Eternal" is a very solid extreme metal album in its own right with no weak tracks included. There's a clear consistency to the ten songs & the Christian lyrical content will have absolutely no impact on you unless you go out of your way to investigate what McCaddon is going on about. I personally choose not to & are much better off for it given my strong feelings about organised religion in general. I'd recommend that our The Horde members leave any preconceived notions at the door & give "Embrace The Eternal" a chance to win them over because it's really a very solid first-up effort & one that will have you pondering over how Embodyment's next record could possibly fall into the realm of our The Gateway clan.

Surprisingly good and catchy mathcore from a band that I had no expectations for going in. It is very much derived from the Frontierer and Car Bomb school of mathcore with insanely loud soundscapes and very little room for the listener to breathe. However, Weston Super Maim do give their listeners just that little bit more space compared to their contemporaries. The album manages to sneak in some very subtle yet catchy melodic hooks throughout the record and they help to exemplify the heavy, bone shaking breakdowns.

Best Songs: Slow Hell, Johnny Menomic, Kryptonite Renegade 

Deathcore and I are not the most comfortable of bedfellows, I could count the number of the sub-genre's albums I have heard on the fingers of one hand and I have actually enjoyed even less than that. So I went into Dark Secrets of the Soul expecting little and knowing the sum total of fuck all about the band. Turns out they are an italian, corpse-paint wearing, four-piece and Dark Secrets of the Soul is their sophomore full-length, following 2021's Sulphur Cvlt.

Well, I will just kill off any suspense and say it straight out up front - actually this isn't half bad at all. I know, right. What the hell is up with me? Well it appears that I might actually be a secret deathcore fan and I didn't even know it myself! I think where deathcore wins over other core-related subgenres is within the vocal department, which is where I notoriously struggle when faced with conventional metalcore releases. I don't especially dislike metalcore instrumentally, but the vocals often irritate me intensely, so the inherently more grizzled and guttural vocal requirements of a death metal sub-genre tones down the "screechiness" (for want of a better word) I struggle with so much in metalcore and results in something much more palatable to my ears. Another trick the band have up their sleeves is that they have included a perceptible influence from symphonic black metal, with synths imparting a sense of pomp and circumstance and mitigating some of the harsher elements of the metalcore aspect of the band's sound. Eclipse of the Sun of Eden, for example, has a really noticeable black metal influence from bands like Anorexia Nervosa or Dimmu Borgir that complements their deathly metalcore sound so well.

The band aren't afraid to change gear away from metalcore aggressiveness either with the balladic Lotus, which features the album's best guitar solo, sounding like the second part of Slipknot's "Vermilion" in places including the clean vocals. I'm no expert, but I reckon that despite all these variations from standard deathcore, there is still more than enough of that melodic hyper-aggression present to please the regulars whilst the other influences help to differentiate Drown in Sulphur from the pack and may even draw in newer listeners to the genre, like myself. I like the fact that italian metal bands in general are unafraid to take chances with their music and, for me, in this case, it has paid off big time.

Bad Omens is not your average alt-metalcore band. They've made it big with their sound, especially in their latest album The Death of Peace of Mind that had one of its singles launched into popularity by TikTok. The band would also collaborate with pop star Poppy for an industrial metal track featuring only her vocals. But before we get to their new famous era, we have to start in the beginning with their 2016 debut...

The earliest hype around the band came from the pre-release singles. Some say they were inspired by Sempiternal-era Bring Me the Horizon, others say they're a straight-up copy. But no matter what they say, this album is still a great start to their career.

"Glass Houses" begins it all in a heavy bang. They can make a catchy chorus without causing the pop to pop up. Sure the style and lyrics are similar to Bring Me the Horizon but they're able to not cause any cringe and instead add slight improvement. "Exit Wounds" is another great metalcore track, and I'm sure other fans of the style would agree. You can start to hear the band's melodic side in "The Worst in Me". Now "FERAL" has potential to be in a soundtrack for a movie similar to Queen of the Damned.

Soft melancholic moments can be heard in the relaxed "Enough, Enough Now". Then "Malice" has faster speed and unclean vocals, with occasional piano leftover from the previous track. Whitechapel/Periphery influences can be found in "Hedonist". This release would've been better without "Broken Youth" which is more of a filler than a banger.

"Crawl" tones down everything into something soft enough to end up in a Studio Ghibli film soundtrack. It's still a beautiful highlight though. "The Letdown" attempts to sound like an anthem, but becomes more of an emo letdown. "Reprise (The Sound of the End)" has the usual metalcore heaviness, but it fails to stand out well. The finale "The Fountain" may not be metallic, but it's strong clean anthem with tribal drums and flutes. It ends the journey with ethereal diversity, an anthemic hit to live on forevermore...

H*ll, if any new band can make a solid debut like Bad Omens' self-titled album, they have a monumental future ahead of them. This metalcore album marks the start of Bad Omens' good journey through alt-metal fame....

Favorites: "Glass Houses", "Exit Wounds", "The Worst in Me", "Hedonist", "Crawl", "The Fountain"

With a highly diverse style, Amaranthe's exact genre is subject to debate. It's unknown how this band ended up associated with symphonic metal, but it may have something to do with this other band of founding guitarist Olof Morck, symphonic power metallers Dragonland. While I can't deny their blend of trance/symphonic/melodic metalcore, the best way to describe them is modern pop metal. Within Temptation has also seemed to switch that style recently after over two decades of their own symphonic metal sound. Amaranthe have a lot to pull off in their next adventure. The Catalyst is the first album in 4 years since 2020's Manifest. The reason for a long wait can either be due to the sh*tty pandemic or the fact that harsh vocalist Henrik Englund left the band. But the wait is worth it! The fans can consider this is a nice two-months-late Christmas gift...

The Catalyst might just be the band's first album where they stay true to the symphonic metal association they seem to have. Bombastic symphonic synths have been added to their catchy futuristic style. That's actually good because there's more diversity than just swinging through their own attempts at cheesy electronic anthems, and it brings back the heavy glory to their earlier trio of albums from the first half of the 2010s. The crushing growls of their new harsh vocalist Mikael Sehlin fit greatly with the divine clean duo of Elize Ryd and Nils Molin, and Morck's writing. Almost every song has memorable impact, all making The Catalyst and offering of diverse joy.

The title opener already hints at the symphonics in the first 45 seconds, then escalates into the usual blend of brutal heaviness and pop melody. Electronics soar through alongside the powerful vocal trio. It's the album's longest song at only 3 minutes and 40 seconds, and they used the short length wisely with energetic hooks. "Insatiable" continues the pop metal power as a potential hit to sweep the globe. "Damnation Flame" stuns listeners with its anthemic chorus and more prominent symphonics, shining the most in the spooky carnival mid-section. "Liberated" is a more straight track that seems to throw back to the somewhat mundane formula of the late 2010s. But don't worry, the rest of the album would make up for that minor downfall.

The driving "Re-Vision" breaks through hard with vocoder and the harmony of the vocal trio. A perfect standout! Next up, "Interference" storms along with the usual electro-trance metal. "Stay a Little While" is the ballad of the album, with heartful symphonics and a lovely duet between Ryd and Molin. A nice break from the more modern electro-infused heaviness. Groove-powered "Ecstasy" has more of the driving energy. The one thing I would consider odd there is Mikael's Rob Zombie-like growl-rapping. Clearly he inherited some of that GG6 experimentation from Henrik Englund.

"Breaking the Waves" is a true symphonic trance metal anthem, in which the instrumentation is layered with tons of electronics and classical symphonics, as the synergy of clean and harsh vocals sail smoothly. So heavy and theatrical! "Outer Dimensions" is another blazing futuristic anthem. "Resistance" has techno-mosh fire and fury. It's quite triumphant for a song that's just slightly under 3 minutes in length, and it shall please even metal purists. "Find Life" is as an earlier single from before the band hired Mikael.

The best of Amaranthe since Massive Addictive has been greatly displayed in The Catalyst. This can certainly get you pumped when you're feel down. An essential album for anyone up for what sounds like pop hits gone metal, and that's no insult!

Favorites: "The Catalyst", "Damnation Flame", "Re-Vision", "Breaking the Waves", "Outer Dimensions", "Resistance"

There’s manic energy and aggression here, and it sounds quite dark by the genre’s standards. Musicianship is impressive, songwriting is interesting and varied… on a technical level, the album is rock solid.

Where it falls flat is in the memorability department. The riffs are very dissonant and chaotic, and really not pleasant in any way. There’s no memorable lead guitarwork to speak of; usually the guitar is switching between chugs and dissonant chords. The vocals are good, but again, just not super memorable. The lyrics aren’t quite evocative enough to boost them either. The rhythm section, on the other hand, is all-around fantastic. Both drums and bass pave awesome pathways for the music to follow, ever changing and full of speedy, aggressive work. “John Woo” is a great example of the Metal influence in the drumming, with fantastic double bass beats carrying the music forward with gusto.

All in all though, just not pleasant enough for me to want to revisit, and not memorable enough to… well, remember much of it.

Adding symphonic/black metal elements to deathcore was something barely existent in the late 2000s/early 2010s. In the mid-2010s when Winds of Plague started fading out of activity, and Make Them Suffer and Betraying the Martyrs discarded their earlier deathcore roots, it seemed like that idea was going to die out. But then the late 2010s saw the rise of Shadow of Intent and Lorna Shore, with the latter causing a massive spike up in the early 2020s, and spawning a league of younger bands of that style...

Alongside Mental Cruelty and Dragoncorpse, Drown In Sulphur has entered the symphonic blackened deathcore league with their second album Dark Secrets of the Soul! Deathcore brutality has been placed together with technical complexity and symphonic melody.

"Adveniat Regnum Tuum" (Thy Kingdom Come) is a disturbing intro of alien noises. Odd start there. Then a crushing modern blackened riff commences in "Eclipse of the Sun of Eden" with spectacular growling vocals. "Buried by Snow and Hail" adds orchestral depths in contrast to the extreme heaviness. The drumming speed is absolutely nuts, and it's an important aspect for deathcore chaos.

Continuing the previous songs' direction, "Unholy Light" offers metallic breakdowns in the blink of an eye. Things change a bit in "Lotus", a dark ballad that starts acoustic then builds up in heaviness and emotion. The emotion bleeds into the title track before raging on in the riffs, vocals, and orchestration.

"Say My Name" is a more obscure track, while still being a perfect slow banger. The atmospheric "Vampire Communion" is a nice interlude to get you ready for the album's massive ending... Final track "Shadow of the Dark Throne" is the perfect summary of all the band has done in the album. This is spine-chilling symphonic blackened deathcore for only the bravest and/or darkest souls.

Drown in Sulphur's second album is both a dark and beautiful offering. Dark Secrets of the Soul proves the band's place in the symphonic blackened deathcore league. I say this disturbing yet underrated style of deathcore shall be in good hands as the decade progresses....

Favorites: "Buried by Snow and Hail", "Dark Secrets of the Soul", "Say My Name", "Shadow of the Dark Throne"

In my journey to find new and undiscovered releases, there have been many ups and downs. This also counts for releases that have been recommended to me. I always appreciate the help I receive for my journey, though reviewing them is always about giving an honest opinion. Sometimes I end up loving a band to bits (Ryujin), and sometimes not so much (xNOMADx). And this one is somewhere in between...

