Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Whitechapel Bring The Brutality On New Album


Whitechapel burst onto the deathcore scene back in 2007 with their debut album The Somatic Defilement. It didn’t take Phil Bozeman and the guys long to leap to the front of that genre. These guys are road warriors and have played everything from The Summer Slaughter Tour to the Rockstar Mayhem Festival and the Vans Warped Tour. 2010 was a big year as their album A New Era of Corruption had a strong debut at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. They teased their fans last year with the release of their Recorrupted EP as they worked on their new album.

That brings us to this month, which saw the much anticipated release of their new self-titled album. It’s their fourth full length album in five years and it’s sure to turn a few heads with both new fans and old ones. Producer Mark Lewis (Deicide/Devildriver) seems to have taken different elements from their previous albums and combined them to push the band in a different direction. Wait, don’t get too upset. I know that you may have heard of the guys adding a piano to a couple of songs, but this is still the dark, depressing and brutal Whitechapel that you have all grown to love.

The album opens with a shocker of an intro to the song “Make It Bleed” as a piano slowly begins this track. Wait, don’t be too alarmed, but there’s also an acoustic guitar on here too. Well, that’s definitely something new and thinking outside the proverbial box, but don’t fret because it doesn’t take long into the song that you realize this is definitely Whitechapel. The three guitar attack of Alex Wade, Ben Savage and Zach Householder quickly refresh your memory as to what you love the brutality that this band brings to the table.

Speaking of brutality, strap yourself for the second track entitled “Hate Creation”. This song takes off at mach speed and doesn’t let until it’s over. I think it’s one of the better tracks on the album. The band is not known for having “catchy” songs with memorable hooks that have you singing along with just one listen, yet this song will leave a mark on you after you hear it for the first time.

“(Cult)uralist” is a crushing song that combines one of the better vocal deliveries by Bozeman with some insane riffage from the guys. “I, Dementia” has an interesting intro that the band branches out to try. There’s even some electronics found on this track, but don’t worry. It’s just a little something added to the song and it works, but don’t freak out and expect a huge departure for this guys. I, for one, think it’s great that they like to experiment. “Section 8” is included on here and it’s a song that many of us should be familiar with as it was the lone new track on their EP Recorrupted that was released late last year.

Don’t be afraid, but the song “Devoid” also has a piano intro! The song is a three minute instrumental journey that really showcases that these guys can be diverse in their delivery. This song may actually be the slowest that they have ever played. 
an>It’s not a full frontal lobe assault with this one. It chugs along at a slower pace and not quite as brutal.

Overall, this album shows some growth for the band yet it maintains its brutality and dark side. The lyrical content varies quite a bit ranging from songs about people being followers but not leaders to the ever so optimistic there is no hope for the future. Bozeman’s vocals seem to be angrier than normal as his delivery seems to be more rage driven. Also, the addition of Ben Harclerode on drums seems to have sparked something within the camp. This guy is a beast and he beats those drums like they owe him money.

Bozeman has stated in interviews recently that he was not happy with their 2010 album A New Era of Corruption because of how it was written. They were written by individual band members instead of then writing it together as a band. Well, Bozeman set out to correct that with this album and all the songs were written as a group effort. This seems to work and is very effective as the band delivers some of its best material to date on this new album.


No comments: