Will Haven : "VII"

 

Their 2018 album upheld the band's legacy so the bar is high for this one. They hit you with hammering hardcore and managed to pack in a dense atmosphere. The syncopated chugs create the apex of breakdowns. The first song had me pretty amazed. "5 of Fire" picks up the pace before hitting with even denser riffs, that hold equal sonic weight and intensity. Lots of credit goes to Deftones producer Joe Johnston for dialing everything in just right. The guitars are nasty sounding, but everything has room to breathe in the mix. "For All Future Time" serves as a good example of how the separation of instruments that keeps this from being a throbbing wave of down-tuned sound, plays in the favor of the song, rather than just being heavy for the sake of being heavy. 

The ambiance really darkens things well, providing more sonic colors and making things more dynamic. He actually sings on "Evolution of a Man" though the coarse screaming is the album's most frequent impassioned narrative. You can hear them intersect hardcore with nu-metal. But it is done in a manner that places emphasis on groove rather than Addias clad posturing. They keep hitting you with the heavy the further into this album you go. Rather than play on genre tropes they push the sounds around to their liking. Often the surprise comes with a riff heavier than the previous. "Wings of Maripose" hits your ears with this kind of renewed fury and does not trip over it's own feet when they pick up the pace.  "Diablito" sounds like an extension of "Wings of Maripose" but in this case it is not a deal breaker. 

They hit the perfect balance of overwrought catharsis and ambient washing the sting away with "No Stars to Guide Me". "Feeding the Soil" could be said to have more of a Deftones vibe to it. There is a wooziness to the atmosphere that separates this from them, also you can not remember the last time a  Deftones album got this metallic. The last song feels like more of an outro, there is a few lingering chugs that find it but ambiance seems to be its main objective. I will round this one up to a ten making it better than their last album. If you grew up listening to nu-metal but matured into metallic hardcore, then this is the album for you. Really if you like heavy music colored by atmosphere this album is also for you as well. It drops July 7th.