Circuit Circuit perform a promising sound of experimental mathcore. After their self-titled EP, they made another one, Body Songs. And here we have some great powerful mathcore that leans into nu metal.

Opening the EP is "I Dream the World Awake", with a guitar riff loop before vocals crash in. Then the guitar halts for a bit of drum tapping before exploding into total riff noise. The riffing basically mashes together the early 2000s eras of Converge and Linkin Park. "Slander Eats Slander" is the most nu metal-ish song here. The sound is once again blended with mathcore in the guitar groove to make this track quite haunting.

Single "Deleted Skin" has more of that punishing guitar groove. All of that groove leads to a destructive breakdown with screams of "STUCK IN MY HEAD?!? OF COURSE NOT, OF COURSE NOT!" How killer is that?!

"Blood in My Eye (Holy Human)", like the opening track, starts with a guitar riff loop that then squeals its way into speed. The vocalist's impressive range blasts in before another killer breakdown and some more riff crunch. Disorienting, but a better track for the band's nu metal-ish side. Then it segues into "Null", beginning with slow riffing from the bass and eventually guitars that continue to loop. "HOW POINTLESS IS IT?!?! THE END OF THIS WORLD WILL BE SOON!!!" A true chaotic mathcore attack!

Well this EP could do without the abrupt cut-off at the end. Nonetheless, Body Songs is a solid offering of nu-mathcore. Guitar grooves and shouted vocals have surely united two separate realms from the early 2000s in the present. The circuits these guys have will keep you wired....

Favorites: "I Dream the World Awake", "Deleted Skin", "Null"

This debut album from Columbus' Rejoice is the kind of crossover punk that metalcore was founded upon. Nothing found within All of Heaven's Luck sounds like it would fit within today's modern definition of the term "metalcore", but it still has that aggression and beatdown aesthetic to it that calling it anything other than metalcore may be a disservice. There are a lot of influences from early hardcore punk bands here, most notably Black Flag and Hüsker Dü, while the truly metalcore sound comes from the half time breakdowns and its blunt, knuckle sandwich to the face lyrics.

While the album does have some good melodic leads throughout, it struggles to find a foothold during the first few tracks. The record get slightly better following "Crawling Through Agony", just in time for the record to end! That's another thing this record borrows from punk: the song/album length. This record doesn't even eclipse twenty (20) minutes, which unfortunately leaves the strong second half feeling unfinished. Nevertheless, on an individual song perspective, the albums second half is really good and shoes off a side of punk/metalcore that I wish was explored more in the 2020s.

Best Songs: Malevolent Deities, Burnt By Dusk, Temple Of The Worm

Melodic hardcore/metalcore has indeed been underappreciated in the present when bands have gone the more djenty route. As rare as it would be to find an EP like this one from xNOMADx released in this decade, I personally don't think of On Skylines of Embers as the legendary classic that people in the future will consider it. It's quite decent, but it's missing the spark that similar-sounding bands had in the 2000s such as Shadows Fall, For the Fallen Dreams (especially their debut Changes), and Unearth.

The songs here are good with their melodic heavy riffing and vicious vocal fury, but not enough to make highlight territory. The one exception is the sick "Acephale", with its otherworldly riffing and clean/scream duet at the end, both marking this song a perfect gem. But the rest of the EP? Not really the best, but worth a try....

Favorites (the one highlight to really stand out for me): "Acephale"

I'd never heard of Massachusetts melodic metalcore outfit xNOMADx prior to my nominating their 2023 debut release "On Skylines of Embers" for The Revolution feature release status this month. I'd noticed how popular the E.P. seemed to be on a competitor's website which had peaked my interest, particularly given that melodic metalcore is generally a little unfairly treated on most serious music sites. At just seventeen minutes in duration, "On Skylines of Embers" is only a very short experience with its five tracks never overstaying their welcome or seeing you reaching for the skip button. Admittedly the material is very generic in many ways with the screamy vocals & simplistic breakdowns sounding oh sorry familiar but what differentiates xNOMADx from the pack though is their use of melody. You see, they make no attempt to take the Gothenburg melodic death metal route by layering harmonized Iron Maiden melodies, instead opting to go for a more unique & satisfying type of lead guitar melody that comes across as being more sophisticated & professional. The production is well suited to the material too as it has an air of accessibility about it which leaves xNOMADx feeling a touch more light-weight & easily digestible than many of their angry tattooed peers. Short opener "12.29 (Ahiarmiut)" is the clear highlight for me personally as it's probably the least derivative of the five songs but the other four are all worth hearing in their own right, even if a couple of them do hint at up-tempo pop punk at times.

So, is "On Skylines of Embers" worthy of all of the high scoring? No, I don't think it is but it is one of the relatively few melodic metalcore releases that don't see me recoiling fairly quickly & I can see why it's managed to appeal to a wide cross-section of the market, particularly a young female one. I don't say that in a negative way though because this is simply a well-written, executed & produced record made by a talented & passionate group of metalcore kids. I'm not surprised to see Saxy getting onboard with it & would imagine that Andi will be all over it too but it wouldn't surprise me if it caused Xephyr to raise the odd eyebrow for it either. I can't see myself coming back for future revisits but I do have a smile on my face after my long drive home from work which can't be a bad thing now, can it?

2023 was a bit of a change when it came to the music that I listened to. Following my exit out of some of the more toxic review circles in 2022, I found that in 2023, I was going to pay more attention to the mainstream and what got popular there as opposed to what some bald man in plaid on the internet thinks, and then have all of those viewers dogplie it to the top (or bottom) of the RateYourMusic charts. As a result, 2023 saw a considerable jump in terms of albums in the Revolution clan. My favourite of the bunch (Dying Wish's Symptoms of Survival) played right into my tastes as it combined mid 2000s metalcore with a slight modern twist.

The key is that Dying Wish are playing to a certain audience that is in on the nostalgia. xNOMADx on the other hand, are making a very different style of melodic metalcore. If you can think of the emo-hardcore/sasscore of recent bands like So Hideous and SeeYouSpaceCowboy and throw in what I can only describe as La Dispute poetic vocal delivery, you'll likely have a good idea as to the kind of metalcore you're getting here. And it actually works really well. Most melo-hardcore bands of the past think that in order to fit into the "melodic" tag requires clean singing, but xNOMADx prove that is not the case. Most, if not all, of the melodic leads on this record are provided by a lead guitar while the harsh vocals are quite moving in their delivery. 

The compositions of these five (well, only four I guess since "12.29 (Ahiarmiut)" is more of an intro) are top notch in terms of quality of performance and production. Bass is thorough and the percussion does not feel trigger happy during the breakdowns. If there is one thing to criticize here, it would have to be the breakdowns themselves. They feel very simplistic and on a couple of instances, I knew that I had heard these exact same rhythm of notes somewhere else before in the past.

Like I said, melodic metalcore takes two forms; the nostalgic style of the mid 2000s, and the modern, progressive style. xNOMADx are comfortably playing into the latter and I think it sounds great. Can't wait to hear what this band has to offer in 2024 and beyond.

Best Songs: On Skylines of Embers, The Punishment, Hand That Hold Me Hold Nothing

I've certainly been aware of West Virginia metalcore legends Zao for some time now due to my past involvement with The Revolution Spotify playlists however I'd never taken the plunge with a full album before jumping into their highly regarded 1998 third album "Where Blood & Fire Bring Rest". It certainly sounded like it might be right up my alley on paper but I have to admit that I've been left with a fairly middling (if not necessarily disappointing) outcome. Here we see Zao presenting us with a punk-heavy brand of metalcore with a reasonable amount of experimentation going on that never really convinces me that the band are deserving of the praise this record inevitably seems to draw. The vocals of front man Daniel Weyandt aren't amazing to tell you the truth. He's got one of those really wet & gurgly blackened screams that sounds like he's trying too hard but hasn't really got what it takes. I felt very similarly about Converge singer Jacob Bannon during the first half of his career actually but Converge had the power to pull it off regardless. I'm not so sure about Zao as I find them to be less intense & a little easier on the ear.

To be clear, I'm not saying that I don't enjoy "Where Blood & Fire Bring Rest". It's a pretty decent metalcore record overall but the highlights ("To Think of You Is to Treasure an Absent Memory" & "Ember") don't reach the elite level & there is a flat section during the second half of the album that sees me losing interest temporarily (see "Fifteen Rhema" & "For a Fair Desire"). The musicianship is pretty decent but the song structures sometimes push the friendship, there are more generic metalcore breakdowns than I'm comfortable with & I find the Korn-ish nu metal parts to be a little tedious. So, it's fair to say that I find the album to be a decent way to pass the time but I'm unlikely to return to it in the future. I definitely prefer the more visceral material that bands like Converge, Snapcase & Disembodied were delivering at the time.

Still exploring deathcore is the phrase that will probably be on my gravestone, such is the infrequency with which I bother to visit the sub-genre. This record stands out due to the “breakdown factory” that I have heard the previous release from Black Tongue being described as has seen a downturn in its output based on my few listens through this, their third release. Whilst the conveyer belts have not completely ground to a halt, there is a lot to be said for repeat visits to Nadir to truly understand the depth of the ten tracks on offer.

Only Ultima Necat seems to dwell in that truly generic deathcore space. The rest of the track listing is more of an expansive experience. Incorporating grindcore and black metal alongside the slower and abysmally heavy sections of other tracks. The album has a narrative and is therefore told as a story, each track focusing on a life being forced to answer for all the wrongdoings it has undertaken. This cruel judgement is emphasized on tracks such as Parting Soliloquy with its begging and pleading lyrics making as equal a splash as the start-stop percussion and menacing atmospheres. This is by far the most obviously descriptive track in terms of the vocals, but it never strays towards being boring or mundane. Instead, the instrumentation weaves into the space the usually more rapid vocals would fill to pace the track well.

The addition of the Celtic Frost cover is unexpected, yet it works well with the rest of tracks of the album and the cleaner singing that punctuates the track also helps it to stand out from the pack at the same time. Nadir then lives up to the promise of the crawling darkness that the album artwork offers. In parts it is terrifying, resonating with the darker edges of my psyche far too well for my comfort in places. An epic exploration of suffering, judgement and execution, Nadir is a triumph of an album that gets further under your skin with successive listens. In my brief experience of deathcore, it is one of the more mature offerings and one that is perhaps moving the farthest away from that generic sound that so easily lands so much criticism.

14 minutes is a short amount of time, and you can do anything during that amount of time. You can write something, do a small drawing, maybe have a call with someone, OR... Listen to music! See, I can spend 14 minutes of free time listening to music, but it's mostly just a progressive epic that long. I prefer to indulge in a journey rather than one of those grindcore speed-runs. Though I find great enjoyment in the Killwhitneydead debut release Inhaling the Breath of a Bullet, speeding through exactly 833 seconds.

