Review: Whitechapel – Hymns in Dissonance
Please no acoustic ballads, please no acoustic ballads…
Whitechapel is finally back with a new record after 4 long years, and with the proverbial shit-show going on worldwide right now, I’ve been needing something raw and aggressive to sink my teeth into—I think this just might be what I’ve been looking for. After listening to this record a handful of times I see it as both a return to form and an evolution for the band. It’s similar to their older work in the sense that it doesn’t beat around the bush, it’s just non-stop rage. There’s no space for softer vocals or ballads like the previous two albums. That being said it also integrates a lot of the new sounds they’ve been exploring recently. It has all of the intensity of their classic albums while having much more advanced production as well as significantly tighter and more technical instrumentals. Deathcore as a whole has gone through a dramatic shift over the last 5 years; bands like Darko, Ten56., and Paleface have shifted the style towards more industrial and even nu-metal style sounds. With that in mind I was curious what direction Whitechapel would take with this new release and it seems they’ve taken it in the direction most of their fans have been asking for.
The album starts strong with the track “Prisoner 666” sounding like it came straight off their Our Endless War album from 2014. Filled to the brim with minor key guitar melodies stacked on top of rapid blast beats and guttural vocals, this track is a fantastic opener for a Whitechapel album and it sets the tone very well for the rest of the record’s duration. It then transitions into the title track, which starts with an ominous drum beat quickly followed by an explosion of distorted guitars, and a roar that only Phil Bozeman could pull off. This track also has some really neat higher-pitched vocals which aren’t super common for the band but fit the vibe really well. This track is also a fantastic example of how far their production has come—the album sounds absolutely monstrous, like an impenetrable wall of sound surrounding the listener, only breaking occasionally to build up to ridiculous over-the-top breakdowns. Deathcore fans are feasting with this record; it never slows down, and the brutality never stops. To me it feels a lot like a modernized version of their classic work.
The second half of this album is where stuff really starts to get wild; they integrate a lot of sounds I’m not used to hearing from them. The 7th track “The Abysmal Gospel” for instance, has one of the guitars running through a dimed-out HM-2 while the other two maintain the same tone as the earlier songs. “Bedlam” is also a standout track here; it starts out almost sounding like Suicide Silence while also integrating a lot of the rhythmic motifs used in “The Saw Is The Law” (quite possibly the most well-known and loved track they’ve ever put out). I absolutely love the combination of their classic sound while also branching out and integrating sounds from other bands that they likely inspired themselves back in the day. It’s like a perfectly written love letter to the entire deathcore genre. If the goal going into this project was to make a classic deathcore record with a modern edge to it, I think they executed that perfectly.
That being said I do have some complaints, albeit minor ones. I do wish they had leaned a bit more into modernizing their sound; it’s obvious that was at least part of the goal here but it could have used a bit more commitment. I do understand however that with their last two records their efforts to evolve their style weren’t received particularly well, so I understand potentially playing it a little safe as far as that’s concerned. All that being said, to boil it down my main complaint with this record is that I can tell they wanted to accomplish a lot of things here but didn’t necessarily commit to it fully—I think that’s the only thing holding it from getting an almost perfect rating from me. I love the weird stuff they did in “The Abysmal Gospel” and “Bedlam;” if the whole record was like that this would easily be a 4.5. I do however see a lot of potential for their future releases.
In conclusion, Whitechapel is by many considered to be not only one of the most influential deathcore bands, but also the first band to pioneer many of the stylistic elements that make a band a deathcore band. Their legacy can’t be debated but there’s a growing group of metalheads wondering if they can still pull off what they once could. The most common criticism I’ve been seeing as of late is that they haven’t evolved much stylistically over the years; they may have been a large part of founding the genre but can they continue to evolve and stay relevant in the modern deathcore landscape? I’d say yes, and here’s why: since their 2018 record Mark of The Blade they’ve clearly been toying with the idea of incorporating new sounds into their already established style. While the changes have been minor thus far, I think the sum of these new ideas come together to make a very modern revitalized sound for their new record Hymns in Dissonance. It’s been a slow and steady evolution with some rocky lineup changes and some tracks that didn’t land here or there but I think they’ve learned what works and know how to keep pushing the sound forward. I think this is their best record since 2018 and I really hope to see them continuing forward in this direction. I can see them coming back in a big way if they do. Last but finally not least… no acoustic ballads on this record, for that reason and the others listed above I give this record….
3.5/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Hymns in Dissonance is out now through Metal Blade Records.
