Album Reviews : Whitechapel – This is Exile

Whitechapel are a 6 piece deathcore band hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee in the United States. They’ve only been established in the metal world for the past 3 years, but have already made a name for themselves by signing to ‘Metal Blade Records’, and in doing so, have released their latest album “This is Exile”.

The new album is pure chaos from start to finish. From the pure intensity of Kevin Lane’s insanely fast and chaotic blast beat drumming, to the well placed, yet over the top guitar work from Ben Savage, Alex Wade and Zach Householder. At first I was alittle confused why a deathcore band would need such a plethora of noise, yet these 3 guitarists bring a great wall of melodic sound which offer a very twisted and dark outlook on the guitar work throughout the entire album, and in doing so offers some relief from the more overwhelming chaotic drumming and heavy riffing which is ever so fluent in the album.

However, this pure chaos of brutality does get a chance to become more melodic and memorable with such instrumental tracks as “Death Becomes Him” and “Of Legions”, which offers a great perspective of the bands instrumental techniques and gives the listener a chance to dwell in a much more sombre state. Until they are ripped away to once again to be bombarded with chaotic and dark tones.

Vocalist Phil Bozeman offers a full on assault with his barrage of death metal vocals and adding a hint of defining screams to mix up the chaos. Even though the band is labeled as a deathcore motif, they have fused grind and hardcore to create and modern day death metal album. In some cases its hard to justify if this album is more death metal then deathcore. I know to some this comparison isn’t much…but to the well trained ear you’ll surely notice the difference.

One track which stood out for me the most was “Possession”, from its definitive start which has a guitar tune reminiscent of Nevermore’s “Enemies Of Reality” release. The hypnotic drumming and well placed guitar work go hand in hand to create a fully amazing song. Phil Bozemen executes fully face ripping vocals and infuses this very dark and foreboding track with some memorable screams very vague to some well known black metal bands. This song showcases the bands well strung and jaw breaking sound in a genre overpopulated with violent drumming and insanely chunky riffs.

This song is short lived however, as the remainder of the album is very typical of modern day death metal releases and continues on its assault ever so violently, with breakneck speed and velocity of the drums, guitars and vocals.

This 11 track album is by no means a masterpiece, but it does bring some great elements to the deathcore/death metal genre and places Whitechapel in a league of their own, in a genre overcrowded in the metal scene of today. If your looking for hard and heavy tunes, this album is by all means for you. You may however be alittle disappointed with its delivery as the presentation of the album is very straight forward, aside from a track or two and offers little to those looking for a more complex sound. 6.3/10

Band: Whitechapel
Album: This Is Exile
Year: 2008
Genre: Deathcore/Metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Origin: USA
http://www.myspace.com/whitechapel

Track Listing:
1. Father of Lies
2. This Is Exile
3. Possession <- reviewers choice
4. To All That Are Dead
5. Exalt
6. Somatically Incorrect
7. Death Becomes Him
8. Daemon (The Procreated)
9. Eternal Refuge
10. Of Legions
11. Messiahbolical