See, I'm not usually a fan of this metalcore/deathgrind kind of sound, nor the grindcore aspect of really short songs. However, this release is an enjoyable exception, along with Daughter's Canada Songs. Something unique here is the amount of film samples they use, which is more of an industrial metal aspect. But d*mn it's quite interesting, and with up to a few samples in each song, that can almost outshine industrial metal bands when it comes to that aspect. Now I have a positive feeling about how well they perform the instrumentation. You can really hear those virtuoso guitar bursts!

"If It Ain't Johnny Cash, It Ain't Country" opens with well-done riffing brutality, complete with catchy speed. "I Already Have Enough Friends" have pretty much the same thing, quickly moving through your skull and brain faster than a bullet. "Hold Me Closer Tony Danza" starts with the same American Psycho quote as the one used by Children of Bodom between "Bodom Beach Terror" and "Angels Don't Kill" in Hate Crew Deathroll a year later.

"Another Tragic Case of the Rock Star Syndrome" strikes with blast-beats, vocals, and riffs, filled with bloody carnage. The structure isn't too complex or too simple but just right. The dark disturbing atmosphere works well for those riffs and samples. And there's a lot more in the two and a half minute highlight "Starring Robert Downey Jr. As 'The Addict'". Also standing out is "It's Like Eating a Little Piece of Jesus (A Murder's Communion)" that continues the crazy riffing/vocal brutality that summarizes the band's sound. Much of their talent appears again in "Is That My Blood or Hers?", with great vocals and guitars not too far off from Psyopus.

Even "Why Smile When I Am Carrying This Gun?" can have a similar amount of complex brutality to Within the Ruins. "Mikey and the Apartment of Misfit Porn" has some slight earlier standard metalcore of Hatebreed and Earth Crisis. "Killwhitneydead vs. The River Bottom Nightmare Band" has great sublime groove. "My Favorite Two Shades on You Are Black and Blue" ends the album with the last bit of crazy blasts and riffs and some last words from Patrick Bateman, "I think my mask of sanity is about to slip."

The sanity of this band has already slipped from the start, as they let their mad metalcore/deathgrind sound run wild and free. This is the kind of the madness worth 14 minutes of your life, if you're truly ready!

Favorites: "If It Ain't Johnny Cash, It Ain't Country", "Another Tragic Case of the Rock Star Syndrome", "Starring Robert Downey Jr. As 'The Addict'", "It's Like Eating a Little Piece of Jesus (A Murder's Communion)", "Is That My Blood or Hers?", "Mikey and the Apartment of Misfit Porn"

With their EP A Certain Innate Suffering released in 1997, Withdrawn started off as dark sludgy metalcore/hardcore. Adding in some death metal elements that had yet to solidify the metal/deathcore sound of their 1999 album, you can consider this band a mix of Asphyx and Earth Crisis. Those were the days when UK hardcore had the slower metallic vibe of Deviated Instinct.

You can hear a stunning difference between this EP and Seeds of Inhumanity. Here you have a simpler yet brutal experience as there's more heaviness than variation. And this can actually be more of a struggle for modern listeners like myself...

First track "Lifeless" fits well in the song title. Apart from the aggression, there's not much exciting as it just plods along. The 7-minute epic "Serenity" is much better despite the lack of hardcore gang vocals and melodic hooks. What makes this song stand out is thick guitar reverb (different from the album) and the loose drumming (just like the album). Interesting despite the repetition! "Oceans of Darkness" greatly adds the doomy progressiveness that later Dodheimsgard and Green Carnation would have to the metallic hardcore of later bands like Vision of Disorder and Demon Hunter. "Embalmed" is a little too anticlimactic.

Intending to make a dark impact on UK metallic hardcore, the end result was a somewhat poor EP. After this, two of the members left to form their own bands, which would explain the more melodic sound the drummer and the guitarist would make in their album. Still this EP is worth hearing hardcore/metalcore at its darkest....

Favorites: "Serenity", "Oceans of Darkness"

It took me the entire albums release weekend before I could muster how I felt about the newest album from Portland metalcore band Dying Wish. And it's because I found the record more conflicting than I did at first. I really enjoyed my initial playthrough of Symptoms of Survival, thanks in large part to a very well done mastering job. Nothing on the record becomes overwhelming and it pushes some excellent hardcore vocals from Emma Boster to the front. The clean singing could have been incorporated a little bit more frequently in my opinion, but the sparseness makes them feel that much more comforting when they do arrive.

The album starts off very strong with its very clear influences to the great melo-hardcore bands of the mid 2000s, but eventually it transforms and the compositions become more sporadic and not as well implemented, almost as if it was starting to take influence from another 2000s metalcore band: Converge. But that's not even the best part! Halfway through the album, "Paved in Sorrow" takes on this post-hardcore ballad that would not feel out of place on a Svalbard album!

And yet, the album still flows remarkably well. Even if I'm not the biggest fan of the herky-jerky performance styles of early Converge, Symptoms of Survival is an album that maintains an identity and shows that they can keep that identity intact even through the albums emotional roller coaster. A pleasant surprise for sure and one that should be considered by anyone familiar with 2000s metalcore.

Best Songs: Symptoms of Survival, Starved, Path To Your Grave, Hell's Final Blessing, Lost In The Fall

Withdrawn was a band in the UK that developed the vegan straight-edge metal/hardcore scene in the UK. Their blend of elements from hardcore and melodic death metal give them an early metalcore/deathcore sound. After their 1999 album Seeds of Inhumanity, they changed their name to Evanesce (not to be confused with the more popular alt-rock/metal band Evanescence). The vocalist for this Withdrawn album is different from that of their EP, hardcore band Voorhees vocalist Ian "Lecky" Leck. His desperate vocals vary with more than just death growls and screams...

The band's influence is quite diverse for their early metal/deathcore sound, mixing elements of American metalcore bands like Earth Crisis and Abnegation, and European death metal bands like Carcass and old-school Anathema. With bits of melodeath and even death-doom in the cauldron, you know you're in for an interesting metal/hardcore dish, though the musicianship might be off at times despite being decent.

"Your Messiah Incomplete" is an ominous intro, but even then, it sounds a bit incomplete. Then "Cries" crashes through with some of the black/death-infused metalcore of Underoath at that time. That sound continues in "Bloodaxe", one of the best of the album. There's a bit of the early Anathema-like melodic death-doom riffing in "Tainted".

"Striation" is my favorite highlight of the album. They lose some speed but in a controlled pace, leading to a mighty breakdown, before getting moody in the end. Perhaps one of the greatest early deathcore songs besides some of the ones from Embodyment's Embrace the Eternal! "Infernal Black Skies" is an early example of adding some melody to deathcore, kinda like what early Abigail Williams and Lorna Shore would do many years later, but without any of the symphonic black metal elements. But then things get thin and filler in "Fueled by Fear".

I also f***ing hate "Hate Reborn", as it really deflates in quality. Fortunately, the title track redeems the album quality, opening with some crawling doom-ish riffing, followed by a Slayer-fueled midsection. "Incinerate" has some of the metallic melody picked up by Unearth. The song is 4 minutes long, but then nearly a half-hour of silence follows, and then a hidden track comes on, a strange demo outtake that doesn't add too much value.

Seeds of Inhumanity was a pretty good addition to the early UK metal/hardcore age, despite moving on as a different band that is Evanesce. Despite the thin guitar and a couple downers, this album has its right position with its violent rage. While not a total winner, I'm glad to listen to this offering, as my metalcore journey continues.....

Favorites: "Cries", "Bloodaxe", "Striation", "Infernal Black Skies", "Seeds of Inhumanity"

Spiritbox wax never going to be iwrestledabearonce. Hell, even IWABO wasn't IWABO by the time Courtney LaPlante and Mike Stringer joined the group for 2015's Hail Mary. So in a way, watching Spiritbox go from progressive metal from the debut EP with songs like "The Mara Effect" and transform into this more pop centric sound isn't surprising.

When I listened to Eternal Blue, I did enjoy the direction the band was taking, but also felt far too much like a grab bag of modern metalcore trends rather than sounding like Spiritbox. And on this new album, I can confidently say that nothing has changed.

This little EP comes packaged with three decent made for radio alternative metalcore songs with "The Void", "Ultraviolet" and "Too Close / Too Late", two heavy bangers that will please the breakdown reaction video makers with "Cellar Door" and "Angel Eyes". And then there is "Jaded", which is the kind of hybrid that "Circle With Me" wishes it could be; a very solid track and likely the best on the EP.

As individual songs, I do think that The Fear of Fear is pretty good. Every song feels like a completed idea and Spiritbox know their sound and creative limits so as to not detract from the EP's strengths. As a whole however, Spiritbox are still stuck in creative limbo trying to appeal to as wide a audience as possible with as many differing timbres and styles that honestly don't fit as well together as I would have liked.

This can be extremely dangerous for a band since it can spread their audience quite thin. I think that on an EP like The Fear of Fear is one of the best places to play around with this because of the length, as opposed to a full length LP. But, since Spiritbox are doing this again following the debut full length, maybe this is the residual mist being left behind from the IWABO days that Spiritbox wants to maintain. And I'm not sure it's going to work the best for them in the future.

Best Songs: Jaded, Cellar Door, Ultraviolet

A new album from Thy Art Is Murder and, perhaps surprisingly, another album that does not include CJ McMahon. That statement may contain more layers than anticipated because the replacement (Tyler Miller or Aversions Crown) was revealed as this albums principal vocalist a single day before the albums release. CJ's vocals were recorded and was promptly kicked out for making controversial statements.

The other reason why it might be surprising has to do with Miller filling in admirably with a vocal timbre that very similar to the former vocalist. At first, you might not even notice that this isn't CJ McMahon's vocals at all. I would go so far as to say that Miller's vocals are superior to that of CJ's with an increased focus on dynamic range. Already we're off to a great start. Until you actually listen to Godlike and realize that it's yet another Thy Art Is Murder album. Nothing about this record demands the attention of the listener as it comfortably falls into a groove without much semblance of growth. The lead in to the breakdowns on "Lesson In Pain" sound identical to "Reign of Darkness" from ten years ago and the breakdowns themselves don't fair much better. Sure, The Aggression Sessions that TAIM did earlier this year alongside Fit For An Autopsy may have given the band a little bit of a rub as "Destroyer of Dreams" and "Corrosion" have elements similar to Fit For An Autopsy, minus the more progressive songwriting, but it's hard to differentiate this from the bands other LPs. Their is only so much that these "melodic deathcore" bands can do before their sound becomes stale without going full-on progressive metal; hell the same thing can be said for its parent genre, melodic death metal. I'll give Godlike a pass for not being a complete technical abomination. When it comes to modern deathcore, you could always do a hell of a lot worse than Thy Art Is Murder.

Best Songs: Join Me In Armageddon, Destroyer Of Dreams, Lesson In Pain, Corrosion

Although I don't think I'll be joining the Revolution, I have to admit that I love punk.  Right now the only punk genre I represent in a clan is crossover thrash, which is a problematic genre that rarely ever amazes me.  Metalcore, IMO, is the superior genre thanks to the presence of more excellent bands.  Unfortunately, the genre also gets very tiring thanks to the countless emulators of bands like Born of Osiris, so when someone in metalcore mixes it up, like Zao does with their own strong presence, I tend to feel a sigh of relief so powerful that it's almost like a weight is finally off my shoulders, as if finding creative metalcore has become a literal chore.

