Review by Daniel for Whitechapel - A New Era of Corruption (2010)
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.