WHITECHAPEL: "Hymns In Dissonance"

 Despite being one of the more popular death-core acts to emerge from Myspace era, ""the Valley" earned an 8 here. This means it was well done for what it was, and more than likely something their fan base would embrace, but far from an album of the year quality even when it came to the extreme metal genre, which death-core would fall into here. There is more sonic darkness on the opening track of this album which is the band's 9th release, but it sticks close to their wheelhouse. I doubt their fan base really wants them to change. They are almost like the metal core version of Cannibal Corpse in terms of their heaviness but do not touch the death metal legends in terms of songwriting as the terms are just thrown at you, and do not hook you in. I guess they are putting all their money on the the chants of the gurgled vocals and their ability to bring the breakdowns which only goes so far. This works for the first two songs, but if this is the path the continue on by the time we get to "Diabolic Slumber" I am going to get bored fast. 

I can make out the lyrics enough to understand it's a bunch of pseudo-Satanic gibberish with no real allegiance to the darkness, these guys more than likely hid like little bitches during Covid as all the actual death was too much for them rather than celebrating the culling of mankind. They do make more attempts at songwriting than some of the earlier songs I heard over the years from them.  Their drummer is a monster behind the kit, but to play any form of death metal you have to be. In many ways, this is death metal for kids who were not yet born when "The Bleeding" was released. In listening to more death metal these days I have warmed up to this kind of music though a band like Sanguissuggabogg is better at this sort of thing than these guys are despite the more melodic touches to the guitar here. 

According to the band this album follows the story of a cult leader gathering followers. This has some grim relevance given the state of things today where people follow political parties on both sides of the aisle with blind devotion as they invest themselves in something fake,. "Visceral Retch" just feels like a recycling of sounds. This is supposed to be their heaviest album yet, but even if they achieve this goal is it worth sacrificing songwriting? "Hate Cult Ritual" should have kept the chant going that opened the song, but instead they just pour on a barrage of double bass and guitar solos. When they do return to it instead of making it a hook it feels rushed. "The Abysmal Gospel" wastes a great song title on something that sounds like a death metal band covering Slayer.  "Bedlam" works better with its more deliberate stomp, when it speeds up it feels like more dynamics are in play. 

They make much better choices going into "Mammoth God" proving that these guys can write a great song when they stop fucking around with breakdown riffs. Can they keep this up on the last song? They embrace their need for speed and while this might make some think it's their heaviest song yet, it is not as effective as pleasing my ears as the previous song. Granted I might not be their target audience, but I do listen to over 400 new metal releases a year, and prolly more if you factor in bands that I don't consider metal but other people due, I reviewed 666 albums last year for the blog, but ya know a chunk of them were "goth" so that was maybe 150 then other assorted punk bands and such. Anyways enough facts and figures, you are reading this damn review so you trust my judgment in dark hard stuff to know if I say it's an 8.5, I am viewing this as better than "the Valley" I think they tried harder here, but the trapping of the genre got in the way at times in their pursuit to write their heaviest album, but their fans should love, I think the score I gave this reflects on how it measures up against other metal bands going today. This album drops on Metal Blade March 7th 

pst84

Whitechapel : " the Valley"

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I have always thought of these guys as off shoots of Myspace metal. I know they get labelled metal core or death core, but they always have seemed just to be low tuned breakdown oriented death, which owes as much to nu-metal as nu-metal did hard core. Even more so when a song like "Hickory Creek" sounds like one of Slipknot's power ballads. Throw this against the song "Brimstone" which is pretty much just groove oriented death metal. This album is well produced. They are on the better side of decent when it comes to being guitarists. They are paying the rent doing this so the bar is held higher than your average Guitar Center weekend shredder.

Groove is clearly in the heart of most of these songs. The vocals are the most brutal aspect of a song like "Black Bear" which in this day and age just seems middle of the road. It's obviously metal, but more mainstream than not. At times it seems like they asked the producer to dial in Meshuggah's guitar tone. Though rather than play tricky time signature that have an angular groove , it's your run of the mill up tempo metal riff. Midway into the album the filler sets in. There the more cliche  break down tempos, but unlike the better hardcore lack the dynamic build, at times opting more for a nu-metal shift. The more I listen to these guys the more convinced I am that this is nu-metal. Perhaps the sub-genre has been that way all along.

There is more of a Slayer chug to "the Other Side". It's one of the album's better songs if not the best. We are slipping back into the knotty zone with "Third Depth" though if I am going be 100 percent spot on the clean vocals are more like the band Flaw. It's ok, nothing ground breaking. "Doom Woods" is more interesting than "Lovelace". It at least starts off with more of a throb , then just descending into what every other metal band is doing. This is well done so I will give it an 8, which is much higher than what I thought I would be giving these guys going into this. It is not Album of the Year material, but a more mature effort even if metal core is the new way to say nu-metal.