This is their most popular work: Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest.  At first it starts off pretty typically, even though it's clear that mood and delivery is taken more seriously than punk energy, which is a sigh of relief.  The same seems to be true even as it switches from calm acoustic james to slow punk screams in the beginning of the second song.  Unsurprisingly, there are faint traces of proggieness and djent in the behavior of the riffage, but not enough to even warrant a sub-tag.  This also feels like a smart decision to me because it's very tamed and used specifically for mood.  In otherwords, this is the kind of metalcore album that keeps you on your toes, guessing what's going to happen next even as it rarely breaks its genre.  There are quite a few instances of slow-paced growling and droning, which seems to me is an atmospheric choice that the band likes to take advantage of.  In other words, speed is of little importance, even for a punk album.  Very interesting choice, especially considering that there seems to be some sort of Neurosis influence.

But there's also some time taken for melody whether or not speed is a part of the picture.  Listen to the openings of March and Ember, and then finish the songs to see where things go, even if certain sections may easily be dragged on too long.  Another interesting choice the band made was writing some songs about hypocrisy in the churches, despite being a Christian band.  They're tackling a wide range of themes involving personal struggles, even avoiding the preachy side of Christian lyricism.  In other words, the band tried to make a Christian album that raw metalheads could relate to.  Again, a smart move.  But concerning the lyricism and quirky song structures, practically throwing pop structures in the trash, I'm wondering if each section symbolizes something, which would make this album more conceptual than advertised.

I can see why this is considered a metalcore classic.  It's a SMART album.  So overall, I kinda like this.  Zao have gone far beyond what the Christian rock tag might've indicated for the music browser in terms of both style and quality.  I can say, however, that I'd prefer a LITTLE more punk energy in certain sections, and that some sections whether fast or slow be shortened to maintain a further punk presence and less of a Neurosis one.  Zao did something very artistic here, and they had their bumps but they were still very smart about this.

Fatalism is an album Polaris fans have been anticipating. The creative songwriter and performers are at it once again! And they even sealed a schedule of 3-year intervals between albums. Oh, what a solid strategy.

After the perfect one-two punch of The Mortal Coil and The Death of Me, the band continue progressing through their exciting creativity in Fatalism. Hearing the news about this album got my hopes up high. But then the news about guitarist Ryan Siew's passing was heartbreaking. He was one of the most talented modern metal guitarists I had heard, and he was only 26 (same age as my older brother). He had already complete his work before his death, so this album lets you hear his guitar wizardry one last time...

"Harbinger" starts the album with an atmospheric intro as bassist Jake Steinhauser sings his clean vocals over building synths. Soon the drums and guitars come in, and finally the moshing riffs and vocalist Jamie Hails' screams. The perfect opening storm that should work well live! "Nightmare" is the ultimate Polaris anthem! An easy metalcore banger with all of their signature aspects; screamed verses, melodic choruses, heavy riffs, and powerful vocals, all leading up to the mighty end. This is full-on rage you just gotta experience! "Parasites" has more aggressive attitude. And I mean real middle-finger-pointing anger. Full speed ahead for that track! Calming down from that intense ride, "Overflow" greatly display the two vocalists' skills. Jake continues his clean strength, and Jamie adds in some singing too alongside his usual screams.

"With Regards" has strong vocal beauty from Jake which, along with Jamie's kick-A screams, add to the heartful lyrics and soaring riff melody throughout the song. The high-sung final chorus really hits that spot. Heading forward to "Inhumane", bass opens the track, and then Jamie Hails unleashes the fire. Ryan Siew pulled off perhaps the most epic guitar solo he's ever done that barely any other guitarist could do. That song was the only one in the album to come out before his passing. Lots of interesting moments including powerful gang vocals, djenty melodies, and of course, that incredible solo! Finally we drop down to the song's finale that's more of a throwdown than a breakdown. "The Crossfire" is also very interesting. With more metallic guitars, this should really end up in Guitar Hero! It's quite addictive, as those vocal melodies will end up seared into your brain. Get your air guitars up!

Drummer Daniel Furnari gets all the action is "Dissipate", all in blast beat brilliance. D*mn, those blasts are all around, especially behind some wonderful riffing. The drums are front and center while the guitars provide support. And when the guttural vocals, they're filled with deep insanity that greatly contrasts with Jake's soaring cleans. The breakdown is what many of the heavier metalcore fans came for. It's so killer as the drums f***ing devastate, while Rick Schneider performs ravaging rhythm. "Aftertouch" is a slow sweet power ballad that's a rarity in metalcore. There's lightness in the keyboards and drums, but the guitars and vocals slowly gain stronger intensity. Even the most touching song can break down barriers as part of the band's essence. "Fault Line" starts soft in the synths before launching into another easy yet impressive banger. "All in Vain" closes the album, but not as energetic as I was hoping it would be. It starts off promising with some whispers and building riffing before exploding into a heavy verse. Then the intro is reprised before the final chorus which unfortunately makes an abrupt stop. Probably the only truly problematic Polaris song.

Fatalism is a different album from their earlier ones, yet there's a lot of the greatness to expect. Polaris continue to shine with their songwriting creativity that has made this album stay true to their discography. With lots of well-balanced highlights and professional teamwork, this blend of melody and brutality levels up the stories told within the lyrics shall keep listeners alert and wanting more. There's no doubt that Fatalism will please Polaris with this exciting heartful work. A near-perfect swansong for Ryan Siew that shall be engraved in his legacy! RIP

Favorites: "Harbinger", "Nightmare", "With Regards", "Inhumane", "Dissipate", "Fault Line"

I’d suggest that most Metal Academics are probably fairly aware of the fact that subgenres like slam death metal & deathcore are unfairly treated on most other metal websites. In fact, this was one of the major reasons for Ben & I even starting to discuss the possibility of a Metal Academy site in the first place. In saying that though, there are some pockets of the subgenres I mentioned that are more maligned than others & it's hardly surprising that South Africa’s XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX (short for Acidic Vaginal Liquid Explosion Generated by Mass Amounts of Filthy Fecal Fisting and Sadistic Septic Syphilic Sodomy Inside the Infected Maggot Infested Womb of a Molested Nun Dying Under the Roof of a Burning Church While a Priest Watches and Ejaculates In Immense Perverse Pleasure Over His First Fresh Fetus) fit into that bracket now, is it? I mean, you could be forgiven for making the immediate assumption that they’re a novelty band because the reality is that they clearly are, not only because of their ridiculous moniker & completely absurd logo but also because they also seem to want to showcase & highlight all of the commonly criticized traits from both genres. While that may be true though, sometimes I just find that I like what I like & how cool I may appear is not something that I've ever been too concerned with.

2016’s “Gore” E.P. was the Durban duo’s first release with Kris Xenopoulos (Vulvodynia) handling all of the instrumentation & Duncan Bentley (Vulvodynia/Wormhole) taking on all vocal duties. The sound you can expect to hear sits somewhere between slam death metal & deathcore with a slightly stronger emphasis on the former even though the breakdowns often tend to angle a touch more towards the other direction. Kris’ performance behind the drum kit is worth mentioning as he possesses some impressive chops for someone that’s presumably more of a guitarist based on his prior experience. The blast-beat sections are amongst the strongest components to the band’s sound & are accentuated by a bright & crystal-clear mix that brings the kick drums right to the front. It’s a really well produced little E.P. actually which admittedly isn’t all that uncommon for groups that tackle these sort of niche subgenres these days.

Duncan’s vocal performance offers a bit of variety. He’ll no doubt annoy those who can’t stand a pig-squealed “BBBBRRREEEEEE” or two because he seems to be consciously trying to highlight the absurdity of that technique here. He also displays some level of hardcore pedigree at times through some more aggressive beatdown-style deathcore rants. Another element that might piss of the purists out there is XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX’s tendency to indulge in a bit of humour, both lyrically & instrumentally. You won’t understand the lyrics but I’m led to believe that they’re particularly silly (see the weakest inclusion "Dicks Out For Harambe" for example) while the random u-turns into disparate musical genres like djent, groove metal or even jazz require an open-mind but are well-executed nonetheless.

Look, I’m not gonna suggest that any non-believers try “Gore” on for their very first slam or deathcore experience but it’s not half bad when taken on musical value alone. I love me some brutal death metal & there’s certainly some brutality about this stuff. I’m also a bit of a sucker for decent production jobs in my extreme metal & it ticks that box too. I can’t see myself giving this twelve-minute release too many revisits in the future but fans of artists like Acrania, Ingested or the previously-mentioned Vulvodynia will no doubt find some appeal in this unfairly maligned piece of over-the-top extreme music.

Now this is the album I need to revisit this band that I've distanced from their music for a couple years! Colors Live is a Between the Buried and Me live album in which they perform the entirety of what was once a favorite masterpiece of mine, Colors, followed by some songs from their first 3 albums voted by fans in a special online poll.

When I was still enjoying this band, their 2002 self-titled debut was a solid start that showed their metalcore side at their rawest. The Silent Circus began to display their more progressive tendencies. Then Alaska was a perfect phenomenon of progressive metalcore innovation. This is only surpassed by a few points by the stunning diamond gem that was Colors, in which their experimental deathly progressive metalcore sound is in full prodigious force throughout basically a 64-minute epic split into 8 tracks.

The live rendition of that colorful journey begins as it should, with the smooth piano and clean singing of "Foam Born (A) The Backtrack". Then the drums crash in and the guitars follow as uplifting spiraling synths enter the picture. Then it makes a dark twist into melodic death/black metal, almost like Dissection/Emperor possessed their minds for 30 seconds. The crushing deathly heaviness is maintained as it segues into "(B) The Decade of Statues" as their finest hour kicks off for real in the speed. An atmospheric Middle-Eastern guitar melody opens "Informal Gluttony". With that and the deathly fire that comes after, you might almost be reminded of the band Nile. There's an epic chorus later on before ending on tribal drumming. The gigantic 11-minute marathon epic "Sun of Nothing" has some moments to highlight, such as a nice Beatles-like melody, a weird piano section, and a beautiful climax that looks back at Pink Floyd's "Dark Side" that rises up until the band stampede through from that track into another, and it's another epic that can be considered the centerpiece of Colors...

The 13-minute epic "Ants of the Sky" has wonderful aspects of blues groove and organ, with some hard rock/thrash added in, as the soloing ranges from jazz to Queen-esque to country. Soon it leads to an epic slow bridge that then quiets down for a bit of clean soloing. And then another country-like moment, this time with banjo-like guitars and a background bar fight (WHAT?!), before ending with an uplifting neoclassical outro similar to Pachelbel's Canon. It then leads to "Prequel to the Sequel", continuing the sweet twists. One moment they play some aggressive soloing, and the next... We have a moment of wacky polka/cabaret. The rising/brutal section after that originally had Fear Before vocalist Adam Fisher screaming his own verse and then a growling/screaming showdown with BTBAM vocalist Tommy Rogers. The live version shows Rogers doing it all himself, before another uplifting clean outro. Bassist Dan Briggs's shining instrumental "Viridian" plays as all is relaxed a bit before the towering finale... The legendary 14-minute "White Walls" pretty much summarizes all that is central to the album's sound. All I'm gonna note is how majestic the ending is, when the band unleash all their power before collapsing and concluding it all with the last bit of piano, just like in the beginning.

