Whitechapel - Whitechapel review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore on groove metal and meshuggah metal pill
Label : Metal Blade Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10

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The new Whitechapel disc, while supremely assuages the types of cravings the premiere deathcore fan is most likely to exhibit, it also offers pretty admirable and well constructed attractions throughout, courtesy of the narrative tools and the related musical influences being at its disposal. Luckily, the package is not reluctant to rely on its key interests and idols, a set of circumstances that invite the spin to emerge as one that does not satisfy with the act of conforming to your anticipations - it seeks to shape those along the way, too. Any record below that aspiration is automatically "meh", in a sense. On the other hand, rest assured that the spin will be doing everything you want it to do, but it is the "how" and the "what else" that integrate this baby into the - oh, so enthusiastic - flock.

The pastimes of the disc are well varied, not surprisingly. With great delight I experience that the album is not overfixated on sonic ferocity for the mere sake of sonic ferocity, and this is something most notable throughout the colorful, well presented tempo selections. A healthy amount of mid tempo warfare is on display here, reeking Meshuggah from top to bottom, teaming up with a propensity to offer groove metalish leanings- The track "I, Dementia" is a great example for this, with a structure that features whole musical passages that adore the Catch 33 Meshuggah LP via the riffcraft. Catch - ha., ha. - the riffage starting from 2:26 in this song. Picture perfect Meshuggah clone music, but Meshuggah clones are sexy.

Sure, the proceedings deviate from the math metal genre later on, and do a pretty decent job at revealing breakdown-centric metalcore with decent high frequency detail embedded in it. The disc showcases an almost exclusively angry overall temper, and I, for one think it looks pretty good in this mood. Read on to find out more about the disc.

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Emmure - Slave to the Game review

Year : 2012
Genre : Teenager Pop, Deathcore
Label : Victory
Origin : United States
Rating : 6.5 / 10

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Your favorite latex gimp music critic GyZ certainly should loath this delivery on paper, yet, the latest Emmure outing is not nearly as tolling of a release that I anticipated it to be based on the teenager methamphetamine-pop cover art. Take heed and bear witness to the fact that there are virtual Photoshop scratches on the image, implying that this particular disc is the ONE and ONLY your 12 year old daughter won't EVER forget to pack with her baggage when en route to a camp site, so she and Co. can safely cry to their Emmure in the tent, Knowing and Embracing the Ultimate Meaning of All Pain.

I will be the first to admit that the vocals on this disc got me into a Faith No More "Evidence" mode, because, frankly, "I didn't fee-eeel a thing" about them. There is a disturbed-ass metalcore monkey giving you the usual bonobo style shrieking misery, - you might want to approach him with an umbrella - and a death metal "vocillist" who sounds like a butcher being slaughtered by a were-pig. FUCK, yeah!! In other words : just the usual everyday average attention-seeking teen pop suicide-banter, yet, fortunately not as obnoxiously and disgustingly done as it is done by Attack! Attack!'s front-product Caleb Slomo - a business man who is marketing his faked nervous breakdowns - who needs to be put into a carbonite cassette Han Solo style, then the cassette needs to be subjected to Tesla's shrinking ray, then the product needs to be cloned on a subatomic level and needs to be marketed as ice dessert on Tatooin. Without further adieu, read on to find out more about Emmure's latest declaration, Slave to the Game.

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Wretched - Son of Perdition review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore with Melodic Technical and Groove leanings
Label : Victory Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Wretched's Son of Perdition is 38 minutes of colorful audio data that primarily is unrelenting - I suppose? - "brutal" deathcore, interrupted and spiced up smartly by groove and instrumental segments throughout its sober length. Conforming to the seemingly untold rules of the trendy-, recent day death metal album production ethos, you are free to skip the first track entirely, because it is the just-so-usual intro section that has absofuckinglutely nothing at all to do with the actual music of the release, and which you probably don't really give a shit for at heart, I know I don't. Dramatic church chorus and organ. Oh really. Reverend! Set yourself on fire and GTFO, I'll video.

The primordial direction the band is keen at taking is death metal bordering on melodic and technical death metal in parts, especially during the highly chaotic segments. Don't expect the disc to maintain the obscenely and beautifully super-complex form with such hardcore persistence as Spawn of Possession or Gorod or Blotted Science demands its unconditioned submission with, but the intent is there to offer a tribute for the more crazed inspirators here and there. Read on to find out more about this decent release.

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Impending Doom - Baptized In Filth review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore / Groove Metal
Label : eONe
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Mere Impending Doom is finally realized through the eagerly anticipated Baptized In Filth LP, and the disc is pretty obedient and rampant towards satisfying and shaping your likely anticipations. Officially, this is a pure deathcore release, but I think it sounds pretty evident that the contribution packs much more than usual groove metal influence, and the whole 34 minutes 34 seconds build is on a constant agenda to submit to a nicely presented Pantera influence, only this T-Rex has been put to a vegan diet in a cage it was imprisoned in, and now it is finally breaks free, so you can imagine the mood it starts to acquaint itself with the environment in.

