Deathcore…
No don’t run away just yet!
After it first arrived on the scene “deathcore” very quickly became a dirty word in the world of metal and for good reason as the style of music seemed intent on taking metalcore and death metal, removing all the interesting parts and fusing together what was left with bad tattoos and oversized ear gauges.
Happily over time a lot of the scene stalwarts that haven’t fallen by the wayside have actually started to show progression (not prog!) and inventiveness within the genre, so following after the likes of Whitechapel and Signal The Firing Squad we now have Californian types Carnifex upping there game with album number five Die Without Hope.
Pointless Fact: I know the Carnifex as a monstrous creature from Warhammer 40000 but it is also apparently an Old English word for “Executioner” (the more you know).
Both of these terms are pretty much accurate as once the obligatory long and dramatic intro tape is done with ‘Salvation Is Dead’ explodes into life with a cavalcade of huge relentless RIFFAGE, of which there are loads as no song is ever content to sit still with constantly changing tempos, rhythms, pace and dynamic and the technicality on show is defiantly to be applauded.
For those counting it takes 4:25 for the first breakdown to actually appear (there is even a bone fide guitar solo before this).
Also props to vocalist Scott Lewi, because listening blind the dual high/low growled vocal lines give the impression of two vocalist trading of each other but in fact these are all handled by him which provides songs like ‘Dark Days’ and ‘Condemned To Death’ an impressive symphonic flare to proceedings with even a piano and melodic interludes entering the mix.
They are not immune to passing bandwagons either as the seemingly inevitable djent style RIFFS make their way into the likes of ‘Die Without Hope’ and ‘Hatred And Slaughter’ but happily they avoid the temptation to include any dubstep!
Overall its technically impressive, inventive, varied without being a mess and the breakdowns are used sparingly for effect so…
Deathcore is dead…long live Deathcore.