However, the entire live experience ain't over yet, as after an intermission, the band strike again with their earlier material, beginning with "Mordecai", perhaps the highlight of this second half. It starts with brutal tech-death that can remind some of Suffocation and Misery Index, followed by a 5-second Zappa-like transition into relentless mathcore ala The Dillinger Escape Plan, and a bit of melodeath/groove. The distorted heaviness fades away, and taking its place is a soft bridge of clean guitar, falsetto singing, and beautiful keyboards. This can be almost consider a progressive metalcore ballad, especially when Rogers' emotional singing rises and guitarist Paul Waggoner performs splendorous soloing. That stylistic switch from brutality and beauty has left me speechless since first listen. I love it! "Shevanel Cut a Flip" is the 9-minute closer of the first BTBAM album, and it starts with some of the most extreme chaos the band has had, only interrupted by another brief jazzy riff over another background bar fight (seriously WHAT?!?), before some more heaviness and bass. But the real change comes 3 and a half minutes in, when it all switches to quiet softness, as if you suddenly end up from darkness to light. The clean vocals and harmonies were sung by ex-drummer Will Goodyear in the original album, sung by Waggoner and Rogers in this live version. Also in the original is that quiet ending extended for 3 minutes before a white-noise fadeout. It's actually good that they didn't include that extended ending, as I would probably get bored to death if I hear the soft drumming and riffing for that long. "Backwards Marathon" continues the band's chaotic side with groove and speed, before a switch into a jazzy ethereal bridge that almost reminds me of Dream Theater's "Trial of Tears" ("It's raining...").

"Ad a dglgmut" is another epic track with a powerful climax. It first bursts in blast-beat/riffing fury, as the times change through wild cacophony, while Tommy screams "SCREAM LOUD! LOUD!! LOUD!!! LOUD!!!!" Then everything changes into an uplifting mellow bridge with more of his pleasant singing, "It all makes sense, we're capable of beauty, through sounds which make one cringe, the dogs only hear us now". Next track "Aspirations" showed the band making unexpected twists even in those earlier days. They start off with melodic metalcore riffing that then turn into crushing rhythm. The guitar becomes more melodic, as the bass shines again. Then the cool metalcore riffing returns, and a delightful twist is Tommy performing some high falsetto for a brief verse. Again, the softer clean singing was originally by Will Goodyear in the original debut. "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" concludes the entire set on a grand note. It begins with groovy keyboards, before some more of the annihilating deathly madness. Soon we get to a dreamy bridge of clean singing, bluesy soloing, and soft piano. And finally, they end it all with a few-minute climax of glorious neoclassical soloing that is as much of a moment fans have been looking for as graduation day for college students. What a treat to wrap things up! As the live video ends and the credits roll, the outro for Alaska, "Laser Speed" plays, as a sweet jazzy elevator music interlude.

Colors Live is a monstrous live experience like none other from this modern progressive metal fivesome BTBAM. I really need to get back in touch with the music of this band and Opeth if I want to maintain my Infinite street cred. This is an excellent live journey you just gotta hear to believe!

Favorites: "Informal Gluttony", "Sun of Nothing", "Ants of the Sky", "White Walls", "Mordecai", "Aspirations", "Selkies: The Endless Obsession"

This album is a stepping stone of sorts from the old style of pure punky Metalcore into the newer wave of late 90’s-2000’s Alt/Groove Metally Metalcore. Despite its dissonant pessimism and anger, it’s got a bouncy energy to it, and a few catchy guitar leads. Riffs are pretty standard chugs most of the time, but the rhythm section is great – the drumming is the best part of this release.

All of those things said, I must confess I don’t see how this is one of the greatest Metalcore albums of all time. It’s a big improvement over their debut for sure, but this sounds very similar to most of the Metalcore of the time. It’s not very catchy or memorable, just played competently with above-average musicianship. Production is good too. It’s a strong album, but there’s nothing here that could grip me enough to want to return in the future.

And ending your album with a Pee-Wee Herman sample is a pretty goofy thing to do...

Dragoncorpse... The name of this band would make you think of a blend of the speedy power metal of DragonForce and the brutal death metal of Cannibal Corpse. And you would be two-thirds right there! This is, for real, power metal and deathcore mixed together, a combo barely anyone has ever thought could, let alone should, be possible. But since Shadow of Intent, Lorna Shore, and Mental Cruelty have already projected their own respective brands of epic deathcore, well... Why the f*** not?!

Hailing from two separate continents, North America and Australia, Dragoncorpse released an EP that fans have been waiting for hearing the singles released the previous year. Those singles are included in the EP along with two new songs and 4 cheesy spoken-word interludes, the latter keeping the release away from perfect greatness.

Opening the EP is one of the two new songs, "Sunlover", featuring Jacob Wallace, formerly of Brojob. There's a decent balance between vocalist Mardy Leith's operatic singing and Wallace's crushing growling. The power metal sections are quite upbeat that make a cool yet struggling contrast with the heavier deathcore breakdowns. Despite that issue, it's still quite stellar, helped out by the epic chorus.

Next up is my favorite here, "Blood and Stone". The fast relentless power metal/deathcore blend continues, complete with a brutal chant of "Blood in, blood out". The following full song, "Terror Eternal" continues that combo, this time with some soloing by Dragonland guitarist Jesse Lindskog.

Then "From the Sky" has that sound yet again. This time with a superb catchy chorus that makes this song another stellar highlight. Finally, "Undying" is a special song. It features incredible vocals from two winners of a contest to guest appear in a song by the band, Jens Thommek and Stefan Gorski Prins. There is some more of Mardy's catchy vocals, along with Kris Chayer proving himself to be a true guitar wizard.

All in all, The Drakketh Saga is a solid EP for fans of power metal and deathcore who are curious to hear what those two genres sound like together. Give this offering some good listening and witness two separate worlds collide....

Favorites: "Blood and Stone", "From the Sky", "Undying"

It's not very often that my nightcap album for the week warrants an album review, but I believe that Dragoncorpse are worthy of the exception. The Australian based band peaked my interest early by combining two genres that do not belong together: power metal and deathcore... is what I would say if I wasn't keeping a keen ear to the ground.

For those who have been paying attention to the modern scene will already know that symphonic deathcore is hot on the presses. The obvious starting point has to be Lorna Shore, considering they are one of heavy metal's biggest bands at the moment, but let's not forget about Shadow of Intent and Mental Cruelty. Dragoncorpse seems to be the next logical step in the progression towards accessorizing deathcore to a wider audience, by way of symphonic instrumentation, gigantic vocal choruses and "bro0tal" breakdowns.

And y'know what? I can see the appeal for a band such as this. Forget about the fact that these are just power/symphonic metal songs with the occasional blast beat and heavy breakdown interspersed, the merging of the two styles works much better than I could have ever anticipated. For every oppressive Lorna Shore breakdown that feels inconsequential to the three/four minutes of death metal assault that preceded it, Dragoncorpse litter their breakdowns with tiny callbacks to earlier in the track, whether that be a continued symphonic focus, or in the case of "Terror Eternal" the dual vocals of Mardy Leith's growls and Jesse Lindskog's high screams/wails. 

The album does run a little bit short as the concept does revolve around its cringy interludes, which are simply symphonic orchestration combined with guttural vocal poetry. The vocals sound like Alex Terrible and don't evoke any reaction beyond just how out of place they sound. Otherwise, the hardest part to comes to terms with is how little it does with its supposed hybrid status. This sounds like a power metal album through and through and the deathcore influence is only icing.

Beyond all of that, I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually listen to this in their respective clans. The power metal crowd will likely find the death metal influence overwhelming, meanwhile the deathcore kids will never touch something like this because of its clean singing and cheesy and quasi-uplifting stature. It certainly is a fascinating listen, but I worry that Dragoncorpse will shift one way or the other and will eventually just turn into a generic symphonic metal band with power or deathcore elements.

Best Songs: Blood And Stones, From The Sky, UNDYING

The tough thing about checking out some demo EPs from bands, including splits, is that you end up thinking "What the f*** happened there?!" and then you realized, "Oh this is just a demo" while irritated about a band you love sounding this sh*tty. In saying that, Parkway Drive would definitely improve in a short matter of time and start making killer albums that cement them as one of my favorite metalcore bands.

The only track that closely matches their later better quality is "Hollow Man", which would be re-vamped in their 3rd album Deep Blue with more anger and improved production. A couple other tracks, each from one of two other bands in the split, Think Straight and Shoot to Kill, are also quite solid. Think Straight's "Make a Move" is a full-on blast of melodic death metal/metalcore that I can definitely rock out to as much as Parkway Drive's material. Shoot to Kill's "D.J.C." is the 5-minute closing epic of the entire EP, and there's even a bit of influence that I can hear from This Day Forward at that time.

But other than those 3 tracks, this split EP has only as much quality as the only images of its cover that can be found on the internet. Nonetheless, I'm glad to let out my thoughts about the EP here on this site, so thanks Ben for adding it. All I'm gonna say is, Parkway Drive's official discography is so much f***ing better....

Favorites (only one song per band): "Hollow Man", "Make a Move", "D.J.C."

Progressive Djentcore with a Hint of HOLY BASS

I have made it no secret that deathcore is an acquired taste for me. The main reasons why it does not work for me is the lazy stich work compositionally and the atomic drops of the breakdowns that not only feel disjointed, but destroy the mixing of a project. The new Humanity's Last Breath album asks me "what if we just removed the patchy compositions and focused primarily on atomic drop breakdowns?" The answer is about as predictable as you might expect.

I do have limits when it comes to how massive a heavy metal record should sound and deathcore almost always tries to go the extra step too far and Humanity's Last Breath are without a doubt the genre's most egregious culprits. I don't know what kind of tuning the guitars are using here, but the mixing is very flimsy and wonky. Those lowest tuned strings with low gauges sound like they are wobbling at a snail's pace and it unfortunately carries over into the overall sound of the record. It almost feels like someone wanted to make a metal album, but had no idea how to mix guitar properly.

As a result, the percussion is putting in extra work to match the guitar, which is never a good compromise, while the bass and vocals may as well not even be here at all. I can't even really comment on the compositions themselves because I was so distracted by the mix peaking out every single breakdown that even if they were good, I couldn't tell you what they sounded like. The record does have some post-rock/shoegaze interludes which are nice, but come out of nowhere, kill whatever momentum the tracks may have had, and I can barely hear them because of how many times I had to turn down the volume just to make Ashen a bearable listening experience. Hot tip: if you're metal album causes to turn the speakers down because the clipping makes it sound like they are going to explode, you're doing something wrong.

