When it first emerged, deathcore seemed like a fairly simple deal. Death metal plus hardcore equals knucklehead brutality. But as the years have passed, the genre’s sharpest blades have carved themselves a deeper, more interesting niche. WHITECHAPEL have been ahead of the game for most of their near-20-year careers, but as far back as their 2007 debut, “The Somatic Defilement”, the Tennessee terrors were demanding more from deathcore than their peers, making it heavier, nastier and yet more immediate and accessible too. By the time the band released 2019’s “The Valley”, they had evolved into a consummate modern metal band, and one with big ambitions. Both that album and its 2021 follow-up “Kin” expanded WHITECHAPEL‘s musical world to include a greater sense of atmosphere and sharper, more contrasting dynamics. Both albums featured songs that dodged deathcore entirely, revealing a slightly predictable and wearisome love for ’90s alt-rock and grunge, but fed through the necessary prism of cutting-edge heaviness. Deathcore was growing up and becoming something else, something more.
It would be unfair to say that “Hymns In Dissonance” is purely an act of petulant regression, but there is a grain of truth in the notion that WHITECHAPEL have put a temporary stop to all that evolution. Disgustingly heavy from start to finish, their ninth studio album comes across like a bravura demonstration of strength and prowess. Having explored other territory, vocalist Phil Bozeman and his crew are back to show the thousands of pretenders to the throne exactly how this shit is really done. Perhaps reflective of the grim, shadowy state of the world, but also plainly inspired by a collective need to be obnoxious and brutal again, “Hymns In Dissonance” detonates like a flurry of nailbombs. The opening “Prisoner 666” is a snarling, shark-toothed assault that has echoes of the ruthlessly pure deathcore strain that WHITECHAPEL peddled in their early days but upgraded to absurd new levels of savagery (for which guitarist Ben Savage is only partly responsible). The title track is even more crushing: a dizzying rush of ferocious hardcore riffing, lobotomized breakdowns and hateful violence, it is a rolling avalanche of riffs, powered by pure adrenalin, and one of the most exciting deathcore tunes of the last 20 years.
A few notable but brief digressions into melody and haunting atmospherics aside, “Hymns In Dissonance” is the ghost of WHITECHAPEL‘s past, resurrected and given body armor. Songs like “Diabolic Slumber” and “The Abysmal Gospel” dig their claws into old-school and melodic death metal more convincingly than ever before, while frenzied, full-pelt attacks like “A Visceral Retch” and the brutally blackened “Hate Cult Ritual” are manifestly heavier than anything the band have written in the past. And yet, thanks to the sheer authority that WHITECHAPEL possess since they came of age, there is every reason to think that “Hymns In Dissonance” has the same breakthrough potential as “The Valley” and “Kin”, and maybe even more. The sound of one of modern metal’s most heavyweight propositions throwing their weight around and wrecking the place is irresistible and hugely impressive. Maturity can wait. This is white-knuckle, weaponized deathcore with brains, brawn and a point to prove. Hold on to your helmets.
Source: blabbermouth.net