Luckily, the fray won't find too many - if any - places to lose relevant amount of steam on, as the Impending Doom members made sure to cultivate this deathcore / groove hybrid with high definition groove riffage and blast beat galore for this period of time, - the slowest tempo the record has concept of is the good old mid-tempo earthquake rumble - so the fabric shows a well balanced and exigent character, most of time. The one caveat you are free to have is the pronounced reliance on the scattered-on-the-floor iron disc cutter metalcore breakdown structures, which, in theory, are still awesome methods to deviate from a main theme, but their (over)usage these days tends to slaughter down the last remaining promise of a surprise, in my opinion. Read on to find out more about the disc.


Fortunately, I already have mentioned the Pantera influence I think the disc is openly and keenly submits to, so now is the time to tamely iterate. Notice that even the lead vocalist sports a super-similar style to Anselmo's, only this particular timber lacks that uniqueness, that clearly revealed personality, but he still gets the job done no problem.

The core of this release is constructed upon a pair of compositional key-behaviors, as the band comes forth with an equal urge to deliver mid-tempo and more intense flows reeking all premiere blast beat patterns and then some. With great delight I inform you that the mid-tempo builds are exhibiting constant-, and highly successful efforts to surprise you with odd rhythm patterns through the contact comfort of riffage and drumwork, up to the point that the resultant stimuli writes into your psyche as an organic mixture of rabid-ass groove metal and cybernetic djent. The guitars have an almost percussive effect, which always is as sexy as being stabbed by high heels. (Multiple times.)

The album is not in a hurry to seek out all that unorthodox elements other than tasteful addition of soaring synths here and there - the music relentlessly remains guitar-centered even by those times - and there is a three minute sludge / ambient epic on the disc, too, which registers as a superb blend between Depeche Mode and Type O'Negative. I have a hunch that Peter Steele, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan are approving of this song as a hive entity, and such a track must truly be efficient at what it seeks to do. Indeed, this track, called "My Light Unseen" is a very nice addition to the otherwise total-hyper-fucking-extra-brutal grroove/deathcore fray, and quite frankly it fell upon me as one of the most pleasant musical surprises of the year so far.

The disc, I feel, is less fervent musically than certain other representatives of its peers is, in the sense that it satisfies with drawing the intended form and it lets it to live on its own, the band does not really cares to offer high frequency compliments to the archetype of the form once it has been revealed. Bear in mind that this behavior might exactly be what you are looking for. Recommended.

Rating : 8.8 / 10

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Veil of Maya - Eclipse review

Year : 2012
Genre : Deathcore with myriad extreme affections
Label : Sumerian Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.2 / 10

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Veil of Maya's Eclipse LP is a deathcore album with much more pronounced ingredients of (technical)death metal present on it than profound leanings towards the easily accessible pseudo-melodic nature of metalcore. The contribution clocks in at 28 minutes, which really does not seem to be all that much sonic meat for a full length, yet the intensity and the kind of variation the disc presents itself along, still gives you a lot to soak some ears into. In fact, this relatively shorter program time is serving justice to the character of the LP, as the epitome of slow tempo is pretty much unknown to this one.

Eclipse, in my opinion is prone-, even enthusiastic to summon vibes quite akin to those that are frequent invitees on a set of earlier records I suspect have influenced the members of the band in recent days. For example, second track of this album, called "Divide Path" in my opinion sports parts that are quite reminiscent at heart - yet definitely not a ripoff of - to Obscura's Vortex Omnivium, while Veil of Maya equally is capable and efficient at revealing fragmented dosages of a groove metal language which sounds like a robotic/cybernetic version of Lamb of God's-, or Pantera's intense side of grooving. As such, the mere charisma power of these segments tend to kick all kinds of asses, regardless how they are obviously arranged on a computer. A focal beneficiary trait of the release is the fact that it is not afraid to chase and speak a technical death metal language even when its flow at the core is defined and directed along the oh, so proven paths of emo metalcore. Guys, let's talk about the music.


Eclipse really packs more of efficiency and charm than alibi content, and the latter almost always disguises its relative lack of musical surprise power with easily accessible harmonic passages that fail to do anything at all with a proper set of snob ears. The titular track of the LP, for example, is the contribution of a retirement home Dream Theater-tribute band.

What I especially am content with on this release, is its much more frequent insatiable urge to serve your receptors out with avid variation whenever you find the flow of things on peak efficiency. As just noted, these segments are much more persistent and evident on the delivery. The tendency to compliment the trademark ingredients of sibling-extremities is notable, and a pleasure to behold. Track number 3, called "Punisher", for example : the rabid-ass djenting that starts out from 0:45 is quick to fix you into a wall, not relenting until it brought it down with your body. I dare say that the metalcore leanings and hooks of the delivery ARE pretty good ones, too. I admit I can't make two consecutive words out of what is being sang, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the "girl, you left me, you have risen a monster in me, now look what you have done, is this what you wanted??" rubberpussy-rhetorics.

Concluding track "With Passion and Power" is a great example of the exquisitely varied sonic content that is the defining factor of the LP : the track efficiently bends to the rampant will of myriad extreme subgenres of metal without losing its dignity, coming up with nothing else than pure entertainment factor, and THAT is sufficient. Awesome four minutes of 28 that truly do have anything to be ashamed of or to hide. My only caveat is the abrupt decision of the band to conclude the last song via fading the volume out in the middle of a soul swallower Blut Aus Nord riff, what the hell?? Ah, JUST that. This is a dangling modifier : "I admire your mom in stockings". Check out my song Apocalypse Factory or don't. All in all, Veil of Maya - Eclipse is not only approved, but it also is highly recommended.

Rating : 8.2 / 10

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