Best Songs: Lifeless, Deathless, Withering, Labyrinthian, Death Spiral 

I have mentioned before that the early stages of deathcore were not my scene, even though many of my friends during the late 2000s were all about the craze. But somehow, it is I who have started listening to these bands with frequency in recent years; as these bands move further away from deathcore, their music seems to become more interesting.

Veil of Maya are yet another band who came out of the later 2000s Sumerian Records extravaganza, but have moved further away from deathcore in the years since 2008's The Common Man's Collapse, opting for more djent and progressive tendencies, while also changing their main style to something closer to melodic metalcore. Don't get me wrong, what we get on [M]other is still heavy as hell, and these melodic choruses only appear in maybe a quarter of the albums runtime. Most of it is spent playing chunky riffs that are groovy as hell, wacky tempo's and time signatures, and all sorts of unconventional guitar methods to create sounds.

And somehow it all works really well. The biggest thing is the production that is so clean and precise, so all of the electronics and industrial tones do not overpower the main fundamentals of the tunes. Some might say that the cleanliness of this record is a determent, since it nullifies the true nature of the "hardcore" sound, but the precise timings and mixing are not really suited for hardcore music anyway, so I'll let it slide.

Where djent fails most often for me is the lack of coherent melodies/motifs that keep tunes memorable beyond "that one quirky riff". Veil of Maya play this well also, as "Artificial Dose" "Red Fur" and "Disco Kill Party" all have catchy vocal melodies that are complimented by full, open chord guitar backgrounds and minimal percussion. It creates a very strange dichotomy between that and the disjointed nature of the djenty breakdowns, but I feel like these two ideas are still loosely connected. 

Overall, I enjoyed the newest Veil of Maya album. It's more melodically pleasing than your standard deathcore or djent record, song styles vary from full on aggression to synthesized countermelodies and melodic choruses and the production is crisp and pristine. It feels like a heavier version of Northlane's Obsidian from last year and that's a huge compliment, but like with a lot of djent, I think the rhythmic technicality of the whole thing may just be a little bit too overwhelming for some. In addition, some tracks may become less replayable for much the same reason.

Best Songs: Artificial Dose, Godhead, Red Fur, Disco Kill Party, Lost Creator 

Well I decided to give some listening and a review to Unbroken's debut Ritual, and it's just not meant for my ears. It sounds too much like they tried to combine the hardcore of Strife at the time with the thrash of Anthrax and the in-between of Suicidal Tendencies, with less metal emphasis, in more of a thrashy hardcore mix than metalcore, close to Neurosis' first two albums. "Zero Hour" is a decent metallic standout, but that's pretty much it. I like their second album Life Love Regret far more than this hardcore sh*t....

Favorites (only one I decently like): "Zero Hour"

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.

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!

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.

Anyone who thought the Firestorm EP was the beginning of the band's career would be surprised to find this EP from 1992 that has the metallic hardcore sound the band is known for, but not as much impact. This EP was re-released nationwide via Victory Records in the same year as the release of their debut album Destroy the Machines. While it's not as strong as their subsequent releases, All Out War has good ambition. The straight edge themes of war for animal rights having already started from the lyrics and cover art, attacking humanity's cruelty and greed. Karl Buechner and co. have their hardcore charm despite the drums and guitars sounding a bit wandering here.

The title opener stands against the sloppy production and comes close to surpassing "Firestorm" as the band's best classic track. "Ecocide" is another special track. There are stronger lyrics that won't go too well in a modern recording as it had when it came out 30 years before this review. What makes this really special is, it was re-recorded for their 3rd full album Breed the Killers.

The last two songs are not as spectacular as the first two, but nonetheless, the EP shows a solid start of the band's journey greatly improved by their mid-90s material. Although I wouldn't recommend All Out War to newcomers, unless they're going chronologically, the EP will interest fans of the band that have made straight edge history....

Favorites (only songs I really like): "All Out War", "Ecocide"

Whenever I see a picture of Drain vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro he is always grinning like a person who is living his best life.  That enjoyment for their art form certainly bleeds through after listening through Living Proof even just once.  This a record made by a band who are having fun on every one of the twenty-five minutes that this record runs for.  Those crossover vibes are still the driving force behind the bands sound but there are obvious spasms of metalcore that pop into the tracks also and these occasional breakdowns are a successful bolt-on to the bouncing thrash riffs that we are more familiar with.

The experimentation ventures even further though on Living Proof with rapper, Shakewell guesting on Intermission and the band go off into dreamy yet catchy punk-pop on Good Good Things.  Look beyond these more blatant breaks from the blueprint and you will note groove metal excursions - check out the solo on opening track Run your Luck for a prime piece of Dimebag worship - alongside the crossover familiarity.  On the whole though, regardless of the medium used to deliver the message, it is clear that Drain have a lot to say on this album.  That aforementioned smile on Sammy's face has a snarl behind it with some venomous content to keep those hardcore vibes on the menu.  With such a brief run time it would be easy for the record to pass you by, but it is so damn punchy and gnarly (as well as downright catchy as fuck in places), you find yourself actively listening to the whole album.

One of the unexpected releases for me to latch onto in 2023, Living Proof is a fun yet still utterly grown-up record that has caught me off-guard with just how much I like it.   Sammy's smile is quite infectious as it turns out.  I am certainly grinning enough anyways.

Since the Suicide Silence feature release lifted the lid on deathcore for me, I have been meaning to pick out another album to continue my still tentative exploration into the sub-genre. In all honesty I stumbled across Ingested’s, Ashes Lie Still by accident. Drawn in initially by that Seidman artwork I was soon under the realisation that this was not a brutal death metal death metal album as I first believed. More importantly perhaps, I was enjoying it, nonetheless.

Hailing from Manchester, UK the band have been around for seventeen years. Playing slam/brutal death metal initially before branching out into the realms of deathcore in their later years, Ingested have been able to draw a couple of renowned names into working with them on album number seven. None other than Matt Heafy of Trivium fame and Sven De Caluwe of Aborted and (formerly) Leng Tch’e guest on the record and both have an audible input. The spite in the vocals on From Hollow Words by Sven being of note whilst the more electronic and metalcore influences on Heafy’s track (All I’ve Lost) are also obvious.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main takeaway I get from Ashes Lie Still is the riff work. They reverberate superbly against the percussive elements of the sound, and I find them a lot less triggering than I expected them to be, with my fear that they would just veer off into unnecessary and unwarranted directions not being realised. Instead, the riffs are solid and consistent, adding real structure to the tracks alongside the superb drums of Lyn Jeffs. The breakdowns, whilst still not the most palatable aspect of things for me, are still well placed and do not manage to interrupt the flow of the music at any point.

There are some clever moments of dissonance applied also that add depth to the album. The guitar chimes on tracks such as Tides of Glass and this welcome intrusion does a superb job of helping the pacing of that track. The atmospheric intro to All I’ve Lost also sets a great mood before the real fury gets unleashed on that track. Overall, there is a lot I find myself liking on this record. In summary it is an album I find to be a real powerhouse that flexes its influences well. Despite all that is going on here, I am hearing a really vicious death metal record at its centre – which is kind of the point, I know.

In the late 2000s, Myspace was responsible for helping several metalcore bands gain popularity on the internet, one of those bands being In This Moment. They ended up getting signed into Century Media, and a radio station interviewed the band and played a few of their songs, granting them more exposure. Beautiful Tragedy is a different album from the pop-infused alternative metal the band would have later, with infectious Gothenburg-influenced melodic metalcore that is worth reviewing...

The guitars unleash strong riffs and harmonic melodies, but what really stands out is the unique voice of Maria Brink. She can sing beautiful melodies perfect for choruses and add harsh fury to her screamed vocals practically surpassing most other metalcore vocalists out there. There's bound to be some action in live shows!

Spooky whispers swim through rain in the intro "Whispers of October". Then sheer hooks explode in with standout "Prayers". The title track is another incredible standout. A catchy chorus stands out alongside more of the killer hooks. The next song to follow is "Ashes". That one and "Daddy's Falling Angel" are quite catchy, and while they follow the predictable formula of alternating between screaming and singing, the band knows how to get it right in the writing.

"The Legacy of Odio" is a beautiful mellow track. Brink sings in true anguish, and the emotion bleeds into the heavier sections. "This Moment" can greatly work as the band's theme song, as least in this early era. It summarizes harsh vocals harmonizing the cleans and blending Swedish melodeath with metalcore breakdowns in this upbeat tune.

"Next Life" is a bit sticky, though I can't deny the Killswitch Engage influence there. "He Said Eternity" has more of the beautiful melodies while keeping the upbeat pace. "Circles" start off with a bit of ambience before launching into metalcore. The only other bands I know who can execute that idea perfectly are early Cave In, Norma Jean, Silent Planet, and Textures. One last mellow ballad, "When the Storm Subsides" almost works as a prequel to Parkway Drive's "A Deathless Song".

You don't often stumble upon an album where a female vocalist can scream her lungs out in one song, and then perform serene singing in a different commercially approved track. Although In This Moment would go a whole different direction later on, Beautiful Tragedy is another album that has given metalcore a next life....

Favorites: "Prayers", "Beautiful Tragedy", "The Legacy of Odio", "This Moment", "Circles"

When I saw that The Black Crown was a deathcore release I went to RYM to check my rated releases to see if I had anything against which to reference it. Turns out I have never knowingly listened to a deathcore album before, which is not really that surprising as I will admit that I often struggle with 'core-related releases, chiefly because I struggle with the vocals. Well, first point goes to Suicide Silence, because I had no issue at all with Mitch Lucker's vocals as they stayed well below the "shouty teenager" level that is my cut-off point, whilst remaining particularly savage and pissed-off sounding. Musically, I actually had a pretty decent time with this, although it is aimed a fair distance from my metal sweet spot. I don't aim to pretend I know what I am talking about regarding a release like this that is so far removed from my usual fare, but I did find myself getting into the groove with a fair few of the riffs and, generally, the whole did provide me with a decent amount of enjoyment on a day when I may well have been in a frame of mind for something a bit different. On several occasions I found myself thinking, oh that sounds a bit like early Slipknot, a band not to everyone's taste I know, but I think they wrote some pretty decent metal tunes and it is meant as a compliment to Suicide Silence, not as a gripe against them. There is a surfeit of angst and vitriol on display and although such anger doesn't really translate to a retired sixty-year-old walking his dog on a beautifully sunny June morning, I can still relate to the sentiment.

As a band Suicide Silence seem very tight and economical - there is very little by way of  superfluous embellishment, the rhythm section is there to drive the tracks forward, not to impress the listener with fancy fills or bass runs. The guitar sound is pretty dense and the riffs are effective with one or two killers - You Only Live Once, for example. Personally I enjoyed the second half of the album more than the first as it adds a couple of small, but cool touches that enhance the experience for me. The opening few songs feel like a band blowing off steam and are totally focussed on aggressive delivery, but after the interlude of March to the Black Crown, which provides a nice mid-album breather with it's ominous sound and choral-style vocalisations, things get a bit more interesting. The interlude is followed by my personal favourite, "Witness the Addiction" which maintains the pissed-off aura of the album, but feels more considered with it's clean vocal sections providing more accesibility without compromise. The acoustic guitar parts of The Only Thing That Sets Us Apart fit into the song very nicely too and is a nice touch.

