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Whitechapel once stood atop a mountain of soundalike deathcore bands, arriving on the heavy music landscape when what they did was considered ignorant and heavy, with nothing fresh to add to the musical climate of the time. Over the course of eight albums they slowly changed tack enough to be recognised as the musicians they are, culminating in their last two albums The Valley and Kin being as progressive and they were heavy. Telling personal stories of mental health struggles through clean singing and conceptual tracks helped gain new fans but also lost some of those who preferred the out and out heaviness.
After the experimentation on those last couple of albums, Whitechapel have decided to just go for the throat on here on album number nine. This is the roots of the deathcore genre: ignorantly heavy with a rumble that makes you think you’re going to shit your pants. The band haven’t completely let go of the idea of album conceptualisation, however. Here we are told the story of some kind of cult. I dunno, I was too busy being a one man mosh machine thanks to what is on offer.
After the ominous opening minute of Prisoner 666, Whitechapel waste no time getting their shit stompers on and creating bowel shaking breakdown after breakdown. And these aren’t short sharp attacks. You are grabbed by the ears and beaten into submission time and again with some tracks such as Diabolic Slumber playing with you before dropping on of the biggest breakdowns of their career at the end of the track.
The only real break, comes from the short instrumental Ex-Infernis, and the band know this when they ratchet the death metal elements up for Hate Cult Ritual, wedging in everything they’ve ever done into it.
I could continue to gush over the fact that I really enjoy when a band manages to get back to what made them so great to start with, but this is one of those instances where my writing about it will never manage to catch the essence of what has been created. Jam it on and soak it in, because if you consider yourself a fan of unadulterated heavy then this release might be an early contender for album of the year.