Overall, I would contend that whilst The Black Crown will probably never feature in my top 100 metal albums, it did provide sufficient enjoyment for me to return to it at some point in the future and, rather like Trivium's In Waves, it may well be an album I turn to when I fancy something outside my usual listening fare.

I’ve probably mentioned this in a previous review or two but the treatment of the extremely divisive subgenre of metalcore known as deathcore was one of the original catalysts for me being passionate enough to pursue the Metal Academy cause. I’m not saying that I absolutely love the subgenre by any means but its almost unanimously poor treatment amongst the more elitist end of the metal underground has always been something that's urked me, apparently enough to make me want to make a stand about it too. You see, there’s simply not much wrong with deathcore when compared with other more respected genres of extreme metal. The main gripes with it are around it’s genericism & lack of sophistication yet those same critics will then go off & rave about the next old-school Carcass clone which defies all logic. At the end of the day I just want fairness & equality for everyone in this vast global community & it’s often very hard to come by when the likes of Metal Archives refuse to accept a record like this one as metal & the RYM masses are rating it a ridiculous 2.49/5 from over a thousand votes simply because it is was it claims to be on the tin. None of this makes sense & has made it virtually impossible for deathcore fans to be able to sift through the zillions of also-rans in order to find the cream of the deathcore crop. That’s where Metal Academy came in….

Anyway… let’s not dwell on that much more & get on with the review. I went through a period of deathcore exploration from 2009 through 2012 after returning to metal from a decade spent indulging in electronic music. Part of that was due to the fact that I was used to an aggressive & brutal riff-based style of metal & was finding that a lot of the popular extreme metal releases of the time were more expansive & experimental & utilized many external influences such as post rock & shoegaze. As I was getting my head around all that, I needed something more easily palatable to take out my aggressions & deathcore was one of the sounds that fit the bill. Was it generic? Shit yeah it was but it was generally beautifully performed, professionally produced & savage as fuck so I didn’t give two shits. I didn’t find myself labelling too many deathcore releases as metal classics but not every record has to be to be worthy of my enjoyment. Suicide Silence appeared on my radar fairly late in that experiment but their 2012 third album “The Black Crown” seemed to stick more than most others. The chunky riffs, relentless vitriol & clean production all worked together to ensure that I gave the album a good number of repeat listens that year & has also seen it managing to hang on to a position in my Top Ten Deathcore Releases of All Time list to this day.

So why does “The Black Crown” get so badly slammed by the metal community even when compared with Suicide Silence’s earlier releases then? This is the only Suicide Silence release I’m familiar with so I can only guess but I assume it’s because this album saw the band exploring the influences they picked up in their youth a little more than they may have in the past, some of which could be regarded as a precursor for the unanimously panned self-titled 2017 album which by all reports saw them fully embracing a nu/alternative metal direction for a short while. While “The Black Crown” certainly achieves a nice balance of death metal & hardcore punk (which is a little heavier on the former if examined closely), it’s pretty clear that Suicide Silence were raised during the 1990’s & they aren’t afraid to show it on this occasion so you’ll no doubt pick up the odd groove-oriented Pantera riff or a few Korn-style nu metal chuggers throughout the tracklisting, not to mention short smatterings of progressive melodicism. It seems to be a trend to slam groove metal & nu metal in the underground metal scene these days (Thanks Metal Archives/Reddit!) but most of us were partial to records like “Vulgar Display of Power”, “Chaos AD” or “Korn” back in the day if we’re being honest with ourselves so it seems to me to be a little hypocritical to criticize others for wearing their roots on their sleeves, especially when the band are all such talented musicians who really know what they’re doing so pull it all off with aplomb. Drummer Alex Lopez was clearly trained at the Vinny Paul school of rhythm when it comes to accentuating the physical reaction from a riff without overplaying his hand & his blast-beats are absolutely on point. I really enjoy the lead guitar work which is quite accomplished too.

“The Black Crown” would sadly be the last Suicide Silence album for front man Mitch Lucker as he’d tragically lose his life in a motorcycle accident later the same year but he will certainly be the other stumbling block for your average death metal fanatic. I mean if you don’t like deathcore vocals then you’re not gonna like “The Black Crown” because he’s everything your average deathcore front man aspires to be. He screams out his lyrics with complete disregard for any sort of etiquette or class & is more brash & overbearing than he is authoritative. I have to admit that I can stomach him pretty easily though & I think that comes down to the fact that I’ve become more & more attracted to super-angry hardcore in my old age.

All things considered, a four star rating would still seem to many to be pretty high for a release like this one so what’s my justification? Well, I guess I just love genuinely aggressive metal that’s performed by capable musicians & produced with precision & professionalism. It’s really that simple. The riffs may not be terribly original & the plethora of breakdowns may be predictable but sometimes I don't need much in the way of originality & just wanna thrash out so “The Black Crown” fits the bill nicely. I can’t see why fans of bands like Whitechapel or Impending Doom wouldn’t find plenty to enjoy here too.

Your Favorite Childhood Candy Bar

Rouge Carpet Disaster, as already said by many, is nostalgia baiting perfection. If you were someone who listened to the near inescapable angsty Metalcore/Post-Hardcore of the early and mid 2000's, Static Dress may feel like a warm hug or a home cooked meal. They're able to rise above simplistic mimicking, though, as they add a noisy element that's prevalent in the current Shoegaze/Emo scene to give them a fuller and more interesting sound that pairs well with the Post-Hardcore riffing. "Fleahouse" is a perfect opener that instantly makes a statement of what the listener is in for, which is a mix of Metalcore screams and catchy clean-vocal choruses that never manage to sound too whiny to my ears. The energy through the first three tracks as they nail some fantastic transitions is palpable, with "Push Rope" being one of my personal favorites. Static Dress then pump the breaks a little for songs like "attempt 8", "such.a.shame", and the admittedly pretty "marisol", but resume their normal programming for everything in-between. 

When I was first recommended this album last year I didn't think too much of it, but after many listens it's slowly found its way into my normal rotation. I'm not the biggest fan of the band's softer material, but even the less memorable cuts like "Di-sinTer" or "Lye Solution" have some killer riffs and fun choruses in the moment. The vocals have just the right amount of edge and balance between harsh and clean for me, although I think they're a little rough around the edges on the ballads or softer sections. The second half of the album leaves a bit to be desired, with the closing "Cubicle Dialogue" always being on the weak side for me. 

There's a twist here, though; I have zero nostalgia for this kind of stuff. I grew up in the right time frame, but never got into any of the bands others will point to when talking about Static Dress' influences. So, at least from my perspective, Rouge Carpet Disaster is far from being purely fueled by nostalgia and stands on its own remarkably well. The ballad sections definitely aren't my thing and the Metalcore leanings eventually get a bit old, especially on the second half, but I've come around on "marisol" enough to say that it's not a total dud. So even though Static Dress desperately wants to transport the listener back to 2005, I think there's still plenty of merit for them in 2022. 

Since the mid-2000s, Whitechapel has proven themselves to be a true developer in deathcore, a metalcore genre so extreme yet controversial in the metal community. As much of a plague people might consider the genre, it's innovative forces like Whitechapel that lessen the bad rep deathcore has gained. The more brutal bands (more brutal than my comfort zone) Carnifex and Job for a Cowboy have taken their brutal aggression from Whitechapel's earlier albums that in turn have some Suffocation influence...

Recently, however, the extreme aggression in their sound became much less. Their usual deathcore is still around in Our Endless War and Mark of the Blade, but those albums marked the beginning of the band's more progressive djenty side, especially in the latter album. Longtime fans hated this softer direction, especially they go far into clean singing. Personally, though I like the more melodic clean moments, it's the djenty side (which I normally like) that's in the wrong. It's too over-the-top and experimental for the band's standards. 3 years later, the band fix everything with The Valley. It's more progressive yet the heavier riffing is brought back to form. An excellent balance!

Starting this journey is "When a Demon Defiles a Witch", in which they continue to shine with their usual deathcore at its d*mn heaviest here! Right after the short acoustic intro is when you experience the fast aggression of the drums and guitars. And there's more of that chaos to come... "Forgiveness Is Weakness" returns to more of the band's earlier sound. "Brimstone" takes on the band's more groove-ish side. Power ballad "Hickory Creek" is definitely different, the first song by the band to be entirely clean-sung.

"Black Bear" is more of a groove/nu metal-ish track a bit like Korn in the riffing. However, it's so catchy, unlike in the previous two albums that didn't mix right. "We Are One" once again throws back to the classic sound, with some incredible soloing. "The Other Side" has more of that groove.

"Third Depth" can switch from clean to heavy without being too abrupt. You can also hear the bass sounding more audible and muddy in a nice way. It's a beautiful heavy sludge-ish tune that has put the deathcore sound to a halt. The sludge continues in "Lovelace" while keeping the deathcore fury. "Doom Woods" isn't the band's first rodeo when it comes to 6-minute epics. This time, it's a doomy deathcore track similar to what The Acacia Strain were going for that year. Could've been more fulfilling though...

At last, the solid production is back on! Mark Lewis, who has produced albums by bands like Trivium, helped the band bring back the earlier greatness. It's like the sound of the previous two albums has been enhanced and mixed with their earlier days. The old and new are combined in The Valley, bringing the band's glory back to their fans' lives!

Favorites: "When a Demon Defiles a Witch", "Forgiveness Is Weakness", "Hickory Creek", "We Are One", "Third Depth"

With an album title like Mark of the Blade, you might think the band would make a better mark at their new direction. Unfortunately, it's more mixed than Our Endless War is and not an album I would return to commonly. It's not entirely bad, and I enjoy some parts of it as much as their better earlier material. However, the direction continues to bring the band backwards from the top. The ideas that pop up just aren't fresh or natural enough to stick like a Post-It...

The powerhouse production adds to the album's good side, with thrash/melodeath-like rhythms in the guitar that switching into the usual djenty deathcore grooves, but the problem is, they can't decide where to stick with, so it's a bit messy at times. The bass bounces on you during the hardcore breakdowns that punch through the air.

The album starts off promising in "The Void", with kick-A speed and aggression, but the djenty riffing in the chorus can be annoying. The title track sounds too nu metal-ish for my liking. "Elitist Ones" leans towards the metal/hardcore of Hatebreed that I like, but it's ruined by the hip-hop-like sh*t of Biohazard in the way the vocals are performed. Then we have a brief ominous start to "Bring Me Home" with soothing guitar, and we get to hear clean singing from this band for the first time, sounding a bit like Maynard James Keenan from TOOL and a Perfect Circle. The rhythms are still crushing while in that ballad-like pace. That's where the band should be taking their new direction!

I'm skipping a few songs because of how bad they are for me. "A Killing Industry" comes d*mn close there. The band sounds hypocritical in that song, with lyrics of learning about mistakes and evolving, not writing sh*tty albums for the sake of commercial success, all while growling "I JUST DON'T GIVE A F***!!!" Yet it's just the same ol' nu metal tainting their deathcore, eliminating what makes them unique and soiling the legacy of the genre they added positive light to. The lyrics in "Tormented" have much better anger despite the vocals sounding hoarse. Beautiful melodies and violent rhythms are in a good mix. The instrumental "Brotherhood" sounds interesting in the melodies and solos to make up for some of the lameness. Skipping ahead to "Decennium", this 6-minute closer has better clean vocals mixed well with the growls from the abyss.

To h*ll with over half of this album! The poor songs sound so funny, and not the laughing kind. I wouldn't wanna keep falling into this trap. Is this sh*t really the deathcore I thought I knew?! Well they can diversify the aggression to the point where it almost becomes progressive, but the way they do it is often improper and becomes kind of a nuisance. Yes, I know that Whitechapel can write real songs, and they've written fantastic ones, evident in their earlier material. It's just the riffs and lyrics in this album that don't suit me quite well. They had lost some effort they could've had, and that was since their previous album Our Endless War which was only slightly better. High amount of accessibility aside, there's still a bit of the greatness of the band's first 4 albums in the few great songs. I can jump around in delight like a toddler in those great moments. So yeah, this sh*t isn't f***ing enough to constitute an awesome album. Has potential, but not fully fulfilled....

Favorites (only songs I like): "Bring Me Home", "Tormented", "Brotherhood", "Decennium"

Deathcore is pretty much the Voldemort of the metal community. The more pure metalheads are used to the thrash/death metal of the 80s and early 90s. However, those two genres were knocked off the popularity throne in the late 90s and early 2000s. The late 2000s/early 2010s was when deathcore was on the rise. There are actually a few bands like Whitechapel that display the genre properly. Their previous two albums have true maturity, especially the latter. Will they have the same in this album?...

Surprisingly not. It seems like they took a step backwards when it comes to the guitars. Whitechapel is known for their 3-guitarist part of the lineup, and that aspect really enhances the wall of sound the band create, whether or not it's fully utilized. What makes this guitarist trio great is the soloing by lead guitarist Ben Savage and the dissonant riff rhythms by the other two guitarists Alex Wade and Zach Householder. For this album, the riffing has far more of a djenty groove. While there's no problem with that in my opinion, they could've at least kept the leads and atmosphere, but no. Instead, those are reduced, and that less effective sound really puts a dent in the album's quality.

The title of the intro "Rise" says it all. The instrumentation rises as you prepare for a revolution, though it's not as revolutionary as the previous two albums are... The crushing title track speeds things up without ever letting go. "The Saw is the Law" has a djentcore riff in the intro, but it's so mediocre and annoying, and anyone moshing would just be shaking around like a seizure-prone robot. The speedier riffs are better, though they keep returning to that d*mn slow riff. "Mono" continues that bad-a** fast riffing.

"Let Me Burn" has slow monotone sections while still having that awesome riffing speed. "Worship the Digital Age" fires away in deathly fury to make up a lot for the mediocrity, includes killer growls and blast beats. I enjoy that! "How Times Have Changed" once again sets aside fast aggression for slow dullness.

"Psychopathy" starts with a strange yet beautiful moment, an atmospheric bass intro that is then decimated by the usual heavy chaos. "Blacked Out" strays away from pretty much any of the slow djent. There are cool leads and riffs, and Sonic-fast bass and drums to please even the heavier metalheads. Last up is "Diggs Road", which is perhaps the most solid way out in great effect. We have a nice guitar melody, and not one but two solos. Wow! That definitely makes up for the earlier disappointments.

What we have in this album is pretty good music that is sadly often f***ed up by mediocre riffing. I thought it would have the same kind of attention-grabbing perfection as the previous two albums, but that wasn't the case. Of course, I still like Our Endless War. It's worth good listening. Still this is the prelude to a different era coming up next....

Favorites: "Our Endless War", "Mono", "Worship the Digital Age", "Blacked Out", "Diggs Road"

With the creation of their 2012 self-titled album, Whitechapel was really rolling the dice. They were taking on a different direction compared to their brutal starter trio. The Somatic Defilement was a solid extreme start. This is Exile showed some improvement building. Then A New Era of Corruption rules on the throne. So what about their 2012 album? Sharing the throne! What's different is, there are more melodies and solos than before, and that really shows how unique the band is in deathcore!

Alongside the melody, there's also more atmosphere in the music. It adds to the uniqueness of the sound, and even gives the songs in this album some difference from the ones in their previous albums. For the guitars, technicality is added more to the mix while standing by what they're known for. The guitar trio continue to work as part of the team, as the noise-ridden walls continue to fall and crush, though it can work just as well with just two guitarists instead of 3. And like I said, there are more guitar solos! If you thought the band's previous albums have common soloing, there are so many of them here that DragonForce would be amazed.

"Make It Bleed" starts the album as my favorite here! That sweet piano intro is a wonderous change of pace, right before the deathcore fury crashes in. The guitar solo is one of the finest I've heard from this band. "Hate Creation" is enjoyable as well, especially in the breakdowns, filled with sh*ts-load of brutality. His attempt at cleans when he says "I'm so sick of all these people" kinda brings down a few percentage points though. "(Cult)uralist" has some of that kick-A soloing.

"I, Dementia" is another favorite of mine here, and it has another top-notch solo for this band! The breakdown here is in the same tempo as the song, but it's much better for the structure than for that of previous songs. The riffing during that is definitely welcome! There's some more of the clean whispering, but it greatly adds to the atmosphere. "Section 8" has a pretty chorus. "Faces" has some greatness that is missing from people listening to deathcore without an open mind. Same with "Dead Silence" which is absolutely satisfying for heavier listeners.

It segues into "The Night Remains", which doesn't grab my attention too much, but it's still very solid. The instrumental "Devoid" has nice soft piano just like in the beginning of the album, but then it makes an excellent switch into a deathcore breakdown, like soldiers getting for the final war... "Possibilities of an Impossible Existence" unleashes the last of the album's power before the album ends where it began, with that beautiful piano melody. It's so great!

Although you can think of this release as a concept album, it's the band's first two albums that follow a lyrical concept. Whatever your opinion is, if it's polarizing, you probably haven't paid close attention to the band's maturity, as this album has the most of it. This and A New Era of Corruption make the band's greatest album duo!

Favorites: "Make It Bleed", "I, Dementia", "Faces", "Dead Silence", "Possibilities of an Impossible Existence"

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. And there's a f*** lot of them to be found here!

"Devolver" already shows the band's evolution since their previous two albums, and the chorus riff is so unique compared to other deathcore bands that rely on the more generic. The guitar soloing that should level up deathcore's appealing factor appears in "Breeding Violence", a violently pleasant highlight. Next track "The Darkest Day of Man" transforms from mid-tempo groove into fast thrash, even leaning close to melodeath practically reminiscent of The Black Dahlia Murder, while occasionally bouncing into the song's usual slam groove. All of that gives more dynamics to the riffing for more terrifying effect. More bloodthirsty rhythms appear in "Reprogrammed to Hate". It's a more diverse song, especially in the last third, with more of the guitar soloing, a nice small bass solo, and vocal chanting and shrieking by Deftones' Chino Moreno.

The guitars have more variety in "End of Flesh", particularly halfway through when some Latin-like acoustics come in briefly. "Unnerving" is another standout with background keyboards sounding like part of a horror movie. The riffing that appears in "A Future Corrupt" pummels through along with some more soloing, this time by Jason Suecof, a metal guitarist and record producer known for his production work with bands like All That Remains, Trivium, and Chelsea Grin. "Prayer of Mockery" has more of the searing soloing to mock deathcore haters.

There's something mesmerizing about "Murder Sermon", and that would be the soft bridge around two and a half minutes in. It nicely balances out with the guest vocals by The Acacia Strain frontman Vincent Bennett appearing shortly after. "Necromechanical" has one more solo by Jason Suecof. It segues into "Single File to Dehumanization", having soft dark melody before the crushing breakdown the greatest deathcore fans expect from the band. A beautiful acoustic outro closes everything.

Anyone who think Bring Me the Horizon have a more tough-guy image than Whitechapel might have to reconsider that thought. Unworldly growls, apocalyptic lyrics, crushing breakdowns, cool riffing, and a d*mn lot of soloing! What's not tough about all that?! Bring Me the Horizon had already moved out of deathcore and later switched to softer territory. Whitechapel should be convincing enough for metalheads to realize how f***ing heavy this band is. Just ignore the haters 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!

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

Whitechapel started their career quite well their debut The Somatic Defilement, having gained quite a fanbase in the deathcore community. They switched from Candlelight Records to Metal Blade for their next album, and will the momentum help keep them steady? F*** yes! It's more accessible yet appealing to people such as myself who like growls and breakdowns. They also added some new variety to make things more flavorful.

While the death metal influences are still here, the brutality is reduced to make way for more melody. Some can consider this right between the lines of As I Lay Dying and Devourment. Adding to the melodic vibe is more common usage of soloing. Not a lot deathcore bands do soloing, but Whitechapel has a lot of them!

Beginning the opening track "Father of Lies" are some standard deathcore blast beats right out of nowhere. The title track uses kind of an oriental harmonic guitar scale, especially in the breakdown when one guitar plays the melody, while the other two play the ravaging rhythm. The riffing in "Possession" is quite decent, along with the soloing that adds more of the variety.

"To All That Are Dead" is brilliant in the soloing, and it really helps out the album! Sure there's another breakdown, but it's never repeated. The Red Chord's Guy Kozowyk guest appears in "Exalt" and marks a killer change of pace from the growls/screams of Phil Bozeman. As "Somatically Incorrect" approaches its ending, the riffing is a bit irritating while still tolerable. Instrumental track "Death Becomes Him" seems to lose a bit of strength, but it works as a well-needed intermission in the middle of such a deathly album before we can continue the storm.

One song that isn't the best, yet can be considered great, is "Daemon (The Procreated)". A fantastic breakdown starts the song, but the melody is a bit laughable. The guitar notes are all over the place, adding to the song's technicality. Then we have the repeated vocal shouts of "DAEMON!!!" The breakdowns still work, but the riffing is somewhat forgettable. The ending breakdown has Phil shouting "THIS IS THE END OF ALL LIFE!" Now this breakdown would've been as awesome as the previous ones in the song and some previous ones, if the vocals didn't sound so f***ing faded. It's more comedic than demonic! "Eternal Refuge" has a slower tempo. Its breakdown is much slower than what Emmure and Bring Me the Horizon at that time have performed, sounding a bit sludgy. I like that! The unnecessary interlude "Of Legions". It builds up through spacey effects before a breakdown that lasts too long to be good. Despite its mediocrity, it all leads to the finale to remind you why this album is amazing... "Messiahbolical" starts heavy, then switches to an ambient bridge, and finally ends with Phil's repeated growls of "I AM THE END!!!!". A great ending highlight here!

Despite how amazing this album is, the flaws that keep the album a half-star short of total perfection include the lack of bass, lyrical immaturity, a few songs having poor riffing and too much vocal effect, and the interludes that could've been improved. Nonetheless, if you're looking for deathly madness, you know what this is... THIS IS EXILE!

Favorites: "This is Exile", "To All That Are Dead", "Exalt", "Eternal Refuge", "Messiahbolical"